Inspiration, LinkedIn, Tips & Tricks LinkedIn Ads explained April 5, 20228 minutes EllieMarketing Captain LinkedIn Ads – the powerhouse for B2B advertising. The platform provides marketers with a unique opportunity to interact with a business-minded audience. Using LinkedIn ads is a great way to promote your business and “serve” your ads to a very well-targeted audience. The great value of LinkedIn Ads is that they aren’t only for B2B businesses. B2C businesses, NGOs, colleges, and a variety of other organizations may also benefit from using this ad platform to reach their particular goals. In today’s post, we’ll go over everything you need to know about LinkedIn advertising, as well as how you can use the channel to grow your business. Let’s start with the Ads Types available on LinkedIn There are three main types of LinkedIn ads objectives – Awareness, Consideration and Conversions. From awareness to conversion, businesses may work their way through all three stages of a sales funnel. Let’s take a closer look at each of them. Awareness The awareness objective is a great way to get your brand on people’s minds. These ads encourage people to talk about your products, services, and overall brand. You may also attract more followers, boost views, and stimulate more interaction with these impression-based campaigns. LinkedIn Consideration Ads If you want to qualify leads who are already familiar with your business, you should go with consideration ads. Those types of ads are designed to assist marketers to achieve the following objectives: Website visits: It speaks for itself but this objective is mainly used to increase the number of visitors to your website or landing pages. Engagement: Usually used to encourage visits to other social networking platforms and websites, as well as get more likes, comments, and shares on your posts. Video Views: Use videos to share your company’s story, show off your latest product or service, or show a day in the life of your company. This is a great way to get people involved with your company on a more personal level. LinkedIn conversion ads Consider using conversion ads if your aim is to generate leads or sales. There are three main goals you can choose from: Lead generation: Generate leads on native LinkedIn forms that are pre-filled with the information from one’s LinkedIn profile. Website conversions: Increase website conversions by encouraging more users to visit your site, download an ebook, subscribe to a newsletter, or buy a product. Job applicants: With a job posting, you can get the word out about your company’s current employment position. Now we know what the main objectives are, let’s see what ad formats LinkedIn has to offer. In short, LinkedIn has ten distinct ad types to help you achieve your marketing goals. (In case you are wondering about any character limitations and best practices, check out our post here.) ✔️ Carousel ads To communicate your brand’s story, showcase products, or share insights, LinkedIn carousel advertisements use a swipeable row of cards. The trick is to keep your readers scanning for more information by using great images. The main goals here are brand recognition, website visits, engagement, website conversions, and lead generation. ✔️ Conversation ads Audiences may pick their own journey with conversation advertisements. After you’ve started a dialogue, your audience may choose the response that best resonates with them. This type of ad allows you to promote products and services while also encouraging people to sign up for events or webinars. Best used for: Brand recognition, website visits, engagement, website conversions, and lead generation. ✔️ Follower ads Follower ads are dynamic ads that are tailored to your key audience. These adverts invite others to follow your LinkedIn Page in the hopes that they will do so. The main goal here is brand recognition, website visits, and engagement. ✔️ Spotlight ads Spotlight ads draw attention to your products, services, content, and other aspects of your business. Members are taken to your landing page or website as soon as they click on the ad. These ads leverage personalisation to engage with audiences. Best used for: Brand recognition, website visits, engagement, lead generation, and job applicants. ✔️ Job ads LinkedIn’s employment advertising, also known as “Work With Us ads”, have up to 50 times the clickthrough rate of traditional recruiting ads. This is most likely due to the fact that these LinkedIn ads make use of employee networks and prevents other competitors’ ads from appearing on your workers’ profiles. Main objective: Job applicants and website visitors. ✔️ Single job ads Single job advertising promotes opportunities directly in the newsfeeds of your audience. These ads are the way to go whether you’ve been having trouble finding the right applicant or constantly seem to be recruiting. It also doesn’t hurt that, according to LinkedIn internal statistics, these ads raise the average click-to-apply rate by 25%. Main objective: Job applicants ✔️ Lead gen forms Lead generation forms, or lead gen forms, are available for both messaging ads and sponsored content. They can help you find more qualified leads based on the targeting options you have set. If, for example, you’re running a webinar, you may link a lead generation form to your CTA. It will immediately populate your target audience’s profile data. Following that, you can either download your leads from LinkedIn’s ad manager or link LinkedIn with your own CRM. Main goal: Lead generation. ✔️ Message ads According to LinkedIn, a message ad gets opened by one out of every two prospects. This makes this ad format particularly enticing to advertisers. Message ads allow you to deliver a personalized message directly to your target audience’s inbox. You are also able to include a call to action. Mainly used for: Website visits and conversions, and lead generation. ✔️ Single image ads Single image advertisements appear on LinkedIn’s home page and look similar to regular content posts. The only exception is that they are paid for, therefore, will be marked as “promoted” to separate themselves from other unpaid material. Best used for: Brand recognition, website visits, engagement, website conversions, lead generation, and job candidates. ✔️ Text ads Text ads are simple to set up and can be tailored to fit your budget. Because LinkedIn generates 80% of B2B leads on social media, text ads may be particularly appealing to those looking for B2B leads. Main goal: Brand recognition, website visits, and website conversions. ✔️ Video ads Using video ads is a great and personalised way to let people close to your business. You may promote leadership, emphasize your customer’s experience, showcase new products, provide a sneak peek at your company’s culture, and so much more. Just get creative – this is your chance to tell your brand’s story. Goals: Video views. Now that you know what each LinkedIn ad type is and what they are best used for, you are ready to start showcasing your business to the world. Here is how to do it: 1. Go to LinkedIn Campaign Manager 2. From there, click Create Campaign 3. Click Next and choose your objective. Let’s say, we’d like to create a Lead generation campaign. 4. Choose Lead generation. You will then be required to choose your targeting criteria: 5. Once you are happy with the targeting options you have set, you will need to choose the ad format that you want to use for your campaigns. There are quite a lot of options to choose from single image ads, carousel image ads, video ads, or message ads. You need to select the right one for you: 6. The next stage is to create the actual ad campaigns. Create the ad as you normally would, giving it a name, adding text, and selecting an image. 7. Next, you will have the option to create a lead form. It’s a two-step procedure. To begin, give the form a name, describe what users are filling out, select a CTA, and fill out the privacy policy section. 8. After this, you need to specify what information the form will collect. Asking one qualifying question, such as what services the client might be interested in, might help you follow up more effectively, but otherwise, keep lead forms brief to enhance the probability that consumers will stay until the end. 9. After this, you can complete the set-up process and go live with your lead gen campaign. Go grab those leads and set your business up for success with your great LinkedIn campaigns. This is LinkedIn ads explained from A to Z. Follow us for more useful insights on all things social.