Social media—Facebook in particular—is a no-brainer for most businesses targeting their end customer. But if you’re a B2B, is Facebook going to get you the results you want?
In Australia alone, LinkedIn has more than nine million users (575 million globally), and 40% of active users access it daily.
Of B2B leads generated through social media, LinkedIn is responsible for 80% of them, making it the largest platform for business-minded social interactions that spread brand awareness and drive lead generation.
While it isn’t for everyone, LinkedIn ads could be a powerful lead generator for your business.
Mel Gibbons
18 September, 2019
Like other pay-per-click and social advertising platforms, LinkedIn ads work on a bidding system, serving your ad to an audience of your choice. You can target specific audiences with granular targeting options and take control of your budget.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that is primarily used to seek out job opportunities, head hunt staff or recruit freelancers, connect with colleagues and influencers, verify skills, and share industry news and recommendations. Because of this, LinkedIn will generate the best results for B2B businesses. In some cases, B2C businesses that offer professional services such as training or education can leverage the advertising powers of LinkedIn. And of course, anyone who is recruiting will find LinkedIn ads beneficial. So, let’s have a look at the options.
LinkedIn advertising offers a variety of ad types and formats and, like other platforms, you should select your ad format based on the overall action you want your customers to take.
Across all options, LinkedIn advertising is proven to drive brand awareness, website traffic, engagement, video views, lead generation, site conversions and job applications.
Sponsored content is a great way to promote content already on your company page. These ads appear in users’ newsfeeds, giving the feel that the content is native to LinkedIn, and appearing as ‘boosted’ to audiences. You can use this to share posts with a target audience, broadcast business news, promotions, articles, and presentations, and share YouTube and Vimeo videos. You can even create carousel ads and lead generation ads that appear as boosted. Use these ads to:
Think of these as similar to search ads on the Google and Bing platforms. In a similar fashion to search network ads, they operate on a pay-per-click or impression base and appear on a desktop only.
Basic in appearance, text ads are essentially a text block with a headline and description next to a company logo and serve to drive traffic to your company’s LinkedIn page or website. Some of the benefits include:
Speak directly to your target audience when they’re ready to listen and engage by landing straight into their LinkedIn inbox. It’s no secret that people are more likely to click, call, buy and engage when they feel you’re talking directly to them. Send your target audience a personalised message, invitation to an event or incentive to make an inbound call. Fully customisable, they’ll get to your target audience no matter what device they’re using—and you only pay for what you send.
Video is a powerful way of telling captivating stories and is defining the future of engaging audiences and winning customers—even for businesses marketing to businesses. Video ads can:
As with typical display ads, you can use text, audio, video and images to target a precise audience in an uncluttered environment. A programmatic advertising solution, you can purchase ad real estate through your preferred advertising platform or at private or public auction. Interactive and eye-catching, display ads will help to:
Highly personalised, these ads are dynamically generated based on your audience’s activity. For example, say someone is searching for a job in your industry, and you can use dynamic ads to target and reach them at the right time with the right message. Use dynamic ads to build relationships and deliver personalised messages to the most influential people in a clutter-free way with only two visual ads served on a page at any one time. Personalised dynamic ads will:
LinkedIn targeting is unique and powerful. With a user base that is wildly proud of their achievements, promotions, job titles and professional interests—and more than willing to share them—you have access to a detailed database that will ensure your ads land in front of the right eyes.
LinkedIn also has a matched audiences feature that gives you the option to target three unique audiences based on their interactions with your company.
In a similar vein to Facebook’s custom audiences, you can target very specific users or types of users. You’ll know exactly what type of relationship your targets have with your business so you can create and share highly targeted and relevant messages.
While they are a little pricier than Facebook or Google Ads, your LinkedIn ads can reach highly targeted audiences with personalised and relevant messages. If you’re a B2B, deliver professional services such as education and professional development, or are seeking highly skilled and talented new recruits, LinkedIn could be well worth a shot.
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