LinkedIn Ads can be a powerful tool to reach a professional audience with buying power. Over 61 million “senior-level influencers” use the platform, and 33% of B2B decision makers research purchases on LinkedIn.
But it’s not a good option for everyone. Advertising on LinkedIn is expensive.
Cost per click (CPC) usually sits around $2 to $7 at best, depending on who you’re targeting. InMail advertising is a little cheaper at $0.80 per message. So, it’s a higher cost than Facebook or Instagram ads. But LinkedIn users are more commercially motivated. They’re there to do business. So, you can get amazing results and very positive ROI if you’re selling high-end B2B services/products that justify the investment.
But here’s the kicker.
You have to get it right. Or you could be pouring money down the drain. In this guide, we’ll go through the step-by-step process of creating a campaign and cover the top LinkedIn Ads best practices.
Let’s dive in.
Creating a LinkedIn Ads Campaign Step by Step
If you’re looking to launch an ad campaign, we’re going to assume you’ve already optimized your LinkedIn profile. If not, check out our LinkedIn profile guide before you spend your hard-earned dollars on ads.
1. Select an Objective
The first step is to choose an objective for your campaign. LinkedIn gives you the option of targeting users in the awareness, consideration, or conversion stages of the buyer’s journey.
Once you have chosen the main objective, you can narrow your focus by selecting a sub-category.
For a full-funnel LinkedIn Ads campaign, you’ll want to balance your objectives across all three stages of the buyer’s journey.
2. Set Your Targeting
The next step is to choose language and location targeting options.
You’ll then be able to select more advanced targeting options from across LinkedIn’s five main categories:
- Company
- Demographics
- Education
- Job Experience
- Interests
Within these categories, LinkedIn offers an impressive 200 targeting characteristics.
Once you’ve narrowed your targeting, make sure you save the audience so you can use it again for future campaigns.
There’s also Matched Audiences feature that allows you to combine your email lists and other first-party data for more precise targeting. That’s right – you can advertise to your email list on LinkedIn.
3. Choose Ad Formats
LinkedIn will automatically show you the ad formats that are best suited to your campaign objectives. Ad formats can include:
- Text Ads: A headline, short description, and image.
- Single Image Ads: A single promotional image in the LinkedIn feed.
- InMail Ads: Send a personalized message directly to the inbox of potential customers. If you opt for InMail ads, LinkedIn data shows that messages sent between 9am and 10am on weekdays get the highest response rate.
- Sponsored Posts: Promote a post or piece of content you have already published on your LinkedIn company profile.
- Carousel Ads: Interactive ads displayed in the LinkedIn feed containing multiple images or cards.
- Video Ads: A short promotional video displayed in the LinkedIn feed.
- Dynamic Ads: Personalized ads that address the user by name and are displayed on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn feed.
Whichever ad format you choose, you should apply LinkedIn Ads’ best practices. We’ll cover the most critical optimization tips in just a bit.
4. Set Your Budget
You can choose a daily budget or a total campaign budget.
LinkedIn Ads can be expensive, but you’ll get the best results from your campaign by keeping your budget around the recommended bid level. If your budget is too small, you’ll struggle to get consistent results.
You can also select the automatic bidding option and let LinkedIn decide on the optimal bidding strategy.
5. Optimization
The final step is to launch your campaign.
Once your ads have been running for around a week, you’ll have enough data to start optimizing your ad creative and bidding strategy.
If you have enough budget, you can run variations of your campaign to test different ad creatives and make data-driven improvements.
LinkedIn Ads Best Practices
Setting up a LinkedIn ad campaign is easy. But getting it right and generating and sales at an affordable price is much more challenging.
That’s why it’s vital you follow LinkedIn Ads best practices when creating your campaign.
If your budget won’t stretch to paid ads, check out our post 3 Super Effective Ways You Can Use LinkedIn for B2B Marketing to see how you can use the platform to generate organic leads for free.
1. Short and Concise Copy
Social media user attention spans are short. To get your message across, you need to avoid fluff and communicate essential information as quickly as possible.
2. Highlight Your Value
Business decision-makers are busy people. Be direct and showcase your value upfront. What are you offering, and how will it help your audience achieve a goal or overcome a problem. What’s in it for them?
3. Clear Call-to-Action
Make it clear what people should do after reading your ad. Use direct and straightforward language to tell them precisely what they should do next.
4. Personalize as Much as Possible
Keep your ad messaging as relevant as possible to your target audience. If you’re using InMail ads, personalize your message and try to spark a connection.
5. A/B Testing
Linkedin Ads best practices can help you avoid costly mistakes and give your campaign a solid foundation. But what works best for you will depend on your audience and your offer.
Testing and optimization based on real data will deliver the best results.
You can use A/B testing to try out variations of your ad copy, CTAs, and visuals to see what resonates with your audience and generates the best ROI for your campaign.
Generating Leads and Sales with LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads can be a key channel for B2B marketers. Nearly 60% of B2B marketers state that LinkedIn provides the best value for return on ad spend (ROAS), engagement, and lead quality compared to other social media platforms.
If you’re thinking about launching a campaign, don’t rush into it. Nail your targeting, polish your ad copy, and make sure you’ve got time to test and make adjustments when your campaign is live. Or partner with a digital marketing firm that specializes in B2B or LinkedIn strategies.
With the right Linkedin Ads strategy, you can generate a consistent flow of new leads and sales and surge past your competitors still playing around on Facebook.
