LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. This massive user base makes LinkedIn an attractive platform for businesses looking to advertise and promote their products and services. However, LinkedIn has strict rules and requirements when it comes to running ads on their platform. This article will outline the key permissions and requirements advertisers need in order to run LinkedIn ads.
LinkedIn Advertising Permissions
To run any kind of advertising campaign on LinkedIn, you need to have the appropriate permissions in place. This starts with having a LinkedIn Company Page set up for your business. All advertising on LinkedIn must be tied to a Company Page.
Beyond just having a Company Page, there are 3 main levels of advertising permissions on LinkedIn:
- Self-Serve Ads
- Managed Ads
- Sponsored Content Ads
Self-Serve Ads
Self-serve ads refer to LinkedIn’s self-service advertising platform that allows businesses to directly create, manage and optimize their own campaigns. To access the self-serve advertising platform, you need to apply and be approved for a self-serve advertising account.
The application process involves:
- Agreeing to LinkedIn’s self-serve ads terms and conditions
- Verifying your business by providing documentation such as business licenses, articles of incorporation etc.
- Providing billing information
Once approved, self-serve advertisers have access to LinkedIn’s full suite of targeting options and can run text, image, and video ads. Self-serve accounts also have access to LinkedIn’s advertising API for advanced automation and optimization.
Managed Ads
LinkedIn Managed Ads refers to having your LinkedIn advertising managed on your behalf by LinkedIn’s in-house team. Rather than running campaigns yourself, LinkedIn’s specialists will plan, execute, optimize and report on campaigns for you.
To access LinkedIn Managed Ads, you need to:
- Commit to a minimum 12 month contract
- Spend a minimum of $5,000 per month
In addition to the above requirements, LinkedIn also reviews factors like your company’s advertising goals, target audience, and industry category when evaluating Managed Ads activations.
Sponsored Content
The Sponsored Content program allows businesses to promote their content across LinkedIn by sponsoring posts made from their Company Page. There are no minimum spend requirements with Sponsored Content.
To run Sponsored Content ads, you simply need an active Company Page that has been Admin Approved by LinkedIn. This approval verifies that you have rights to use the brands and images on your page.
Once Admin Approved, Sponsored Content can be activated directly from your Company Page.
Requirements for Specific Ad Formats
In addition to the general permissions above, LinkedIn also has some format-specific requirements when it comes to the types of ads you can run:
Video Ads
To run video ads on LinkedIn, your account must meet these additional requirements:
- Company Page must be at least 30 days old
- Company Page must have at least 100 followers
- Cannot have any compliance warnings or violations in last 90 days
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic ads (e.g. dynamic product/job ads) require you to first implement LinkedIn’s Conversion Tracking Tag on your website. This allows LinkedIn to pull in real-time data from your site to dynamically update the ads.
Lead Gen Form Ads
To run LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Form ad format, you must integrate with LinkedIn’s lead management system to store and access submitted leads.
Advertising Policies and Approval
In addition to having the required permissions, your ads themselves also need to abide by LinkedIn’s policies and be approved:
- Ads must be relevant to a business audience and not promote illegal or inappropriate products or services.
- Images and videos should be appropriate for a professional audience.
- Ads cannot use misleading claims like “free”, “odds”, “risk-free” etc. without proper context.
- Your landing page content must match the product/service promoted in your ad.
- Ads pointing to lead gen forms must provide value in exchange for the lead.
Each ad goes through an approval process where both automated and human reviewers evaluate the ad’s contents, landing page, and targeting. Ads that don’t adhere to LinkedIn’s policies will be rejected.
Optimizing and Managing Your Account
Once your account is set up and running ads, there are ongoing requirements to keep your account in good standing:
- Maintain a strong Company Page with frequent status updates.
- Respond to comments and messages on your Company Page.
- Regularly refresh ad creative assets – LinkedIn rewards accounts with new creatives.
- Actively monitor campaign performance and optimize targeting, bidding etc.
Accounts that remain dormant or inactive for extended periods may have limits imposed on their ability to run ads.
Conclusion
While LinkedIn makes their massive audience available to advertisers, there are stringent requirements to unlock the ability to market on their platform. Key takeaways include:
- Maintaining an active, engaged Company Page is mandatory.
- Self-serve, Managed, and Sponsored Content options available depending on your needs.
- Specific ad formats like Video/Dynamic Ads have additional requirements.
- Ads must adhere to LinkedIn’s policies and pass human + automated reviews.
- Ongoing optimization and engagement required for account health.
Overall, LinkedIn aims to maintain the professional nature of their community. While this translates to more hurdles for advertisers, it helps ensure that members have a valuable experience – leading to better results for marketers who meet LinkedIn’s standards.