LinkedIn Advertising Best Practices
Posted on April 26, 2019 Ashley Eining
Series Post 1: Top 3 Reasons Why You Should Dedicate Some of Your Spend to LinkedIn
The world of LinkedIn Advertising can be overwhelming and daunting for those who have never ran a LinkedIn paid campaign before. Compared to the other Social Media platforms, there seems to be various different options, and the access set-up is not the most user-friendly. But depending on your business and your marketing objectives, LinkedIn can be a golden arrow when it comes to getting in front of your potential customers.
Each advertising platform has their different features and can bring success depending on your objective. But like each different platform, LinkedIn has its own benefits for marketers to get in front of new leads, nurture the leads you already have, and convert those ready to take the next step in the sales process. Through this series, we’ll be shedding light on different aspects of this platform, and in this first post we’ll be reviewing the reasons why you should consider paid advertising on LinkedIn.
Reason 1: Tech-Savvy Professionals
LinkedIn has 590 million business professionals on the platform with a reported 260 million of them being active users on a monthly basis. And over the years, LinkedIn has developed into a respected community for businesses to interact with potential clients, customers, partners, and future employees. Whereas Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other similar platforms are used more on a social connection basis, LinkedIn has built a niche around the professional environment. This provides an excellent space for B2B and B2C marketers to get in front of decision-makers, opinion leaders, and senior-level influencers.
Reason 2: Advanced Targeting
LinkedIn advertising has come leaps beyond where they started just a few years ago. I won’t even touch on the different advertising formats until the next post in this series because there is already plenty to say about the targeting capabilities. The categories below can be targeted individually or you can become more advanced by pairing categories together or excluding different segments to narrow down your targeting to get in front of the most relevant audience.
- Audience Attributes
- Company
- Company Connections
- Company Followers of
- Company Industries
- Company Names
- Company Size
- Demographics
- Member Age
- Member Gender
- Education
- Degrees
- Field of Study
- Member Schools
- Job Experience
- Job Functions
- Job Seniorities
- Job Titles
- Member Skills
- Years of Experience
- Interests
- Member Groups
- Member Interests
- Matched Audiences
- Uploaded Lists: With matched audiences, you can upload lists of company names or work emails and the platform will match profiles to these details.
- Website Audience: A website audience allows you to retarget your website visitors and gain demographic insights. Targeting is based on URLs, so you can segment audiences based on what pages they viewed on your website.
When I first started out with LinkedIn advertising, the targeting capabilities were limited to just targeting company name, job title, or company size through text ads. We’ve come a long way! Our current favorite targeting elements here at NerdyMind are the member skills, member groups, and company followers of. These new targeting features open up a new world of capabilities for paid advertising. And keep your eye out since LinkedIn has been releasing new targeting elements recently!
Reason 3: Most effective social network for B2B marketing purposes
The mindset of users on this platform is far different than the mindset of users on other social media platforms. Whereas people are using Facebook to connect with friends and family, Pinterest to find inspiration, and Snapchat to send funny photos and videos, people are using LinkedIn to network and connect with professionals, gauge insight into information about their industry, and advance their professional career. I would say, it’s a much easier conversation for B2B marketers to start on LinkedIn than any other platform at the moment. And the proof is already there; 94% of B2B marketers are already taking advantage of this audience in some capacity to spread content and expand their integrated marketing efforts.
Consider these NerdyMind’s top reasons to dedicate some advertising spend to Linkedin, but really there are a lot of great reasons to play with this channel and get it into your digital marketing mix.
Stay tuned for our next 2 articles in the series which will include detailed information on the different AD FORMATS that are available in LinkedIn, along with a BEST PRACTICES guide that will help you get started. Included in all of our LinkedIn posts is a guide with step-by-step directions on how to expand your team in LinkedIn and give employees and vendors access to your LinkedIn ads manager.