LinkedIn is a social network for professionals and provides advertisers with an opportunity to target influential, affluent and educated people. LinkedIn has over 200 million professionals on its platform and over 3 million company pages. Although it is one of the oldest social networks (founded in 2003) it has only recently developed its native advertising capabilities having previously concentrated on banner ads.

There are currently two ad formats available on the LinkedIn self-serve advertising platform: text ads and sponsored updates. Text ads are found in the right-hand sidebar of every page and consist of a small image and text. Sponsored updates are similar to Facebook’s newsfeed ads and were launched in 2013. Companies can sponsor specific company page updates to a targeted group of users.

LinkedIn’s professional user base allows corporate or educational advertisers to target their ads to the most appropriate people. Targeting by job function and seniority means ads can be segmented horizontally within an organisation as well as vertically between different companies. Standard CPC metrics are often higher compared to Facebook but the quality of the user can be better.

Basics

Text ads

Text ads appear in the right-hand sidebar of a LinkedIn page. They have a small photo, title and description. Photos should be eye-catching due to the limited image dimensions – 50x50px – and ad copy should be short and to the point with a call to action. Often ad copy can be based on Paid search or Facebook right-hand side ads but it is best to tweak this to the professional environment LinkedIn provides. Text ads can also show a 2 minute video from YouTube instead of the standard image.

Specifications
Headline
Max. 25 characters

Description
Max. 75 characters

Image:
Not SWF/GIF, max. 2MB, image ratio of 1:1, min. size 50x50px

Video:
YouTube video URL, max. length 120 seconds

Sponsored updates
One of the most recent native advertising solutions, LinkedIn’s sponsored updates are company page posts pushed out to a targeted group of users. Sitting within a user’s feed, these updates look like standard, user-generated content. The best updates attach an image and ad copy should be informative and friendly rather than a hard sell. Sponsored updates work well in generating brand awareness and new followers for a company page, as well as a direct response tactic.

The sponsored updates we have run for clients have seen a CTR 25 times higher and a CPC 10% lower compared to standard right-hand side LinkedIn ads. This is enhanced by a large number of new followers for the company page and social interactions on the update in the form of likes, comments and shares. Whilst Facebook’s newsfeed ads offer the ability to reach a large number of users, LinkedIn is a great way for business-to-business companies to increase their brand awareness or promote new products or events.

Other features

Company pages
A LinkedIn company page is the central point for any organisation. Here potential customers or employees can see the products and services you offer, engage with the content you are sharing and understand your company’s story.

Showcase pages
Showcase pages allow companies to segment content into separate audiences and promote individual brands. Companies can create Showcase Pages to engage with a specific audience about a particular brand or product. This feature is managed in the same way as a Company Page but provides more marketing and advertising potential for businesses with multiple brands and initiatives.

How to advertise on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a self-serve advertising platform that anyone with a LinkedIn profile account can use. There are two types of accounts:

1. Individual
2. Business

A business account must be linked to an existing Company Page which cannot be changed once the set up is complete. For businesses and agencies, the business account is the best ads account to use because it enables company page posts to be promoted as sponsored updates.

If you are buying LinkedIn advertising for yourself or a company without a page, then an individual ads account is the only option.

Targeting tools

One of the benefits of LinkedIn is the professional information stored on each user’s profile. LinkedIn allows advertisers to target their ads based on some of this information. The targeting options available are:

1. Location
2. Companies
3. Job title
4. School
5. Skills
6. Group
7. Gender
8. Age

Location
Options include targeting by: continent, country, state and city. The state and city levels are only available to certain territories. In the UK, ads can be targeted to certain cities but not at county level.

Companies
Targeting options include any companies who have a page on LinkedIn.

Job title
You can select specific job titles, job categories and seniority within an organisation e.g. Owner, CEO, Director, Manager. LinkedIn also allows advertisers to exclude job titles.

School
Targeting specific members of a School (University) group. You can also exclude certain Schools.

Skills
Advertisers can target any skill that a user may have on their profile. Skills can also be excluded from targeting.

Group
Similar to company and School, target the members of any Group on LinkedIn. Groups can also be excluded.

Gender
Female, male or all.

Age
The age targeting options are: 18-24, 25-34, 35-54, 55+.

To talk about whether LinkedIn advertising might be useful to your business please contact us.

Source: Sponsored Updates User Guide