When one thinks of PPC ads, usually their mind goes directly to Google and other search engines, along with various social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. In the more recent years, there has been an increasing interest in LinkedIn advertising. This channel is especially effective for B2B marketers who are looking to make their products and services known to working professionals and business owners, the audience that LinkedIn caters to. A company selling children’s clothes, for example, will not be as effective in marketing through this channel.
Ad Structure
If you are familiar with the structure of Google ads and how they work, then setting up LinkedIn ads will be a breeze. Like Google ads, they contain a headline, ad copy, and the destination URL that users are sent to. With a LinkedIn ad, you can also include a photo beside the text, an option that does not exist in a typical Google text ad.
Source: LinkedIn Example
Who can I target?
What is great about LinkedIn advertising is how precisely you can define the audience that you want to reach. LinkedIn provides advanced targeting options that allow you to display your ad only to the people that you think will be interested in your products and services. Location is the only targeting field that is required but other than this filter, you are also able to specify your audience by gender, age, job title, function, seniority, and even skills. People in specific companies can also be targeted based on the company name, industry or size. As filter options are chosen, LinkedIn automatically calculates the audience size so you have an idea of what your reach will be. The wide array of targeting options allow you to advertise to the perfect audience for your company.
What about cost?
The last piece of setting up your LinkedIn ad campaign is the cost. Two pricing models exist: cost-per-click (CPC) and cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM). The minimum bid that is required for a CPC pricing model is $2 with a minimum daily campaign budget of $10. LinkedIn provides a suggested bid range based on the current bids that other advertisers are setting; the higher that you set your bid within that range, the higher the likelihood that your ad will be displayed and clicked on. It is suggested that a good ad has a click-through rate of over 0.025%, so if you see that your click-through rate is below that, it may be time try a new ad variation and/or make an adjustment to the audience that you are targeting.
Overall, LinkedIn ads are very simple to set up and the many targeting categories make it easy to advertise to the audience that is ideal for you. If you are a B2B marketer looking to further expand your reach beyond the audience that you’ve captured from other channels, be sure to check out Linkedin ads and see if they work for you.
Additions & Feedback
If you have additional links, sources or ideas that you think would be helpful, please comment below.