Social media offers just about all the different content you could want.
If you’re looking for inspiration for redecorating, try Pinterest.
If you want to see adorable cat videos, go to TikTok (or Instagram if you’re old enough to remember the Y2K panic).
If you want to know the political opinions of people you haven’t spoken with since high school, try Facebook.
And if you want to run a successful B2B marketing campaign, use LinkedIn.
LinkedIn stands out among social media platforms because, though it does lack in the cute cat video department, it’s the platform that’s most likely going to help you professionally. And the good thing about LinkedIn is also the challenging thing: It has over a billion users.
There’s an enormous pool of potential customers and business partners just waiting to see your excellent digital marketing content. But to stand out above the noise, you need the best LinkedIn ad strategy possible.
The Importance of a LinkedIn Ad Strategy
All the various social media platforms have their pros and cons for marketing. LinkedIn has the advantage of being business- and career-oriented, so you’re unlikely to find your ad copy situated next to risqué or offensive content. LinkedIn is also a platform people go to for professional opportunities — not to mention it’s the most effective social media platform for B2B marketing.
LinkedIn found that 82% of B2B marketers who ran campaigns on their platform achieved their greatest success with LinkedIn. These are no rookie numbers — LinkedIn campaigns are yielding serious results.
And it makes sense; a LinkedIn ad strategy meets potential clients where they are. You can choose which ad format you think works best and reach your target audience. With a LinkedIn ads campaign, you can increase brand awareness and establish yourself as a leader in your space.
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Types of LinkedIn Ads
When creating your campaign, you can choose one or more options from the numerous LinkedIn ad types. The different formats include:
- Single image ad: Simple and direct, you can promote your brand right in the LinkedIn feed. You can target a specific audience across desktop and mobile and write a short (maximum 150 characters) introduction to your ad.
- Document ad: This ad allows LinkedIn users to read and download your content without leaving the platform. Documents can promote both gated and ungated content and appear in members’ feeds.
- Carousel image ad: If you want to get more interactive, carousel ads comprise a swipeable series of cards that appear in the LinkedIn feed. With these, you can use a longer introductory text (maximum of 255 characters).
- Video ad: Sometimes you need movement to grab people’s attention. Video ads can appear directly in your audience’s LinkedIn feed across desktop and mobile.
- Text ad: Want to say something quickly and simply? Say it with a text ad that appears at the top of the page or in the righthand column of the desktop view.
- Dynamic ad: These ads automatically customize to each user based on their LinkedIn profile data. Dynamic ads appear in the righthand column of the desktop view and are great for boosting conversion rates.
- Sponsored messaging: On LinkedIn, you can slide a sponsored ad right into a user’s DMs. Members see these ads in their messages as they would if another individual member contacted them. You have two options here: a message ad and a conversation ad. Message ads offer more text, while conversation ads offer more call-to-action buttons.
What Makes a LinkedIn Ad Strategy Successful?
Clearly, there are different routes to success on LinkedIn. Deciding which ad format is best for your brand can be tricky, but don’t lose sight of what’s paramount here: effective messaging.
Where your ad appears and what form it takes are important factors, but neither will matter if your content is subpar. A successful LinkedIn campaign is just like any B2B marketing strategy: It requires engaging content that stays true to your brand persona.
Top 7 Steps To Create a Successful LinkedIn Ad Strategy
We’ve covered a lot already in this article, but one big question remains: How do you actually build an effective LinkedIn campaign?
Don’t worry, we got you. Here are 7 steps you can take to craft an awesome LinkedIn ad strategy:
1. Establish a Goal
It all starts with a goal. What’s yours? “Increase revenue,” right? Of course. But if specificity is the soul of narrative, it’s also pretty important for an ad campaign. That’s why it’s best to have more detailed goals.
Do you want to enhance brand awareness? Are you more focused on increasing website visits, engagement and video views? Or maybe conversion is your primary objective — boosting lead generation and website conversions. Any of these is a great option to base your LinkedIn ads campaign around.
2. Select Criteria for Your Target Audience
LinkedIn offers targeting tools to help you find the right audience for your sponsored content. You can choose from over 20 different audience attribute categories, such as company size, member interests and skills.
3. Pick the Best LinkedIn Ad Type for Your Objective
Consider how many people you want to see your ad. If you want to cast a wide net, then a direct message campaign probably isn’t best. However, if you want to maximize engagement and conversion rates, then sponsored content delivered right to users’s inboxes probably is a good choice.
4. Set Your Budget and Schedule
LinkedIn offers three pricing options:
- Cost per send (CPS): With CPS, you pay for each successfully delivered message.
- Cost per click (CPC): CPC is appropriate for lead generation or event registration.
- Cost per impression (CPM): CPM is probably your best option to raise overall brand awareness.
You can set a daily budget or a daily and total budget. For a daily budget, it’s key to remember that your ad spend could be as much as 20% higher than your set amount because of campaign timing. You can schedule your LinkedIn campaign to run continuously from your selected start date or schedule it with a start and end date.
5. Set Up Ad Creative
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that LinkedIn is a social media platform. But it is, and what do we all do on social media? We scroll.
In this respect, a LinkedIn ad is just like any other social media ad: To be effective, it has to be a scroll stopper. What’s going to grab somebody’s attention? This is the question to keep in mind during the ad creative stage.
Consider 4 key components: imagery, copy, format and testing.
Be striking with your visuals, be concise with your words, be varied in your formats and don’t forget to test the efficacy of your ads. Fine-tuning your LinkedIn ads as you go can keep them fresh and increase success rates.
6. Establish How To Track Your Conversions
But how do you even know if your ads are successful? The LinkedIn Campaign Manager allows you to view the analytics of your campaign. You can track overall impressions, clicks, social interactions and your budget.
7. Optimize (When Necessary)
The data you track can be crucial in helping you edit your LinkedIn ads, refine how you target and adjust your budget. You can also toggle ad variation on and off if you find that one ad is overperforming and another is underperforming.
Examples of Excellent LinkedIn Strategies
Some people learn from reading a list of steps. Others need to see how something works to really get it. That’s why reading about examples of successful LinkedIn campaigns can help you craft an awesome strategy yourself. Some notable examples include:
Adobe
Adobe isn’t afraid to be unique. They’re on LinkedIn to communicate what they and their audience find interesting.
Cisco
Cisco’s LinkedIn video ad campaign is renowned in marketing circles. Not sure why? Watch and find out for yourself.
Deloitte
Already a B2B heavyweight, Deloitte strengthens its brand reputation by sharing graphs, videos and articles on LinkedIn that really resonate with its audience.
HubSpot
The business software giant simply uses LinkedIn to share amazing content ideas. It’s what both their audience and the general LinkedIn user want, and HubSpot does it better than just about everybody.
Microsoft
The #MicrosoftLife campaign wasn’t trying to sell Microsoft products. It was a recruiting campaign. LinkedIn is the perfect platform for such a strategy and Microsoft showcased the benefits of working for the tech conglomerate in its employees’ own words.
Finding Success Through LinkedIn Marketing
Running a successful LinkedIn ad campaign can help your bottom line and teach you transferable skills you can use to create effective marketing campaigns on other platforms or with other media.
If there’s one thing we want you to keep in mind though, it’s this: Be more curious than cautious.
With so many different options, LinkedIn is basically begging you to try different ad formats and strategies. And because you can measure their success, you can pivot if something isn’t working.
Be inventive, be creative and be engaging. You might be surprised by what you can accomplish.
