LinkedIn launched sponsored content in 2013, effectively introducing digital marketing to the platform. For business-to-business services or hiring campaigns, LinkedIn Advertising is my favorite platform for display and awareness.
While Meta and Google Ads both have larger audiences, the ability to target professionals on LinkedIn makes it stand out when introducing new products or services to decision-makers in the business world.
PROs of Using LinkedIn Advertising
- Prequalified audience. Most users on the platform aren’t posting memes unless they’re work related.
- The majority of the audience (~60%) are in the all-important 25-34 year old demographic.
- 4 out of 5 members are decision makers.
- For hiring campaigns, eight people are hired every minute. LinkedIn ads are the new want ads.
CONs of Using LinkedIn Advertising
- Budget requirements can disqualify smaller campaigns.
- Not a daily stop for most users; plan on running campaigns a bit longer to get the right exposure.
- Dashboard and reporting are limited compared to other advertising platforms but are regularly improving and do provide some insights that aren’t on other platforms.
How LinkedIn Advertising Stands Up to Our Four Questions
When deciding whether a digital advertising platform is right for your business, there are four questions you should ask yourself.
WHAT IS YOUR GOAL? – Similar to other display-centric platforms, LinkedIn doesn’t offer a search only option so if you’re hoping to be found on the platform via search, promoted posts or a well-built company page are the way to go (and Mediaura can help you with that). Ads may show up in searches, especially if you use their expanded network, but don’t plan on LinkedIn if you’re looking for search-heavy campaigns.
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE? – LinkedIn advertising is not the only digital advertising platform we use that lets us target people by their job titles and expertise, but probably the best at it. If we need to get an ad in front of the CFO at every box factory in Iowa, LinkedIn will let us target that audience. The age of the platform’s users trends to 30+ with the 30-39 demographic holding the largest percentage at 31%.
WHAT ASSETS DO YOU HAVE? – LinkedIn has a fairly simple ad-builder but does a good job of telling us what size assets need to be and what limitations we need to work within. The platform also lets us preview ads as they are built. We can use video or images for display ads and can target a LinkedIn page for a self-contained experience. The platform offers options to build ads specifically for job seekers with built-in forms.
WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET? – LinkedIn has a daily minimum spend requirement of $10, so plan on a media spend of at least $300 per month per campaign. LinkedIn doesn’t seem to struggle with learning as much as other platforms, but its expanded audience feature can spin out of control if not culled regularly.
A Final Note About LinkedIn Advertising
It took a long time for me to believe that LinkedIn was anything more than a virtual networking event. While this is partially true, ask yourself where does your sales team introduce your services or products to new customers? That’s right, at networking events, conferences, webinars, and the occasional cold call. What if you could turn LinkedIn into a virtual salesperson? Mediaura excels at learning your brand, finding your audience, and getting those elevator pitches into the right customer’s feed.
Reach out to our marketing experts to see what LinkedIn Advertising can do for your business.
