How to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool?

Everyone will think of Facebook ads, Instagram, WeChat Moment, and short video ads such as Little Redbooks and Tiktok, which have become increasingly popular in the past two years when we talk about social media ads. However, there is the other popular social media platform. It can be a powerful marketing tool, especially for B2B business. The social media platform is LinkedIn.

Most people may seek jobs, follow the companies they are interested in, or keep their eyes on the trend of a particular industry. For enterprises and companies, LinkedIn ads can help them generate sales leads, drive traffic to their websites, and build brand awareness to connect with potential groups of professionals.

The types of LinkedIn Ads

Sponsored Content

Also known as native ads, they can effectively reach and engage the professional audience to build brand awareness or drive leads for your business. It can be adopted on both PC and mobile. The formats of sponsored content include single image ads, video ads and carousel ads, etc.

Sponsored Messaging

The messages will be sent directly to members when they sign into LinkedIn. You can engage them one-on-one, share upcoming events, promote free product trials, or introduce your product. Your potential clients may be easier to find the information and quotations when they would like to know more about them. Don’t worry about the word limit.

Text Ads

Text ads appear at the top of LinkedIn’s desktop, and you can choose which professional audience you would like to reach. The way of setup is not very hard. You need to as add an appealing title, abstract, and 50×50 pixel image. You should select pay per click (PPC) or cost per impression (CPM) as the pricing options. Meanwhile, you need to set a budget and control costs.

Dynamic Ads

LinkedIn can customize personalized ads based on data from members’ profiles. When Dynamic Ad appears, members of LinkedIn can directly see your photo, company name, job title, and more information to attract potential audiences and improve conversion rates.

The objectives of LinkedIn ads

Merchants can adopt LinkedIn ads to conduct marketing campaigns for specific business objectives. You should consider the stages of the sales funnel to complete the process from awareness to conversion. The main three stages are in the following details.

Brand Awareness Enhancement

People may remember your brand via LinkedIn ads.  They probably talk to each other about your products, services and brand. Your brand could obtain more attention, increase page views and engagement.

Purchase Consideration Acquirement

If your target audiences are already familiar with your brand and are considering purchasing. LinkedIn ads can drive traffic to your website, increase the number of followers, comments, Likes, and they may be willing to share product videos.

The Final Conversion

There are three ways in which LinkedIn ads can help improve conversion

Potential audiences: Obtain the queries of LinkedIn members by pre-filling LinkedIn profile information.

Websites Conversion: Encourage visitors to subscribe more to your newsletters, download PDF files, or buy products.

Job Application: Promote the latest information about job vacations of your company and find ideal candidates as soon as possible.

Create your LinkedIn Ads in 9 steps

1. Create a LinkedIn Page: This is a necessary condition to create Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging.
2. Create an account of Campaign Manager or log in to your account
3. Set your objective of LinkedIn ads: Evaluate where you are in the sales funnel and select advertising objectives.
4. Select your target audiences: Start by selecting your location (such as Auckland, Sydney or Melbourne) and then choose to add your job title, company name, industry type and personal or professional interests. If this is your first LinkedIn ads campaign, LinkedIn recommends that the number of target audiences should be 50,000 for both Sponsored Content and text ads, and 15,000 for Sponsored Messaging Ads.

5. Select the format of Ads: You can select one from Sponsored Content ads (single-image, carousel or video ads), Text Ads, Dynamic Ads or Sponsored Messaging based on your objectives.

6.  Fill in the budget and date: Determine your budget based on the information provided by the Campaign Manager. LinkedIn recommends budgeting at least $100 per day or $5,000 per month for the testing period, which typically lasts two to four weeks.

7. Establish your ads: If you select Sponsored Content or Text Ads. You can preview your ads to confirm whether it’s the way you wish your ads to be delivered.

8. Complete payment: Your ads will be posted after you type in your payment information. The ad will be launched when the payment is done.

9. Performance Review: Log in to Campaign Manager to view the reporting dashboard for LinkedIn ads. You can obtain key metrics, access charts and users’ demographic information. You also can export CSV reports to calculate conversion rates or do in-depth analysis.

Before you start conducting LinkedIn ads, you need to do some preliminary work. First, identify your target audience. Who do you most want to see your AD and who do you want to connect with? Secondly, the content of the ads should be concise, clear and eye-catching. Prepare various forms of material that can be adapted to different formats of LinkedIn ads. For example, if you want to create a video ad, it is recommended to use a video that is less than 30 seconds and to show the theme directly in the first 10 seconds. Don’t forget to add subtitles to the video, etc.

If you are planning to conduct LinkedIn ads for marketing, but are unsure of your current situation, or have trouble choosing the format of ads. Please contact Webzilla, our digital marketing experts will provide professional advice or exclusive strategies.