LinkedIn advertising can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach professionals and decision makers. With over 722 million members worldwide, LinkedIn provides access to a massive audience of working professionals across industries. LinkedIn advertising enables businesses to target ads by job title, industry, skills, company size and more. This makes LinkedIn ads ideal for B2B companies looking to generate leads, recruit employees or build brand awareness among their target audience. But who exactly should be using LinkedIn ads and what goals are they best suited for? Here we’ll look at the main types of businesses and objectives that tend to see strong results from LinkedIn ads.
Businesses Targeting Other Businesses
LinkedIn ads are highly effective for B2B companies looking to reach, engage with and convert professionals in their target industries. With the ability to segment audiences by seniority, job function, skills and more, LinkedIn ads enable B2B brands to connect with just their ideal customers. For example, a cybersecurity software company can target ads exclusively to IT managers and CTOs at mid-size and large enterprises. LinkedIn ads allow for highly targeted lead generation and account based marketing. Key benefits for B2B brands include:
- Generate high quality leads by targeting titles and skills
- Increase brand awareness among key decision makers
- Retarget website visitors to convert more leads
- Engage audiences with Sponsored Content and Message Ads
- Get matched with prospective clients through Lead Gen Forms
Recent studies found that 80% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn the most effective platform for generating leads. LinkedIn ads also drove a 45% increase in leads for B2B brands using account based strategies. Overall, LinkedIn advertising presents a major opportunity for B2B companies to connect with their ideal customers and drive measurable results.
Recruitment Firms and HR Departments
With LinkedIn’s vast member base of active and passive job seekers, LinkedIn ads are hugely valuable for recruiters and HR professionals looking to find great talent. LinkedIn’s unique targeting capabilities allow recruiters to zero in on candidates based on their experience, skills, qualifications and more. Key benefits of LinkedIn ads for recruiting include:
- Target active and passive job seekers by experience, skills, education and other attributes
- Increase applications to open positions by running Sponsored Jobs ads
- Build talent pools and audiences for future hiring needs
- Retarget website visitors to drive more conversions and applications
- Promote employer brand and attract top talent
In fact, LinkedIn drives 55% of all social traffic to corporate career sites. And Sponsored Jobs on LinkedIn deliver a 78% lower cost per click compared to job boards. With competition for talent on the rise, recruiters can gain significant advantage using LinkedIn ads to surface qualified candidates for open roles.
Professional Services Firms
LinkedIn advertising presents major opportunities for professional services providers like consultants, marketing agencies, law firms and more to establish thought leadership and acquire new clients. By targeting executives and professionals within key accounts, professional services firms can use LinkedIn ads to:
- Promote service offerings to ideal prospective clients
- Establish thought leadership with Sponsored Content
- Retarget website visitors to generate leads
- Build brand awareness and trust within target industries
In addition, lead gen forms allow professional services providers to capture prospect contact details and build their funnel directly on LinkedIn. Ads also enable firms to engage decision makers at target accounts with highly relevant messages to accelerate sales cycles. Overall, LinkedIn advertising presents a big growth opportunity for consultancies, agencies and professional services driving new business development.
SaaS and Tech Companies
LinkedIn advertising is highly effective for software, SaaS and technology companies looking to drive brand awareness, leads and demos with technical buyers and influencers. LinkedIn enables tech brands to deliver targeted self-serve ads or work with LinkedIn’s specialized tech marketing consultants to execute strategic LinkedIn ad campaigns. Key objectives for tech brands include:
- Generate quality leads and contacts at target accounts
- Increase product and brand awareness
- Drive demo sign-ups and free trial conversions
- Engage audiences with content marketing
- Accelerate pipeline with account-based strategies
Given LinkedIn’s wealth of account, targeting and conversion tracking capabilities, it has become a go-to platform for tech marketers. For both B2B and B2C tech companies, LinkedIn advertising presents a major avenue to connect with the right audiences to influence, inform and convert.
Higher Education and EdTech
For educational institutions and education technology companies, LinkedIn advertising offers ways to achieve key goals such as lead generation, enrollment growth, brand awareness and more. Schools can use LinkedIn ads for student recruitment by targeting learners based on field of study, graduation year, degree type and other attributes. EdTech companies can generate quality leads by running LinkedIn ads targeted to academic departments, administrators and influencers. Key LinkedIn advertising benefits include:
- Target prospective students by graduation year, major, degree type and more
- Increase program awareness and drive enrollments
- Influence decision makers with personalized messaging
- Generate leads for EdTech products and solutions
- Promote thought leadership and establish subject matter expertise
With cross-device targeting, pixel tracking and robust analytics, LinkedIn empowers schools and EdTech brands to optimize campaigns and prove ROI. For education marketers, LinkedIn ads present a major tool to achieve enrollment, lead generation and brand building goals.
Authors, Publishers and Media Companies
For authors, publishers and media companies promoting books, publications and content, LinkedIn ads offer effective ways to target and engage relevant professionals and groups. LinkedIn enables authors to connect with niche professional audiences that align with book topics and expertise. Publishers can generate book sales by running LinkedIn ads targeted to relevant titles, topics and formats. And media firms can increase site traffic, views and subscribers by targeting content to aligned professionals. Key LinkedIn advertising benefits include:
- Increase book sales by targeting professionals interested in relevant topics
- Promote new releases and pre-sales to engaged reader audiences
- Drive site traffic, views and engagement for published content
- Grow email lists and subscriptions with gated offers
- Establish thought leadership around topics and expertise
With extensive targeting capabilities, LinkedIn ads give authors, publishers and content platforms streamlined ways to connect with audiences, promote titles and drive conversions.
Nonprofits and Advocacy Groups
For nonprofits and advocacy organizations focused on fundraising, volunteer engagement and expanding support, LinkedIn also offers effective advertising opportunities. Advocacy groups can use LinkedIn ads to promote missions, events and calls to action with targeted messaging to aligned professionals. Nonprofits can also generate donations, increase event turnout and drive volunteer sign-ups by creating customized LinkedIn ad campaigns aimed at supporter audiences. Key benefits include:
- Promote events, missions and volunteer opportunities
- Drive donations through LinkedIn lead gen forms and site links
- Increase brand awareness and support for causes
- Influence and educate professionals aligned with organization goals
- Retarget site visitors to increase engagement and conversions
With plenty of flexibility to target ad formats, landing pages and customizable calls-to-action, LinkedIn enables nonprofits and social good organizations to grow support and participation from target supporter segments.
Local Service Businesses
While primarily considered a tool for B2B marketing, LinkedIn ads can also be effective for certain B2C businesses targeting professionals in a specific geographic radius. For example, restaurants, medical clinics, realtors, law firms and other local services can drive calls, walk-ins and conversions by running LinkedIn ads targeted to professionals within close proximity. Key benefits include:
- Target ads by location radius and member occupation
- Drive calls and walk-ins by promoting offers and events
- Increase brand visibility at the local level
- Get ahead of competitors with highly targeted local ads
While LinkedIn advertising likely won’t make sense for mass-appeal consumer brands, it can be a cost-effective tactic for select B2C businesses wanting to connect with professionals in a defined geographic area.
Considerations for Getting Started
Here are some key factors businesses should consider when evaluating whether LinkedIn ads are a good fit:
- Target Audience: Does your target audience consist mainly of professionals that would be well-represented on LinkedIn in terms of job function, industry, skills, etc? LinkedIn works best when you can laser target audiences by B2B attributes.
- Goals and Budget: What are your key goals and KPIs? How much budget do you have for LinkedIn ads? Scale and duration will determine campaign effectiveness.
- Resources: Do you have in-house expertise to manage LinkedIn campaigns or would you need to bring on an agency? Factor in effort required.
- Creative Assets: Do you have necessary ad creative and landing pages to align with LinkedIn formats and objectives?
- Tracking: Are solid tracking pixels and analytics implemented to attribute conversions and optimize efforts?
Evaluating these factors will help determine if your business is in a good position to drive results from LinkedIn advertising.
Types of LinkedIn Ad Formats
LinkedIn offers a variety of ad formats to match different branding and direct response objectives. Some main formats include:
- Sponsored Content: Appears in feeds and targets audiences by interest. Flexible for awareness and consideration.
- Sponsored Messaging: Delivers direct messages to members via LinkedIn Messaging. Effective for personalization at scale.
- Text Ads: Highly targeted self-serve ads with call-to-action buttons. Powerful for lead gen and traffic.
- Dynamic Ads: Customizable templates that pull content from websites and blogs. Great for content syndication.
- Conversation Ads: Interactive units that include questions and answers. Engage audiences with polls and Q&As.
In addition, LinkedIn features several ad formats tailored to recruiting, including Jobs and Pipeline Builder ads. Reviewing the different ad types LinkedIn provides can help identify options suitable for your goals and use cases.
How to Create LinkedIn Ad Campaigns
To create ads on LinkedIn, you’ll first need to have a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions account, which you can sign up for directly on LinkedIn. Next, follow these steps to set up your first ad campaign:
- Set campaign objectives based on your KPIs and metrics for success. Common objectives include lead generation, website traffic, brand awareness, etc.
- Define your target audience by selecting demographic, firmographic, interest and other filters to hone in your ideal customers.
- Choose your ad formats based on objectives. For example, sponsored content for brand lift, message ads for personalization and text ads to drive clicks.
- Design effective, engaging creatives and landing pages tailored to chosen formats and audiences.
- Set a campaign budget and bidding strategy that aligns with your goals and desired cost per outcome.
- Implement tracking pixels to accurately attribute conversions and optimize towards key metrics.
- Monitor campaign analytics and continuously refine targeting, creative, and bids to improve performance.
Leveraging LinkedIn’s self-serve ads manager and audience insights enables you to quickly launch campaigns and iterate to boost results over time. Consider working with a LinkedIn ads expert to execute sophisticated targeting strategies and creative approaches tailored to your brand and objectives.
Tips for Optimizing LinkedIn Ad Performance
To maximize LinkedIn advertising results, keep these best practices in mind:
- A/B test different combinations of creative, messaging, calls-to-action and formats.
- Ensure ads and landing pages are mobile-optimized for the LinkedIn feed environment.
- Target personas and accounts using LinkedIn Matched Audiences from your CRM data.
- Make ads actionable with clear, direct call-to-action buttons and links.
- Align content to each stage of the funnel using awareness, consideration and decision-focused messaging.
- Monitor cost per lead and conversion to identify the most lucrative targeting and creative approaches.
- Use Website Demographics to uncover the job titles, companies and seniority levels driving conversions.
- Retarget website visitors via the LinkedIn Audience Network to increase engagement.
Continuous optimization and testing allows you to improve LinkedIn ad performance over time. Focus on the high-performing elements that move your desired conversions and metrics.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn advertising delivers results for a wide range of B2B, B2C and nonprofit organizations. Companies targeting professionals, recruiting talent, driving leads and building brand awareness see significant benefits from LinkedIn ads’ precise targeting and professional audience.
Setting clear campaign goals, utilizing LinkedIn’s robust targeting features and continually optimizing towards KPIs enables brands to maximize their return from investing in LinkedIn ads. Partnering with an expert agency can also help execute sophisticated LinkedIn advertising strategies tailored to unique objectives and audiences.
Overall, LinkedIn ads present a powerful way to connect with professional audiences and decision makers at scale. For businesses aligned with LinkedIn’s member base demographics and capabilities, advertising on the platform can provide a major competitive edge in reaching and engaging target customers.