LinkedIn is a special kind of social media platform: it is specifically addressed to professionals and business people who wish to expand their networks, find new work and business opportunities, and connect with former college friends, work colleagues and industry leaders. It is extremely effective for companies which are actively recruiting staff or want to maintain a connection with qualified candidates in the situation of a sudden job vacancy. It is also effective for businesses which want to promote their products and services and find qualified leads – especially in the B2B environment.
Who Should Advertise on LinkedIn?
If your company provides services and products especially to corporate clients or professionals, then LinkedIn is the right place to post ads in order to attract qualified leads to your website. The special targeting algorithm used by LinkedIn allows you to select people fitting your ideal customer profile not only by demographic or interests, but also by their profession and type of company they work for.
In this way, you can create a good mix of personal and professional characteristics which will help you serve ads to people who are most likely to take an action and become your customers. You can target managers, CEOs, independent professionals, employees of medium- or large-sized companies, as well as people who live in a specific area or have various interests or skills listed in their LinkedIn profiles.
What Does a Great LinkedIn Ad Look Like?
LinkedIn has a specific list of guidelines for the ads they allow. They have always maintained a clean, professional look in their graphic interface and allowed content. For example, special spelling (such as Xtra instead of Extra) is not allowed, nor is writing in all capital letters or using multiple exclamation signs at the end of your sentence or headline.
We strongly advise you to go through the list of rules for LinkedIn ads before you start building your campaigns. They are quite detailed, and you need to comply with each and every one of them. Now then, after you have done this, here are some useful tips to create a killer LinkedIn ad (in the most professional sense of the word):
1. Select Photos Featuring People
In LinkedIn, for various reasons, photos of people work better than photos of products. The same is valid for your company logo. An effective photo (according to various surveys and prior experience gathered by other marketers) is a close up of a person’s face, demonstrating the values of the brand or company (friendliness, professionalism). A quick tip: try to use a photo of actual staff members in your company, not generic stock photos.
2. Create a Strong Call to Action
LinkedIn ads must have a clear purpose and get people to do something. You do not post LinkedIn ads to get people to connect with you on your company page. You want to get them directly to a landing page, to your order form, or to your online store. Test your CTAs as much as you need before you launch your campaign, but do not post an ad which leaves people wondering what they’re supposed to do after reading it.
3. Use Your Best Copywriting Skills
LinkedIn ads should be on point with every word and punctuation sign you use. Every detail matters in this social media network and every mistake will be penalised by people who may have considered doing business with you. There is no room for mistakes, either in the headline or in the copy. Use the character limit for each of them (25 for the headline, 75 for the ad body) wisely.
4. Destination URL
Not directly connected with the ad itself, but critical if you want to get a good ROI out of your ad – always create a tailored landing page especially for your LinkedIn leads. Make it simple and easy for them to complete the call to action through great copy, a professional and clean design, and a hassle-free registration or purchase process.
The Importance of Creating Engaging Ads
LinkedIn has a critical metric in determining which ads it serves to its users: click through rate (CTR). If the CTR of your ad falls under 0.025%, your ads will be deemed irrelevant and uninteresting and will stop showing.
This is why you must make sure that you include a clear call to action in your ad and you offer people a landing page which is in line with the expectations created by your ad. Just like in any professional environment, in LinkedIn it is very easy to lose your good reputation, and very hard to rebuild it. This is why you must pay special attention to the way you craft your ads – knowing that the results are quite spectacular in terms of percentage of qualified leads which you can obtain.