LinkedIn has come a long way over the last few years. It is no longer just an impressive online CV or aggressive recruitment platform; it’s become a place where experts in their fields share valuable content with a network of like-minded professionals. It’s grown to be a powerful B2B marketing platform for brands where other advertising platforms have failed to produce meaningful results.
LinkedIn’s advertising platform may not be as robust and intuitive as Facebook or Google; and they still have a long way to go in terms of bidding strategies, testing abilities and more intuitive campaign management; but the magic of LinkedIn lies in its targeting capabilities.
For B2B marketing, LinkedIn works, and you can generate high quality leads for your business with strategic ad campaigns.
If you’re new to LinkedIn here are a few things we’ve learnt:
It’s expensive but it’s worth it
Let’s rip this band-aid off right now. Advertising on LinkedIn is not cheap and the more senior you set your targeting in terms of job titles, the more expensive it gets. However, the quality of traffic and leads generated are often far superior to other advertising platforms due to the nature of LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities – especially for B2B advertising.
It’s important that you understand what those targeting capabilities are and what type of campaign is best to use to reach your marketing objectives.
It’s not an ideal platform for always-on campaigns
LinkedIn does not have the endurance for always-on campaigns that other platforms do. Campaigns tend to lose momentum after 4 weeks. Rather run high intensity, (ideally promotion driven), once-off campaigns every month and offer something of value to the user.
Tip: If you want to keep running the same campaign to the same audience make sure you keep the creative fresh and change it frequently.
It’s a tough crowd
You’re targeting smart, informed, tech-savvy users on this platform so you’re going to need to offer them something of value. If your objective is to generate leads, give them a compelling reason or strong incentive to hand over their details. Offer them a free demo, a recent benchmark report, a whitepaper, a free trial, or an exclusive webinar.
If your objective is to generate awareness and inform your audience about your great new offering or product, make sure you have well-thought out creatives. Informative and unique content goes a long way.
Tip: Video content works extremely well on LinkedIn and your audience is more likely to watch a longer video on LinkedIn than they are on other platforms.
Don’t always chase the c-suite
It is expensive to target the c-suite, or very senior people, on LinkedIn. They’re often very busy and likely don’t have the time to actively browse and peruse content on LinkedIn, let alone fill out a lead form or sign up for that webinar.
Most often they’ve tasked someone in their team to find solutions or new products to improve operations or sales in their business, so don’t forget to target the people that the c-suite are relying on to bring solutions to the table. These people are more likely to download a brochure, sign up for a webinar or free trial because they’re the ones who are responsible for implementation and execution within the business.
They may not be the decision makers, but they are certainly a foot in the door and one step closer to the chief.
Don’t forget about what happens after the click
Your campaigns are only the beginning. You can drive great traffic to your landing pages or generate high quality leads, but if you have no follow-up strategy or your landing page is poorly optimised, you are wasting money and throwing away good opportunities.
Tip: Automated email follow-up campaigns will increase your conversion rate exponentially.
Ultimately you will get great results from LinkedIn ad campaigns with a well-thought out campaign, the right objectives, full funnel strategy and a little bit of budget.
If you’d like to find out more, chat to Emma or Dom about an integrated campaign, where your brand will benefit from the expertise of both Yellow Door and Alchemii.
Alchemii are digital marketing and online acquisition specialists dedicated to finding the right online chemistry to help businesses acquire new customers and increase their ROI.