Demystifying LinkedIn Ads

Have you tried using LinkedIn Ads?

LinkedIn ads are self-service advertising fixes that allow you to place business ads on specific pages on the LinkedIn website. You can shortlist your target audience by any of these requisites: job function, title, industry, gender, age, seniority, geography and LinkedIn group.

You can create your own budget and you only pay for the actual clicks your ads get.

With over 400 million users as of Oct. 29, 2015, you can’t go wrong with promoting your business with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest professional social media network available in over 200 countries and territories. Total revenue for the 3rd Quarter this year is up by 37%.

What makes LinkedIn ads great is that you do not have to enter long-term commitments to run your ads. You can stop them at any given time, and you only pay the impressions made on your ads. Ads formats on LinkedIn are pretty easy. You could either use Sponsored Updates or text and image ads.

LinkedIn is a very powerful platform to use in promoting your brand especially if it is in the B2B category. Using it is very easy even if you have not used it before. Just follow these steps:

headline – up to 25 text charactersdescription – up to 75 text charactersfrom – name of your business or companyimage – 50 x 50 pixels pictureURL- the link of your website or landing page that people can click.

LinkedIn allows you to select your audience. When you access campaign manager, you are given two options to choose.

When you select “I want to reach LinkedIn members right in the LinkedIn feed“, you are choosing the option with the sponsored updates.

This is what you get when you choose the first option.

When you select sponsored updates, you must have a Company or Showcase page. You need to create one if you don’t have it yet. Otherwise, select the text ads options.

The second option, “I want to drive targeted leads across multiple LinkedIn pages” is for text ads. You just need your account name and the currency that you will be using. Company or showcase page is just optional.

You can select the audience for your ads. You just need to set your criteria for advertising and LinkedIn takes care of narrowing down the audience for you. Targeting options include the following:

You can select your bid and your daily budget that is the maximum amount you want to spend on a daily basis. Ads may cost between $10-1000 daily. The minimum cost per bid is $2. You will get a suggested bid range that is the current competing bids estimate of your competitors for the same niche. The higher your bid is, the better your chances for clicks and impressions.

You can either select per clicks or impressions.  Impressions are the number of times your ads are shown in LinkedIn. LinkedIn ads can be paid through credit cards. There’s a one-time $5 activation fee. Promotional coupons will be honoured by LinkedIn ads.

The ads will be shown strategically on different LinkedIn places including:

Profile PageHome PageInboxSearch Results PageGroups

You can only measure how successful your ads are when you constantly monitor your performance. A better way to do ads is to create at least two different kinds of ads and continue the one doing better in terms of number of clicks and impressions. Create a new one to replace the less performing ad.

You don’t need to monitor the performance of your ads from time to time. However, you can check your statistics by the end of each day. The only way for you to know whether the ads are working in your favor is when you have set your goals and results have shown that you are hitting your targets.

Your ads are compelling enough when your conversion rate can be justified with your click rates or your number of impressions.

Even novice marketers can create effective ads even without formal training or a writing background. You just need to remember the following when creating your ad:

Choose attention grabbing wordsDo not forget to use effective call to action phrases like buy now, try this now and grab your product nowInclude a 50 x 50 image of your product or companyYour ads must meet LinkedIn advertising guidelines.

Effective ads are compelling reasons why businesses sell. Without a powerful copy, your ads are not going anywhere. And if your ads are not going anywhere, you cannot expect your business to grow. Your business will only grow when you are hitting your sales targets. Give people enough reasons to care. LinkedIn ads cater more to the B2B community whose needs and requirements are more specific. Seth Godin has ranked the B2B heirarchy of needs and this include:

avoiding riskavoiding hasslegaining praisegaining powerhaving funmaking a profit

Are LinkedIn ads worth trying? LinkedIn ads are definitely worth trying especially if your business is gearing towards the B2B community. No other social media platform is as perfect as LinkedIn in promoting your ads when your brand is for B2B audience.

How do you capture leads for your ads? There are many ways you can do it, but the most feasible one is by giving out free trials and samples on your landing page. Customer mindset has always been to get something for free in exchange for patronizing or supporting a product, brand or business.

Trends do come and go and as a business marketer, it is your duty to use the latest social media features to convert sales. Grow your business today. Give LinkedIn ads a try now.

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