Whilst not offering quite the same size user base as social media behemoths Facebook and Instagram, with 828.1 million active users, a LinkedIn advertising campaign can offer significant ROI to businesses looking to market in the space. Furthermore, with an average quarterly growth of 2.56% over the last 2 years, LinkedIn looks set to increase its numbers at a rate that other – more established – platforms might wish they could.
One of the most obvious advantages of LinkedIn marketing is the platform’s audience. Whilst most of its social networking competitors strive to develop as broad a user base as possible, LinkedIn caters specifically to an aspirational, professional audience. The singular nature of LinkedIn’s user base makes advertising through the platform an extremely appealing proposition to B2B businesses, and those whose products or services cater to that market.
For those looking to explore the potential benefits of LinkedIn advertising, there is often a question about how and where to begin. For established businesses and those with in-house marketing teams, this isn’t an issue – however, for small- and mid-sized companies without much paid search or digital marketing expertise, it can seem a daunting (and potentially costly) proposition. That’s where a dedicated LinkedIn advertising agency like The Bank can help!
At The Bank, our Newcastle-based team of digital marketing agency professionals are on-hand to assist in all aspects of LinkedIn advertising and campaign development. By investing a portion of your ad spend in retaining our services, we can help with market strategy development, ad format selection, content creation, budgeting, demographic targeting and conversion tracking.
What’s more, our experts are experienced in the delivery of all forms of paid search and paid social campaigns, from LinkedIn to Facebook, Instagram to TikTok, even PPC and Google Ads – our specialists can help standardise and synchronise your campaigns and marketing strategies across multiple services and platforms.
So, if you think a LinkedIn advertising agency might be right for your business, get in touch today to arrange a meeting with your new dedicated account manager. In the meantime, take a look at our handy guide to all-things LinkedIn:
LinkedIn Demographics
Age
Perhaps unsurprisingly, LinkedIn users are predominantly aged 25–34, with 59.1% of active users falling into this bracket. 18–24 and 35–54 year-olds are also well-represented.
Key to note is that with LinkedIn becoming more of an essential tool for working professionals, these demographics are likely to change over the coming years – it makes sense to establish a marketing presence on the platform as soon as possible.
Gender Identity
While this chart only tracks male and female users on the site, it would appear that there is a fairly even split. Males out-rank females slightly, which could present an opportunity for lead generation among this aspirational professional demographic.
Location
The United States is by far the largest market when it comes to registered LinkedIn members, with over twice the amount of its closest competitor (India). However, the platform is establishing a foothold in a growing number of nations, particularly in Europe.
Platform Usage
According to this data from Q3 2020, 87% of registered users access the platform at least once per month. 63% use the site weekly, while 22% check into it daily. Evidence suggests that many use the platform as a tool, accessing it when they need to find a job, an employee, a supplier, etc.
The Benefits of LinkedIn Advertising
At The Bank, we generally encourage our clients to split their ad spend across multiple PPC and social media platforms – this commonly results in the greatest ROI, as well as establishing the best foothold for targeting customers across a range of demographics.
Nevertheless, when it comes to LinkedIn, there are undeniably a few platform-specific advantages:
Reach
Whilst LinkedIn’s user base is relatively small when compared to some of its bigger brothers, its 828.1 million active users represent a significant market.
In spite of its comparatively small overall reach, its ubiquity within certain regions is astonishing. With 171 million users in the United States, 82.5% of the country’s working-age population (207 million) are served by LinkedIn. Even more staggering are United Kingdom figures, where 29 million LinkedIn accounts are spread among 33 million (88.4%) of adults at working age. LinkedIn ads offer unrivalled opportunities to market to this huge target audience.
Conversion
For B2B advertising campaigns, LinkedIn has been shown extremely effective. LinkedIn ads convert users at an average rate of 6.1%, offering far greater returns than those found on other platforms, and significantly greater than similar campaigns run by Google Ads, which commonly result in a 2.5% conversion.
Lead Accelerator
As a social media site which is predominately used by working professionals, LinkedIn ads can be effectively deployed to generate leads from target customers of specific demographics and in specific locations.
Further assisting B2B marketers is LinkedIn’s Lead Accelerator tool. The Lead Accelerator allows businesses to identify and target potential high-value clients and decision-makers, sequencing and optimising LinkedIn ads directly for them.
Collaboration
As a business, your employees are your most valuable asset – when it comes to finding the right people for your business, LinkedIn ads can be leveraged to great effect. By running job ads with criteria set against LinkedIn profile data (including job titles and skills), it’s often possible to find the best employees or freelancers for your business or project.
Retargeting
LinkedIn offers its advertisers fantastic options for retargeting individuals who have already interacted with your brand. Research indicates that retargeted visitors are up to 70% more likely to convert than new visitors, making this an essential tool for building successful campaigns on LinkedIn.
- Website Retargeting – By collecting cookies on your landing page of visitors who have clicked through from a LinkedIn ad, you can retarget them by showing more personalised ads.
- Contact Targeting – Do you have a large database of leads and potential clients? By uploading them to LinkedIn, you can match them with platform users, allowing you to retarget them.
- Account Targeting – Account targeting is similar to contact targeting, the main difference being you upload a list of accounts (company names) to run your retargeting campaign.
- Matched Audiences / Lookalike Audiences – With LinkedIn’s lookalike feature, the platform will build a new set of targeted audiences based on your contact or account targeting data.
LinkedIn Ad Campaigns: Developing a Strategy
If this is your first time building an ad campaign for a social platform, you may be unclear as to how to proceed with developing a successful strategy. Naturally, you want to run LinkedIn ads which convert, but with so many ad formats and options, it can be difficult to access which will offer you the best ROI.
When it comes to developing LinkedIn campaigns with our clients, we ask them to focus on a few key considerations:
Business Goals
This might seem like an obvious one, but what do you hope to achieve with your LinkedIn ad campaign? Or, to put it another way, what will make your LinkedIn marketing efforts feel like a profitable use of your time?
Awareness
If your primary campaign objective is to drive brand consideration, you want to create highly engaging content which informs your target audiences about your business story, its values, and its current status.
Video ad types are particularly effective here, though a simple ad image with effective ad copy can prove just as effective.
Traffic
Generally speaking, directing traffic to a website is the simple part – the difficulty is in making sure that traffic is coming from relevant leads and potential clients.
You want to build ads which will resonate specifically with what you’ve established is the right audience for your business.
Lead Generation
For many small businesses – particularly those in the B2B space – the ultimate goal is to connect with potential clients who will retain your services over a long period of time.
To achieve this, your LinkedIn advertising campaign must nurture trust: show your audience that you can not only provide the service they need, but that you have a proven track record of delivering results.
Target Audience
With your business goals established, you can now start thinking about your target market.
For impression-based-campaigns, cost-per-impression (CPI) is the most important metric; your LinkedIn marketing campaign performance will be based primarily on the number of relevant users who will see your page at the lowest cost possible.
To ensure your targeted content is going to result in a profitable CPI, it’s vital that your LinkedIn targeting strategy is optimised to its fullest potential. LinkedIn offers advertisers some highly useful refinement options for targeting their sponsored content, including:
- Industry
- Company Name
- Company Size
- Job Title
- Job Function
- Seniority
- Degree Type
- Skills
With a handle on how you’ll approach LinkedIn targeting, you’re well on your way to developing LinkedIn ads and sponsored content that will achieve the results you’re looking for.
Advertising Budget
It’s easy to go over your budget with LinkedIn advertising. Whether you opt to hire a dedicated LinkedIn marketing agency, or manage your own advertising, everyone must understand the confines of your financial plan.
For a LinkedIn marketing agency like The Bank, the financial health of our clients and their businesses is our top priority. As a client, your account manager will work closely with you to create a comprehensive budget that accounts for all eventualities, without compromising on campaign performance expectations.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
Like many other social media platforms, LinkedIn are forever on the hunt for the best new ad format. As a result, the platform offers a number of ad types, all designed to target audiences in the most efficient way possible.
Whilst this does offer significant strategic options for the seasoned LinkedIn marketing campaign manager, for the average user the number of options for placing ads on LinkedIn can seem extremely confusing!
LinkedIn’s website offers a handy tool for judging which type of ad might be best for you, based on objective-based advertising. We’ve summed up the main options below:
Sponsored Content
Sponsored ads are the most common marketing format on the LinkedIn platform. Presented in a number of different ad formats, they appear in your target audiences’ news feeds.
Single-Image Ads
As the name suggests, single-image ads offer promotion via engaging visual content across desktop and mobile devices.
Video Ads
Video ads promote your brand or service through high-quality video media. Perfect if your company has room for video production in its ad spend budget.
Carousel Ads
A common sight across many social platforms, carousel ads on LinkedIn consist of between 2 and 10 company images, with optional text copy and landing page links.
Event Ads
If you’re running a promotional event, you may want to create ads to encourage attendance; event ads are perfect for this – all you need is a LinkedIn Event page to get started.
Sponsored Messaging
Unlike other ad formats, sponsored messaging allow businesses to directly contact their target audience members with a personal message. These ads are displayed in your target audience’s LinkedIn Messaging tool. The ads are displayed on desktop and mobile devices, and only when members are active on LinkedIn.
Message Ads
Message ads show up in your target’s message inbox the same as any other member. They include a single call-to-action button, which can encourage website visits or further engagement.
Conversation Ads
Broadly speaking, conversation ads are the same as message ads – the primary difference is that you may create multiple call-to-action buttons that connect to your landing pages, fill out a Lead Gen Form, or spark interaction in the next communication.
Lead Gen Forms
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms (Lead Generation Forms) are a great way to collect contact information from potential customers. There are a number of different types of Lead Generation Forms, each designed to target a specific type of customer. By understanding the different types of forms available, you can create a form that is most likely to attract the customers you want to target.
Text Ads and Dynamic Ads
Text ads and dynamic ads are displayed in the LinkedIn right rail. These inconspicuous LinkedIn ads are make for a perfect low-investment pay-per-click (PPC) option. The main formats are:
Text Ads
Text ads consist of some ad copy alongside an image of your company logo. These PPC ads are ideal for companies who want to get their LinkedIn ad campaigns up and running ASAP, without the need to invest in expensive media content.
Spotlight Ads
Offering similar simplicity as text ads, spotlight ads consist of a company logo, background image, headline, description, company name, and call-to-action button. Ideal for promotional events or generating website visits.
Follower Ads
If you feel your follower count is a little on the low side, follower ads can be an effective way to promote your profile.
The Bank: Our LinkedIn Advertising Agency – A Step-by-Step Guide
At The Bank, when it comes to developing LinkedIn ad campaigns, we believe it’s vital to stay flexible to the specific needs and requirements of the client.
Our LinkedIn marketing professionals take a bespoke, collaborative approach to LinkedIn ad campaigns, developing a sponsored content strategy that is tailor-built for you.
In spite of this, our team like to have a general template from which to work. Take a look at how your account manager will work with you on developing, implementing, and maintaining your ad campaigns:
Step 1: Campaign Strategy
At The Bank, we employ our collective knowledge and experience to develop a LinkedIn marketing strategy that is suited to your company’s size, budget, audience, and objectives.
We leverage our years of expertise and industry-leading data-driven analytical software to create a strategic plan of action that will increase interaction, brand awareness, and revenue.
Step 2: Social and PPC Audits
With an overall strategy in place, your LinkedIn campaign manager will conduct an audit of your existing paid social and PPC campaigns (Google Ads, etc.).
The goal here is to spot any opportunities for optimisation and unification, bringing all your paid social and paid search campaigns under one roof.
Step 3: Website Optimisation
Almost all of your LinkedIn ads will direct traffic to a landing page of some form or another – it’s vital your website content is up to standard.
The Bank’s SEO and website development staff can ensure that the material on your site is formatted to not only convert LinkedIn Ads into clients, but also produce organic traffic on its own.
Step 4: Content Creation
For many small- and mid-sized firms, coming up with interesting ad content can prove difficult. Paid social media advertising can benefit businesses in a variety of sectors, but it may seem impossible for those who are not creative experts.
With The Bank, you’re able to outsource this content development. Our in-house creative team and network of collaborating partners have the expertise and abilities to create sales materials that are appropriate for your target client.
From your ad headline, to ad description, to main ad copy – all the creative elements of your LinkedIn ads will be unique to your business.
Step 5: Implementation
To get your LinkedIn ads up and running, you must first gain access to the site’s Campaign Manager hub. All of your LinkedIn ads will be handled through this Campaign Manager account, whether you choose to hire a LinkedIn marketing agency or not.
You’ll be able to view performance metrics whenever you want with shared access to this account. Furthermore, if you decide to cease using our services, you’ll take everything with you.
Step 6: Performance and Optimisation
A social advertising campaign, from a start-up firm to a multinational corporation, is a never-ending project.
We constantly evaluate the success of our campaigns at The Bank, from conversion tracking to competitor analysis, ensuring that they are advertised on suitable platforms and achieving the results our customers expect.
Step 7: Reporting
It’s simple for a digital marketing team to inform you that your campaign objectives have been achieved, but it’s more crucial to see objective proof.
That is why, as one of our clients, your dedicated account manager will provide regular thorough reports and clear analysis on a regular basis so you may evaluate the success of your investment.
The Bank: Your New LinkedIn Advertising Agency
The Bank is the digital marketing company for you whether you wish to increase followers, boost traffic, or produce credible leads.
Our company offers a wide range of media buying and marketing services for businesses of all sizes, and our expert team is here to help you get the most out of your online presence.
Don’t hesitate to contact The Bank to set up a meeting with a member of our account management team. We can’t wait to get started!
