LinkedIn, the largest social media business portal, is often overlooked when it comes to corporate marketing opportunities. We have therefore compiled the most important information about LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content on LinkedIn in two blog articles. The LinkedIn Campaign Manager is worked through step by step for easy understanding.
This article discusses the campaign objectives and the target group. In a second blog article, the various LinkedIn ad formats for distributing sponsored content and the other LinkedIn Ads variants are discussed.
What are the campaign goals?
First of all, the company and private profiles of the ad creator must be linked so that ads can be placed. Once this has been done, you can access the campaign manager via the “Ads and advertising” tab on the desktop page.
After a new campaign has been created, the following selection is displayed:
Now you need to consider what goal you want to pursue with the campaign. To make the decision easier, we have briefly explained what the individual options mean:
Brand Awareness
Creating increased brand awareness specifically means that the brand or company to be advertised becomes better known to the current target group or the general public, thereby increasing its reach.
Website visitors
The campaign aims to increase traffic to your website. This campaign objective can be used, for example, to draw attention to current marketing campaigns, upcoming (LinkedIn) events or specific products and services.
Commitment
The goal behind engagement campaigns is to increase the interactions of existing and potential customers with existing LinkedIn content and LinkedIn events or to generate more followers for the LinkedIn company page.
Video views
Do you want to increase the views of your video content on LinkedIn and reach new users? Then this is the right campaign objective for distributing sponsored video content.
Lead generation
Lead generation campaigns (prospect acquisition) contain so-called lead gen forms. These are small forms that users can fill out at the end of the ad to receive downloads or register for a newsletter, for example.
Website conversions
A conversion is based on the execution of an intended task by potential customers who have been recruited. In this case, this conversion should take place on the company website and can include, for example, the completion of a product purchase, a download or the registration of a newsletter.
Applicants
Do you have one or more vacancies to fill and want to actively advertise them on LinkedIn? Then this option is the right choice.
Once a goal has been set for the campaign, the target group is defined.
Target group
LinkedIn’s greatest added value lies in the definition of the target group. Because LinkedIn is a social media business portal, the information in the social media profiles is usually honest and corresponds to the actual data of the users. With a precise definition of the target group, this ensures very little wastage.
Target group location
This point should be familiar from other social media marketing tools, such as Facebook. Care must be taken to ensure that the reach of the ad is precisely defined. For this purpose, countries, regions, cities or even individual zip codes can be defined to limit the playout area of LinkedIn Ads. In addition, the attributes just mentioned can also be excluded from the target group that do not want to be reached in the previously defined area. The two images show the size of the target group with Germany-wide targeting and a restriction to the Stuttgart region.
Finally, the profile language of the target group to be reached must be selected.
Matched audiences
LinkedIn makes it possible to target already known leads whose data has already been collected via the website, contact lists or account lists using the Matched Audiences targeting variant. In addition, profiles can be reached that are employed as decision-makers at customers to be acquired.
The Matched Audiences target group offers the following options:
- Feed in existing contact lists or company lists
- Integration of contacts from customer management systems
- Creation of lookalike audiences (an automated process that creates a targeting list of profiles that are similar to existing customers in terms of demographics and interests and therefore have a high likelihood of interacting with the company and its products)
The Matched Audiences function also offers a retargeting option. This allows you to reach customers who have already been
- seen a video ad,
- a Lead Gen Form is filled out or opened,
- interacts with the company website,
- responded to a LinkedIn event,
or have visited a company website on which a LinkedIn pixel has been added.
Target group attributes
The target group can be further defined via the target group attributes. The target group for sponsored content or LinkedIn ads can be defined via
- the associated company,
- the size of the company,
- the company followers on LinkedIn,
- the corporate sector,
- demographics,
- the gender,
- the training received,
- the existing professional experience,
- and the interests and characteristics are narrowed down.
The same categories can also be used to exclude unsuitable properties that do not fit into the target group’s grid.
Finally, an automatic extension can be selected that ensures that profiles are included that match the defined target group, thereby increasing the relevant reach.
Conclusion
A successful LinkedIn Ads campaign is based on a precise strategy for selecting the desired campaign target. Based on this, the target group on LinkedIn can be defined with a level of precision that is not possible on any other social media platform. Because users have a vested interest in correct profile information, the scatter loss on LinkedIn is very low. In addition, sponsored content can be targeted at decision-makers of potential customers or applicants with suitable profiles can be addressed. This shortens the necessary communication channels enormously and ensures rapid corporate success.
If you found this blog post interesting, you may also be interested in our article on LinkedIn Ads ad formats.
Do you need help with LinkedIn Ads or other areas of online marketing?
Then contact us now without obligation and arrange a free initial consultation!
