Linkedin is a great hub for professional networking, employer connections, job seekers, and business trends. But is Linkedin the right place to advertise your company’s goods or services?
After its launch in 2003, Linkedin has become the “world’s largest professional network” with over 810 million members that span across 200 countries and territories worldwide. The company’s main mission is to connect global professionals in the hopes to make them more productive and successful.
While Linkedin may be a great tool to connect with current or potential coworkers, to search for a new job, or to post your professional milestones - is it worth considering as a potential profit stream using its paid advertising?
The short answer… Yes!
The longer answer? Yes, but the efficacy of dollars spent on this type of social media advertising will depend on your type of business and your target audience.
So, is Linkedin advertising right for your business? Let’s take a deeper dive.
Why should I consider advertising on Linkedin?
Linkedin is not the immediate platform that comes to mind when you think of “social media marketing”. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the top three that most business owners consider when thinking about paid social ads.
However, Linkedin actually has the potential to generate leads much more effectively than Facebook or Linkedin. Some marketing stats report Linkedin advertising can be up to 227% more effective than rival platforms. This is due to the high engagement and interactivity rate that Linkedin typically sees versus other social media platforms.
Even with unsponsored content, Linkedin can be a great way for your business to drive traffic to your website, identify qualified leads, grow your professional network, and learn from what your competitors are doing. Linkedin is also a massive asset if you’re trying to attract the right talent to your company.
What kind of advertising is available on Linkedin?
Linkedin advertising has a number of advertisements and content types depending on what your goal and target audience are.
1) Sponsored Content: These are native ads that appear in the Linkedin feed (targeted to an audience of your choice). The platform clearly labels the ads as “promoted” to distinguish them from regular feed content while your audience is scrolling on either the desktop or mobile application.
2) Sponsored Messaging: Engage your audience with direct Linkedin messaging right to your target’s inbox. If you’ve been on Linkedin for a while, you’ve likely received a sponsored message promoting some kind of business that relates to your industry or professional experience.
3) Text Ads: This is a PPC or CPM desktop advertisement. These ads are pushed directly to the top and right-hand side of the Linkedin feed.
4) Dynamic Ads: Personalized advertisements displayed directly to your target audience, prompting them to follow your business page. The unique part of dynamic ads is that they engage with your audience by actually using their profile picture in the advertisement along with some personal details like their job title. For example, this style of Linkedin ad may read, “Tom, follow BusinessMatrix for more trends shaping the future of Automotive Sales.”
Which type of Linkedin advertising is right for my business?
Depending on the goal of your social media advertising and how you’d like to reach your audience, Linkedin offers a solid variety of content types. There are also some nuances between each ad type including content styles (ex. Carousel ads use a swipeable row of cards to tell your brand’s story).
What’s great about the Linkedin platform is that it guides you with the selection of your ad based on your overall goal. Because the Linkedin platform offers so many styles and types of advertisements, this “suggestion” may be a welcome assistance if you’re struggling to decide which ad is right for your business.
What kind of businesses should try advertising on Linkedin?
● Businesses looking for B2B Marketing
As a professional network, Linkedin lends itself well to a solid B2B marketing strategy. With so many decision-makers and business influencers in one space, it makes total sense to leverage the paid advertising on Linkedin to target a specific audience or customers that you’re really trying to sell.
● Businesses looking for qualified inbound leads
Maybe you’re a marketing agency selling specific services, or an expert selling an e-course, or a recruiter looking for the best candidates in a specific field. Whatever your goal is - Linkedin can be a great way to source quality inbound leads. This does relate to the B2B marketing aspect but it adds a layer of complexity. If you can educate, engage, or excite your audience about your product enough that they reach out to you (versus you cold-pitching them), it can be a total game-changer for your business.
● Businesses looking to recruit global talent
As workplaces continue to shift online, the recruitment process for talent has gone global. With the ability to work remotely online, your business is no longer captive to its geographic boundaries when attracting talent. If you’re looking to recruit the best talent, Linkedin advertisements and a solid base of potential employees can be a great first step to building the team of your dreams.
● Businesses with high-value targets
The ability to drill down and deliver advertisements to a niche target audience is the beauty of social media advertising. What Linkedin offers is a place where you can directly target the accounts of those leaders or companies that you have on your “high-value target” list. Get your business in front of their eyes with an effective ad spend (instead of throwing money at Facebook or Twitter where your targets don’t spend the majority of their time).
● Businesses looking for unique advertisement flexibility
So, you’ve tried Twitter and Facebook advertising and felt that the spend wasn’t quite worth the target that you were able to reach. Maybe the ads weren’t as customizable as you wanted. Or maybe you are searching for a more unique way to connect with your audience. Linkedin may be a good option here with its spectrum of various ad styles and content types. If a typical picture/text advertisement doesn’t seem to be doing it for your business on Facebook - why not try a more unique carousel graphic ad on Linkedin? Or try a conversation ad or spotlight ad. The possibilities are endless on Linkedin, and it really gives you and your marketing team room to be creative! 4
● Businesses who outsource their marketing and lead generation
Perhaps Linkedin advertising sounds like the perfect avenue for your business… But, you have no idea where to get started. Linkedin advertising is a great route for those who already outsource their marketing and lead generation efforts. It can also be a great time to consider a consultation with a marketing agency or expert. If you’re not sure where to get started - reach out to a qualified agency that specializes in Linkedin campaigns to help you develop some paid advertising campaigns. Outsourcing to professionals can result in an even more efficient ad spend if you choose to go that route!
We want to know, have you ever tried advertising on Linkedin? How did the process go for your business? Was it different from other social media advertising experiences that you’ve had in the past?
Drop us a line and let us know how you feel about advertising on Linkedin!
