Every digital channel has its own advantage: Instagram’s pool of highly-engaged millennials and gen z’s, YouTube’s precise video and channel targeting, Facebook’s lookalike audiences, Google Ads’ keyword targeting…the list goes on. But what makes LinkedIn different from the rest, and what kind of ads should run on its campaign manager platform? Well, It’s pretty expensive for one (about $5 per click), but the platform’s business nature should guide how and when companies run ads. In this post we’ll talk about when it makes the most sense for you or your business to advertise on the platform.
If You Sell a Product or Service in B2B
If you’re selling a product direct-to-business instead of direct-to-consumer, LinkedIn is one of the key platforms for your ads. The platform is fundamentally a place for businesses and professionals to interact, with the core of its appeal being centered around one thing, businesses. Take their slogan for example, “Connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” – this is the core of what the platform is designed to accomplish.
That said, most people aren’t jumping on LinkedIn to scroll through the latest memes or to stalk people the same way they do on Instagram. Instead people are using the platform to keep up with current and past co-workers, find job opportunities, and share professional wins and losses (2020 has seen a flux of lay-off posts). Business owners, stakeholders, content creators, professionals, and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of this platform. So, if you provide a product or service that can help these people overcome a business need, this is the place to run your ads.
For Account-Based Marketing
Let’s say you know what type of industries you want to target with your offering, and maybe you’ve even narrowed it down to the type of company, or perhaps a list of exact companies themselves. Take that a step further and say you want to serve your ad to someone that works at x company and whose job is a, b, or c. This is the magic of LinkedIn advertising, you can target based on employer and job title, and luckily people are quick to update their LinkedIn information when they change jobs or companies.
Here’s a quick example of how your business would use ABM (account-based marketing) on LinkedIn. Let’s say that you run an office cleaning and sanitation business, very 2020 right? First, you’d research companies on the web that are meeting in the office and in your business area, likely within your city or state. Then you’d craft an image or video ad and target the decision makers (CEO, president, managing director, etc) at your chosen 10-20 businesses. This way you’re reaching the people that matter most for your message, but it’s not always going to be cheap – the more precise your target audience, the higher the cost per click will typically be.
Corporate Events, Webinars, and Workshops
If your company is holding a conference (most likely digitally for the time being) and you know the companies or types of job titles that you want to attract, you can target these specs to raise awareness weeks or months ahead of time. Similarly, if you have a digital workshop or webinar that’s designed to teach professionals a new skill or piece of knowledge, LinkedIn can help you spread awareness and direct users to a landing page or sign up sheet. We see a lot of companies holding digital workshops to get people engaged and to share new trends and pivots.
Help With Recruiting New Talent
This one’s pretty obvious, using LinkedIn to fill your job openings. Having trouble getting as many applicants as you’d hoped for? This is a pretty good place to turn if you’ve decided it’s time to invest a little spending behind getting your job filled. LinkedIn is full of people looking for job opportunities and they can be reached with Work With Us Ads which the platform uses to show your job ad in relevant candidate’s news feed. After clicking your ad, interested professionals are driven to your jobs, career pages, and other places on the social platform. LinkedIn automatically shares these ads to targeted employee profiles, and you can even block out the ability for competitors to place their ads on your employees’ profiles – creepy, right?
