How-To Guide to Advertising on LinkedIn

Time to read: 9 minutes

Given its popularity among professionals in various niches, LinkedIn can be a great place to promote your company, conferences, or webinars you host, and much more.

Getting Started with LinkedIn Ads

To begin, you’ll want to visit the LinkedIn advertising page and click “Create ad.”

Once you click, you will be redirected to a page that will prompt you to enter your financial information. Don’t worry, your account will not be charged until after you run your advertising campaigns.

Your dashboard, otherwise known as the Campaign Manager, will display a homepage with the button “create campaign” in the upper right-hand corner. Once you click on that, you will see an option for two different ad types you can create.

• The first option is labeled “sponsored content,” which is a type of advertisement that attracts new followers to your company’s LinkedIn account page.
• The second option is referred to as a “text ad.” It is considered more budget-friendly but is still targeted to your selected audience.

Setting Your Ad’s Parameters

Once you select the ad you wish to use, you will be prompted to set up the parameters of your campaign. Keep in mind that the parameters can only be seen internally. It is important to be as specific as possible during this stage of the campaign setup.

When entering the title of the campaign, be sure to include the specific name and goal of your ad campaign and the target age range of the audience you are trying to reach.

Another important aspect of setting up the parameters is selecting a language. LinkedIn will not translate your advertisement into other languages, so you must check the language that will best reach your target audience.

Deciding on Layout, Media, and More

In this step, you’ll get creative and make your ad specific to your company.

• The first thing you must decide on is whether you want your audience to be directed to a specific LinkedIn page or a website once they click on the ad.
• After that, there are five subtabs that must include content: headline, body, call to action, value, and testing.
• For the ad’s headline, you cannot use more than 25 characters. Make sure that the headline is intriguing and to the point so that it captures the audience’s attention.
• In the body of the ad, you are permitted 75 characters. It is imperative to make sure that the copy in this section is both relevant to the audience and the page they will be redirected to.
• A clear and concise call to action is a great way to boost your click-through rate. An actionable CTA will include phrases like “Download this …” or “Click now for…”

Including a value proposition becomes more enticing to readers and will more than likely make them click on your ad. By including this, you are showcasing what your audience can and will gain from your product or service.

The last aspect involves testing. You are able to test your copy and create multiple variations for each campaign you choose to run. By doing this, you are able to try out different images and copy possibilities to determine what works best and gets results.

Targeting the Ad to Your Audience

This aspect of LinkedIn ad campaigns is crucial to the overall impact of your ad. By making your targeting aspects more specific, there is a good chance that it will help increase your overall conversion rate. There are a few different categories that correlate with targeting your audience.

• Location – It is required that you select at least one location in the targeting of your ad. Make sure that the location(s) you select are relevant to the range of services you provide. Through LinkedIn, you are also given the option of creating different ad copy to target a variety of places.
• Businesses – Perhaps you wish to target a certain company. Through LinkedIn ads, you are able to do that as well as target by specific industry and company size.
• Age and gender – LinkedIn settings also give you the ability to select a variety of ages and genders to ensure you are targeting your preferred demographics.
• Occupation – In some cases, it may be desirable to target those with certain job titles. So, if you wish to target only CEOs, you can do so through LinkedIn. This feature allows you to save money and zero in on those who most need to see your content.
• Other – You can additionally target your audience by educational background, skill set, and interest group. These features allow you to tailor your message toward a type of person who specifically meets your company’s requirements.

Choosing Your Bidding Option

There are two different bidding options you can choose from. The first is cost per click (CPC), and the second is pay per 1,000 impressions (CPM).

• With the CPC bidding option, you will be charged each individual time someone clicks on your displayed ad. Depending on the amount you are willing to spend and the competition for your ads, LinkedIn will suggest a bid range that seems most fitting.
• With a CPM bidding option, you will be charged each time 1,000 people view your ad on LinkedIn.

When deciding between bid options, it’s important to consider your end goal and what you want to achieve from the ad campaign.

Measuring Your Impact

Once you have done all of the above steps and made sure everything is complete, your campaign will officially start running. However, this doesn’t mean that the campaign process is finished.

Measuring the impact of your campaign is crucial for any future campaigns you run. Visit the Campaign Manager to view the various analytics.

Once on the analytics tab, you will be able to see the number of impressions, clicks, and social actions, along with your spend amount. With this information in tow, you’ll be able to make decisions about what to change and what to keep in your campaign.

Industries That Should Try LinkedIn Ads

There is a wide range of businesses that can benefit from using LinkedIn ads, but some of the prominent fields include the following: 

• B2B organizations – Since LinkedIn itself is designed for B2B businesses and professionals, the social media site is populated by people who are looking to advance, find worthwhile products and services, and enhance their operations. Using LinkedIn ads will let you target key decision-makers at companies and reap the rewards.
• Staffing and recruitment agencies – With so many employers and employees on LinkedIn, the site is a goldmine for companies that work with both groups as part of their daily operations. You will be able to create tailored ads targeted at those looking for new employment opportunities, as well as those who need top talent to keep their companies profitable.
• Technological services – As companies grow, they need a range of effective technology solutions to help them scale and maintain their quality levels. Businesses in the spaces of cybersecurity, IT, multimedia, and more can leverage the power of LinkedIn ads to sell their products and services to the people who direly need them.
• Professional and industry training – Employees of organizations often need external education to advance internally to desired roles, or if they are looking to leap a new company or career path. Similarly, business owners often need effective training for their team or education for themselves on emerging topics. If your organization focuses on any of these possibilities, LinkedIn ads can be a worthwhile resource.
• Financial organizations – With so much business being transacted on LinkedIn and so many professionals being present on the platform, running ads for financial services can be incredibly lucrative. Whether you represent a bank, a financial startup, an investment firm, a legal practice specializing in financial matters, or anything else, LinkedIn ads can be a valuable addition to your operations.
• Marketing companies – Marketing agencies need to advertise themselves just as well as their clients, and LinkedIn ads can be a viable way to do so. While agencies focusing on traditional marketing tactics – like billboards, magazine ads, and radio and TV ads – can benefit from using LinkedIn’s platform, digital marketing agencies might be an even more natural fit due to those companies being so focused on the online space in their own endeavors. 

Thinking of Advertising on LinkedIn? Key Stats to Consider

To highlight just how valuable a platform like LinkedIn can be for connecting with others and growing your business, we’ve compiled some key stats for your review:

• Approximately 51% of LinkedIn users are 25–34, giving you some key inroads with people who are in the prime of their careers
• Meanwhile, 40% of LinkedIn users fall in the 30–49 age range, meaning plenty of decision-makers populate the platform as well
• More than 46% of website traffic for companies on social media platforms derives from LinkedIn, highlighting how viable the site is for outreach
• Nearly 49% of LinkedIn users frequent the site monthly, while 16% actually visit the site every day 

Additionally, here are some stats on PPC to keep in mind as you develop your marketing strategies:

• PPC provides an average 200% return on investment for companies
• PPC has been shown to produce twice the number of website visitors when compared to SEO
• PPC ads have been shown to increase an organization’s brand awareness by 80%
• 32% of advertisers state that video ads are the most effective type of ad on social media platforms, with 26% touting the strength of image ads

Need Help with LinkedIn Marketing? Contact Us!

Our team is experienced in marketing on a variety of social platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Reach out to us today to get started!

This post was first published in 2019 and has been updated to reflect new information.