Types of LinkedIn Ads
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
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:
- Build brand awareness
- Attract more followers to your company page
- Get more impressions and clicks
- Drive website traffic.
Text Ads
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:
- Quick and easy to set up
- Set and manage your own budget
- Select between CPC and impressions
- Target your audience with B2B filters
- Track conversions.
Sponsored Mail
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.
- Generate leads
- Target the right audience
- Engage customers in conversation
- Send personalised invitations to events, seminars and conferences
- Promote content such as free downloads.
Video Ads
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:
- Tell stories and engage decision-makers
- Build brand awareness
- Target and reach a wide network.
Display Ads
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:
- Strengthen your brand at the scale
- Reach more decision-makers and influencers
- Be seen on high-traffic LinkedIn pages.
Dynamic Ads
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:
- Serve customised call-to-actions to a highly targeted audience
- Drive people to a landing page
- Generate responses
- Increase followers for your company page.
Target Your Audience
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.
- Account targeting allows you to upload a CSV list of company names and target their decision makers and influencers.
- Website retargeting allows you to target users who have visited your website.
- Contact targeting allows you to upload a CSV list of email addresses of users you’re already connected with.
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.
Go for a Test Drive
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.