Have you explored Google and Facebook ads? But now want to try your hands on LinkedIn. Well, you cannot just stop at these two platforms if you’re going to see more growth in you and your business?
Ever given LinkedIn ads a thought?
With 63 million people in decision-making positions, LinkedIn is a powerful platform to reach millions of similar industries. A considerable portion of your audience is in one place to make executive decisions about their business purchases.
According to statistics, this platform is 277% more effective than Facebook in generating leads. Taken note of this, you should continue to ignore LinkedIn advertising any longer.
Read the LinkedIn ad guide below to get a better idea of what the platform offers and how you generate more leads.
How to use Campaign Manager?
- Sign in to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. The LinkedIn ads manager helps you to manage your advertising campaigns. Before getting started, you’ll need to create your LinkedIn account if you don’t have one yet.
- Enter the account name and your currency. If you’re running ads on behalf of someone/ a business, link your campaign with a LinkedIn page. Create one if there is not any.
Set an Objective
Choose the objective relevant to your campaign. Do you require more awareness of the brand or increase website visitors? or maybe more leads. LinkedIn gives you many objectives to choose from for three different sales funnel –awareness, consideration, and conversions. Select the most relevant goal for your campaign and proceed.
If you have a job opening, you get the option to set an objective to promote new job opportunities.
How to nail your targeting?
You can’t run a successful ad unless you’re targeting the right group of people. Always have a clear idea of what kind of people you will reach, whether based on location, industry, company size, education, job function, or skills.
You can select multiple interests to narrow down your targeting further.
Before saving your ad campaign, make sure to enable audience expansion to expand it further and engage a new audience with the campaign. This option automatically includes people with similar attributes as the ones you’ve selected.
Choosing the right LinkedIn ad type
The type of ad you choose will play a tremendous role in the success of your campaign; if you are unsure of the format that would appeal to your target audience, try out different ad types and evaluate what works best for you.
For instance, some users rarely check their inboxes but frequently scroll through the feed to find new content. In this case, sponsored messages might not be the best choice for your ad budget.
LinkedIn has numerous ad formats and placements to choose from:
Sponsored content
Sponsored content looks similar to regular posts on the feed except with a Call to Action button with a “promoted” label: You can choose different supported content formats–a single image, carousel, or video. It’s better to switch between the three options now and then check which option works best with your audience.
Message ads
Also known as sponsored InMail, these ads work as messages that go straight to your target audience’s inbox. InMail’s are more direct and personalized, making them highly effective for targeting a particular niche audience.
Text ads and dynamic ads
These are Pay-per-click text ads that appear on the right-hand side of your desktop screen. These include a small image with a short headline and blurb. They may be less prominent but still very influential, depending on your campaign goal.
Dynamic ads work, except more personalized. They address the user by name and include their profile photo. Spotlight ads, follower ads, content, and job postings are often viewed as dynamic ads on LinkedIn.
Best practices
Once you’ve decided on which ad type you want to test, discover the best practices that will help you run a successful ad campaign.
Maintain the correct LinkedIn ad specs
Your LinkedIn ads need to draw attention, and you can’t do it without outstanding visuals. Ensure to follow the proper specs and sizes, as the specs may vary for each type and ad format. Here are the basics:
Sponsored content
Single image ads
- JPG or PNG format.
- The file size should be 5MB or smaller.
- Headlines should be under 70 characters to avoid truncation.
- Descriptions to be under 100 characters to avoid truncation.
- Images display set at 1200 x 627 pixels with at least 400x in width.
Carousel ads
- Use 2-10 cards per ad display.
- Individual cards are not larger than 10MB.
- 1080 x 1080 pixel frame with a 1:1 ratio for unique images.
- The introductory text under 150 characters
- Character limits below or 45 characters maximum of 30 characters with a lead gen CTA button.
Video Ads
- Videos under 15 seconds for better engagement.
- File size to be between 75KB and 200MB.
- Video in MP4 format running at less than 30 frames per second.
- Audio size to be less than 64KHz.
Personal Message Ads
- Banner creative to be 300×250 pixels.
- Messages not more extensive than 40KB.
- JPG, non-animated GIF, or PNG format.
- You can add up to three links using a maximum of 70 characters for anchor text.
- The message text should be no more than 1,500 characters.
- The subject should be no longer than 60 characters.
Text Ads
- Ad image to be 100×100 pixels
- JPG or PNG format
- File size cannot be larger than 2MB
- Keep headlines under 25 characters.
- Keep descriptions under 75 characters.
Note you know that there are five different sizes and ad specs for text ads. There are also many LinkedIn ad sizes and specs for dynamic ads like follower and spotlight ads tailored to individual users, depending on which format you choose.
Some experts recommend using colors that contrast with the platform’s blue and white colors in your visuals for even better results in lead generation through your LinkedIn ads. It gives your ad an instant pop, allowing you to draw in your target audience effectively.
1. Use LinkedIn Lead Generation Forms
Turn your prospects into leads by using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms with sponsored content and InMail. These forms auto-populate the fields with relevant information about the opportunity; all they have to do is click on the “submit” button, and it’s set.
Since there’s minimal effort required from your target audience, they can quickly move along the funnel and convert into qualified leads.
Here’s how a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form looks once someone clicks on your ad CTA.
2. Measure your ad success
You don’t run LinkedIn ads for no reason. There is always hope of getting some return, making it difficult to monitor and measure your ad success.
You might find that some ads aren’t delivering any results at all, so you’d like to stop setting money towards something that doesn’t work.
The LinkedIn ads manager comes with a robust reporting feature that lets you track key metrics to understand ad performance.
You can also track your performance with different demographics and audiences in the ads manager. For instance, you can see how people performing a specific job function responded to your ads in terms of clicks, impressions, and ctr.
But make sure to install the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your site to get an accurate picture of your conversions and enable demographic reporting.
3. Testing and Optimizing
Based on the insights collected from your past performance, you will discover some excellent ideas to improve your ads. Do A/B tests on different ad types, creatives, copy, and CTAs. Check what resonates with your audience and use that to improve your ad performance further.
Additionally, you might use A/B testing to optimize your ad targeting. Make slight changes to your targeting criteria to check which audiences are most responsive, which eventually will help you get more out of your advertising efforts.
Grow fast with LinkedIn ads
LinkedIn offers plenty of opportunities to network with the right audience with the right approach and grow your business. But it gets overwhelming when you’re just starting. Make the most of the information provided above to build a unique and workable LinkedIn advertising strategy that generates valuable leads.
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