By TE Cunnigham
Have you been thinking about using LinkedIn as a way to grow your business? It’s a great networking tool, but ads may also be a good fit for your company, especially if you are B2B. To start advertising with the social network, you will need to use its Campaign Manager. You will want to set up an account and follow these simple steps.
Choose Your Objective
What do you want to have the viewer do? Do you want them to book an appointment, join a mailing list, buy something, etc.? Set your objective first.
Define Your Target Audience
This is a vital area for success – define your potential audience. LinkedIn recommends that you use a minimum of four targeting elements to do this – more if possible. Some of the things you can target are Company: Company Connections, Followers, Industry, Name, Size, etc. You will also note age, gender, education levels or fields of study, job experience and titles and interests. LinkedIn has audience templates that can be helpful if you are starting out.
Take your time in this area, as it’s vital to your success.
LinkedIn notes: “Limited scale will hurt your initial campaigns, so we recommend not adding more than two to three targeting facets. A good rule of thumb when starting is to keep the target audience over 50,000 for Sponsored Content and Text Ads and over 15,000 for Message Ads.”
Choose Your Ad Format
There are several different types of ads on LinkedIn, so choose your vehicle. They are specifically designed to help you reach different goals, including Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Lead Generation Forms and Text and Dynamic Ads. It’s worth reading up on each to choose the most favorable approach for your campaign.
Set the Budget
You will want to bid within the recommended range to reach your audience to beat your competitors out on that front. There is an option for maximum delivery that you can also explore, in which LinkedIn does the heavy lifting for you. You also will want to budget at least $25 per day. That way, your ads are delivered throughout the day whenever your audience is on the network.
Set the Schedule
Define when you want your ads to run. It’s a good idea to schedule a minimum of two weeks of advertising to reach your target audience. You may have a tight budget, but a one or two-day campaign will not yield much in the way of results.
Create Your Ad Design & Copy
Make sure every ad you run has compelling visuals. LinkedIn maintains that the correct image could nearly double your CTR. Remember to use the insight tag on your ad to see who the conversions are on the ad. Also, keep your copy short and sweet; 150 characters or less is an excellent rule of thumb for sponsored content links.
Ready, set, go – get your ad running. Remember, as with all digital advertising, to keep testing and optimizing to improve your success. Regular analysis of your campaigns will also teach you more about your target audience, especially what content they tend to engage with.
Feeling overwhelmed? TLC Marketing Consultants can help. Contact us today!