The Fundamentals of LinkedIn Marketing

As many B2B marketers know, Linkedin Marketing is the way to go if you are looking to reach key stakeholders and decision-makers. Because LinkedIn has evolved so much over the years, more B2B industries are utilizing the power of LinkedIn marketing and advertising. LinkedIn isn’t like Twitter or Facebook, where users need to sift through the noise of Buzzfeed quizzes and memes for relevant content. LinkedIn is the preferred channel for decision-makers and executives to find the content they need to help them improve the way they do business. This makes LinkedIn Marketing the best place to reach quality leads in the B2B space.

With over 575 million users, LinkedIn is a gold mine for generating leads. In a HubSpot study, LinkedIn made the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, which is almost 3x higher than Twitter at 0.69% and Facebook at 0.77%. If you’re not already using LinkedIn as part of your social media advertising strategy, now is the time to get started.

LinkedIn has multiple ad formats, and it can be challenging to understand what will work best for your company. Don’t fret; we’ve broken down the basics of each ad type to get you started!

Sponsored content is a great way to reach and build relationships with LinkedIn members who aren’t following your company page. While other ads live in the sidebar or at the top of pages, these native ads appear directly in the LinkedIn Newsfeed of your target audience. This placement naturally leads to more engagement.

LinkedIn reports that 74% of B2B buyers choose the company that is first to help them with useful content. Think of Sponsored Content ads as promoted posts. Use LinkedIn’s targeting capability to target your audience by company, titles, interest, skills, and a specific geographic area. Sponsored content works well for showcasing upcoming promotions, increasing brand awareness, or attracting more followers for your company page. For example, if you’re a restauranteur, this would be a great place to promote deals on company catering. The key is to have a clear call to action and enticing copy.

Use Direct Sponsored Content to customize and test ads for your target audience. Similar to Sponsored Content, DSC will be visible to your target audience in their LinkedIn Feed alongside content they have curated for themselves. The difference here is that Direct Sponsored Content will not publish to your LinkedIn Page. It will only be seen by who you target, which allows you to appeal more to their branding instead of your own.

Then, the testing begins! Companies can test different ad copy to ensure their content is performing successfully. When it comes to reaching your target audience , we recommend adding a geographical location and no more than two other targeting criteria. We believe that this is an excellent starting place. With A/B testing, you can refine which content and target strategies are right for your business.

Engage your desired audience with dynamically generated, personalized ads. Dynamic Ads use LinkedIn member information to help tailor the advertisement. Only appearing on a desktop, you can find Dynamic Ads to the right of the LinkedIn Feed. Dynamic Ads come in three formats:

1. Follow ads – These ads direct users to support your company page.

2. Spotlight ads – These ads drive users to your website or a landing page with a custom call to action.

3. Content ads – These ads are currently only available for LinkedIn managed accounts and increase the download of your content such as case studies, ebooks, and guides.

A considerable advantage of using Dynamic Ads is that there will only ever be two ads on a page at any given time making this an attention-grabbing clutter-free solution!

Text Ads are easy to create and an excellent option for driving leads or promoting offers. It’s essential to write an eye-catching headline, a concise description with a call to action, and include an image. These ads are visible exclusively on a desktop to the right-hand side or above the LinkedIn Newsfeed. Whether you’re an architecture firm looking to increase your client base, or a coworking space looking to fill vacant offices, text ads are a simple way to drive users to your company’s LinkedIn page or website.

We recommend creating multiple ads and copy variations per campaign to test and refine your advertisements to ensure they perform successfully. By using extensive targeting and testing, then adjusting their campaigns, HubSpot was able to improve its click-through rate by 60% compared to other social networks. With a cost per click model or cost per thousand impressions, you can feel confident you are getting the most bang for your buck!

Use Sponsored InMail Campaigns to deliver a highly personalized message directly to the LinkedIn inbox of your target demographic. InMail Campaigns can help your lead generation immensely because, with a 100% deliverability, you can be confident your audience is seeing your message. How can LinkedIn ensure 100% deliverability? LinkedIn will send your Sponsored InMail Campaigns when a user is online ( 40% of users are active daily ). This eliminates the chance of your message bouncing or landing in an inactive inbox. All messages consist of a customer greeting, call to action button, and a body with text.

Tailor your content to your audience and use built-in A/B testing to run multiple variations to optimize your campaign. All of LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail Campaigns are optimized for desktop and mobile. InMail Campaigns work best for companies offering a service (law firms, Saas companies, and real estate agents; this is your time to shine). Use InMail campaigns to engage your target audience by hosting a webinar, Q & A session, or offering a complimentary introductory service. Saas company, Replicon saw a response rate 11x better on their Sponsored InMail Campaign than with traditional email marketing.

According to LinkedIn , 58% of marketers say increasing lead generation is the most crucial goal of marketing. Lead Gen Forms make collecting quality leads easy! Companies have the control to add up to 12 fields when creating a Lead Gen Form. Once the user clicks on the Lead Gen form, LinkedIn does the heavy lifting by filling in the answers with data from their profile (i.e., their name, contact information, job title, location, etc.). The user only needs to click once to send you their info! After submitting the Lead Gen Form, they instantly see a “thank you” page where you can link your website or another destination. Lead Gen Forms integrate well in Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail Campaigns and are currently only available on mobile.

Now that you’ve learned the basics of each LinkedIn ad format, it’s time to talk about building a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy. Our most significant piece of advice is to create campaign assets that work across multiple ad formats on LinkedIn. For example, send out an InMail campaign while also running Direct or Sponsored Content Ads with the same call to action to create multiple touchpoints and add value to your prospects. By increasing visibility and a gentle reminder of your brand, you’re sure to turn those clicks into conversions!

Don’t believe us? We’ll let the numbers do the talking. One of our clients recently came to us wanting to boost their lead gen numbers. We decided to run multiple InMail campaigns along with a Sponsored Content Ad, all with a similar call to actions. This strategy led to over 8,000 impressions, 3,950 clicks, and an overall 70% Click Through Rate (CTR), giving our client a significant increase in the inbound leads.

Ready to dive in deeper to LinkedIn Advertising but don’t know where to start? We pride ourselves in knowing the ins and out of successful LinkedIn marketing and advertising – after all, we’re also in the B2B space!. BriteIdea Marketing offers complimentary consultations and brainstorming sessions to discuss your goals. We’ll even treat you to coffee or tacos if you’re in the Austin area. When you hire the BriteIdea team, you get just that – a team. We’re passionate about your goals, and our team of experts works to build a strategy that fits your company’s needs and fosters sustainable growth. Schedule a complimentary consultation today!

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