The LinkedIn ad funnel strategy refers to a step-by-step process for turning LinkedIn users into leads and customers through targeted advertising. The goal is to move prospects down the funnel from awareness to consideration, conversion and beyond. An effective LinkedIn ad funnel guides prospects through each stage of the buyer’s journey with customized messaging and CTAs.
What are the stages of the LinkedIn ad funnel?
The LinkedIn ad funnel typically consists of four stages:
- Awareness – The goal is to introduce your brand, products or services to your target audience. Ads should focus on educating prospects and sparking interest.
- Consideration – Prospects begin comparing options and evaluating solutions. Ads should focus on thought leadership content and addressing pain points.
- Conversion – Prospects take desired actions like downloads, form fills or purchases. Ads promote trials, demos and lead magnet offers.
- Loyalty – Customers are nurtured and upsold/cross-sold. Ads can highlight customer success stories and new products.
How do you create an effective LinkedIn ad funnel?
Here are key tips for optimizing your LinkedIn ad funnel:
- Identify your ideal customer profiles (ICP) – Research your best customers and define your target audience parameters like job title, industry, company size, etc.
- Map content to each funnel stage – Develop ad creative, offers and landing pages tailored to each stage of the journey.
- Use LinkedIn’s targeting options – Leverage options like job title, company, skills, interests and more to serve ads to your ICP.
- Retarget website visitors – Use LinkedIn’s website retargeting to follow prospects with relevant ads as they browse your site.
- Test and optimize – A/B test ad variations and analyze performance data to identify optimizations.
- Nurture leads – Have automated nurture streams to educate prospects post-conversion until they are sales ready.
What are the benefits of the LinkedIn ad funnel approach?
Advantages of implementing the LinkedIn ad funnel include:
- Increased relevance – Hyper-targeted ads resonate more with prospects.
- Lower cost per lead – Guiding prospects through a journey makes conversions more likely.
- More conversions – Warm, sales-ready leads convert at much higher rates.
- Better nurturing – Tailored nurturing keeps leads engaged after converting.
- Higher ROI – The full-funnel strategy delivers the highest return on ad spend.
What types of ads work best at each stage?
Recommended ad formats for each funnel stage:
Funnel Stage | Ad Types |
---|---|
Awareness | Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Dynamic Ads |
Consideration | Sponsored Content, Message Ads |
Conversion | Text Ads, Message Ads, Dynamic Ads |
Loyalty | Sponsored Content, Dynamic Ads |
Awareness Stage
In the awareness stage, Sponsored Content and Message Ads work well for introducing your brand and attracting your audience with valuable content. Dynamic Ads can also help by targeting specific companies or titles.
Consideration Stage
At this point you want to nurture prospects with Sponsored Content and Message Ads that speak to their pain points and interests. Publishing long-form posts and guides works well here.
Conversion Stage
Once prospects are informed and considering you, use highly targeted Text, Message and Dynamic Ads to promote free trials, demos and other conversion-oriented offers.
Loyalty Stage
For customers, use Sponsored Content to highlight customer success stories. Dynamic Ads should re-engage buyers with upsells, cross-sells and renewals.
What metrics should you track?
CRITICAL metrics to track for each funnel stage:
- Awareness: Impressions, reach, clicks, CTR
- Consideration: Engagement rate, CTA clicks, content downloads
- Conversion: Leads, demos, trials, purchases
- Loyalty: Revenue, LTV, repeat purchase rate
Optimizing based on these metrics will fuel continual improvements to your LinkedIn strategy.
What are some mistakes to avoid with LinkedIn ads?
Common mistakes include:
- No funnel in place – Having ads without a cohesive strategy wastes budget.
- Not retargeting – You miss out on conversions from prospects who’ve engaged.
- Weak text ads – Vague, generic ads see low CTRs. Include strong calls-to-action.
- Irrelevant targeting – Broad targeting results in low relevance and engagement.
- Not testing ads – You need to continually test variations to improve performance.
- Not integrating with CRM – Tracking ROI and nurturing requires CRM integration.
Conclusion
Implementing a full-funnel LinkedIn ads strategy allows you to effectively guide prospects from initial awareness through to lead conversion and loyalty. Each stage requires tailored targeting, messaging and creative. Continually test and optimize based on performance data. With an optimized LinkedIn funnel you can generate more high quality leads and maximize your ad ROI.