As an integrated B2B marketing agency, we here at Altitude are most often tasked with getting effective reach and generating leads within very select business groups.
That work is never easy, but LinkedIn advertising is proving to be a powerful tool for reaching the right people with the right message, and an opportunity to click through directly to a landing page lead form, or to a white paper download.
LinkedIn is unique because it sustains a very large database of about 93 million users in the U.S., and more than 275 million users world-wide, including job titles, company affiliations, professional group memberships, industry types, and more.
How does it work?
Let’s look at some scenarios. Like many companies, one of our clients has a list of highest-priority companies they’d like to land as clients. Using the LinkedIn Ads management dashboard, we have been able to not only target ads to those specific companies, but to select within this group for decision-maker job titles, including C-level, managers, owners and directors.
Another client asked us to reach members of legal associations across the U.S. Using LinkedIn, we were able to target members of dozens of legal associations, ultimately compiling a list of more than 176,000 people. As a result, the client continues to receive a steady flow of highly qualified inquiries that it passes to its grateful dealer network. We run medical selects for the same client.
LinkedIn reach goes beyond business groups into professional categories. For example, we were able to create a campaign reaching nearly half a million secondary school administrators and decision makers across the country for a software-company client.
Other LinkedIn select capabilities include:
- Geo-targeting
- Companies by category
- Schools attended
- Seniority
- Skills by type
- Gender
- Age
What else can it do?
Advertising options include text-and-image ads, and video ads. LinkedIn ads include a small space for an image or logo, as well as ad copy and your link. Custom solutions and larger format ads are available to advertisers who wish to commit to more aggressive schedules. We typically use LinkedIn ads on a pay-per-click basis, though cost-per-impression is available as well.
Campaign reporting for LinkedIn Ads includes a summary of who clicked on your ads by seniority, industry, and job function. LinkedIn does not provide information about individual users to advertisers – the “who” information is strictly aggregated.
The fundamentals of executing a good LinkedIn Ads campaign are in other ways similar to all digital campaigns. You need a sound plan, excellent and precisely targeted landing pages and ad copy, trackable coded URLs and the ability to implement split-testing until the campaign produces the results you seek.
Consider the unique targeting options LinkedIn provides in B2B environments, and contact us for a free consultation.
