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LinkedIn fills the void for professional connection on social media. It’s the main place for recruiters to touch base with potential candidates for a new position, to get industry updates for your business, and connect with like-minded teams in your niche.
LinkedIn is also a great advertising tool for B2B (and even B2C) companies looking to get their product into hands of the VPs, executives, and even entry-level users who need it most. The platform offers targeting by location, industry, company size, seniority and other key demographics. It’s basically a gold-mine for those who know the background of the decision makers who end up becoming customers.
Although LinkedIn is the spot for industry leaders, marketers across the board seem to have more experience on Facebook Business Manager and other digital advertising platforms, especially those who work primarily in the B2C space. If you’re looking to start your journey with LinkedIn advertising, take a look at our best practices for ads that convert:
In order to advertise on the platform, you first need to create an account on LinkedIn Campaign Manager. Once signed in, you’ll be able to access your campaigns, ads, and set up the appropriate audiences.
To get started, click the “Advertise” button at the top-right corner of your LinkedIn screen when you log in to your personal profile. You can also visit Linkedin.com/campaignmanager to start from scratch.
When creating your account, you can link it to an already existing LinkedIn business profile. Make sure that you have admin access to the business account you are advertising for. Also, should you have multiple businesses, they will all be centralized to your personal login, so long as you have access to all campaign manager accounts.
In the platform there are tabs for accounts, campaigns, and ads. When it comes to building new advertising campaigns, you’ll simply head to the “campaign” tab and create a new campaign. Before you get fully started, however, you should connect the Insight Tag to your website.
The Insight Tag is the way LinkedIn connects with your website to retarget visitors who have browsed your pages and provide them with ads. Adding it onto your website is simple! All you have to do is copy the tag and add it to the footer of your main domain. If website tags aren't your forte, there are options to send the tag to a developer or use tag manager. Tag Manager will enable the help of sites like Google or Adobe to make sure your tag is firing and tracking customer visits.
To make sure your tag is live, check out the “Last Signal Received” area and make sure the circle is green, showcasing that the tag is appropriately firing. This will also give you an idea of the last time it connected with your website.
Ensuring this tag is fully functioning will be key to tracking the performance of your retargeting and conversion campaigns. Don’t miss out on this crucial step - it’ll help determine which ads are generating those coveted conversions you’re looking for.
Before you can start to build out creative for your ad, you’ll need to determine your audience. Will this ad speak to a buyer’s persona located in a specific geographic area? Will it be focused on senior level team members rather than entry level? Answering questions like these is key to making sure your messaging speaks to the right people.
On LinkedIn Campaign manager, you can create audiences prior to creating an ad. This can help cut down on time when it comes to executing the ad creation and setting everything live. Popular audiences include buyer personas, industry segmentation, and varying demographics. Let’s take a look at how to build an audience below.
When logged on to LinkedIn Campaign Manager, click the “Account Assets” drop down and head to “Matched Audiences.” When clicking the “Create Audience” drop down, you can see that there are several ways to generate an audience, including:
If you have a list you’ve bought, segmented, or generated, here’s where you could upload it for ad delivery. You can choose to upload a list by contact or company, something helpful for businesses looking to target specific decision makers of a business or target a company as a whole. Make sure to use the provided templates for upload to ensure a smooth transition of data into the platform.
You can also retarget users based on an event, form, company page, website activity, or even a video. If they attended your LinkedIn event, you can ensure that ads reach them. If you’ve created a lead generation form on the platform, you can also make sure they are targeted with these ads. “Company Page” retargets those who have visited your business profile on LinkedIn. Also, if you created a video ad, you can make sure those who viewed the video are retargeted to as well. One of the best ways to retarget, however, is by website visits.
Website retargeting is where the Insight Tag comes in handy. You can specifically retarget by website pages if a user has visited a page that starts with a certain URL, matches a URL exactly, or contains a certain URL string.
This is an invaluable tool as these users have raised an interest in your brand already, making them the perfect target for advertising. Generating a strategy based on what pages were visited can make these ads personal and relevant to the users who will be seeing them.
No one is going to convert on an ad that doesn’t speak to them. Since you’ve already determined your audience, you’ll know exactly who will be receiving this ad. It's important to make sure your copy addresses their problems, questions, and needs in a way that makes sense.
Are they more likely to convert with more information or are they looking for something short and sweet? What are some buzz words that resonate with them? Think about the ways to connect with your audience as you start to write your copy.
A good rule of thumb is generating various types of copy to see what really drives conversions. Some ways you can do this include:
No matter the ways you generate your copy, one important thing to remember is to never lose sight of your brand voice. Ideally, a loyal customer should see or read your ad and know exactly who it’s coming from. Keep brand standards at the forefront, even when testing various copy.
Endless scrolling can be stopped abruptly by a fun video or a graphic. The creative linked with the ad is just as important as the copy. Both elements work together to get a user to convert, so don't sleep on the visuals. Although many business owners aren’t designers, the imagery associated with a brand can help to tell its story.
When generating creative for your ad campaign, consider using various types of content, including:
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is a relatable image to get users’ attention. You can use stock photography, stylized product photos, or even take your own photos of people using your product to include in your advertising campaigns.
When all is said and done, nothing matters if you’re not reviewing performance. After you launch your ads, periodically review KPIs like impressions, reach, and ultimately, conversions.
Keep in mind, however, ads take time to optimize. Don’t start changing things too quickly or you won’t give your ad enough of a fighting chance.
This data should fuel updates you make to campaigns. If an ad is generating lots of impressions but no conversions, think through how you can drive conversions with a stronger CTA or landing page. If one ad is performing increasingly better than another, compare their elements to see what could be the reason your audience is leaning that way.
Once you nail down reasons for both good and bad performance, start optimizing your campaigns to create successful outcomes. Keep tweaking to replicate great performance and minimize poor performance. It’s a labor of love to get your campaigns where you want them to be, but by tracking your campaigns and making adjustments, you can definitely get there.
There’s a lot of troubleshooting that happens when you start to build campaigns. Testing different copy, creative, budgets, audiences, and landing pages can be overwhelming. It takes time, attention to detail, and a level of expertise to make sure your ads are making an impact.
Modern Driven Media can help your LinkedIn campaigns perform at their best. Whether it’s driving conversions, traffic, or impressions, we have the experience and know-how to get you on the road to success. Contact us for more information on generating conversions through social media advertising.
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