Since its conception in 2003, LinkedIn has gone from being a recruitment site to a vast and powerful outlet for B2B (business-to-business) organizations to implement within their marketing strategy.
While the channel is, of course, still great for building your company’s employee number during periods of growth, it is so much more than that. Fast forward two decades and LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for sponsored advertising.
Sponsored ads, otherwise known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, are a powerful source of digital marketing – but it isn’t cheap and it isn’t for everybody. For starters, B2C (business-to-customer) brands inherently do not benefit from LinkedIn because it is not an e-commerce or standard social media site. But not every B2B organization may be the right fit either… or at least, not yet.
We look at why LinkedIn is such a beneficial platform for many B2B marketers, which will outline whether or not you should start advertising on it.
Laser-Focused Audience Targeting
First and foremost, LinkedIn is specifically designed for B2B advertising, and because of this, it outdoes every other platform by a landslide in terms of segmenting for audience targeting.
By using laser-focused data analysis, marketers can pinpoint the exact members they wish to target for the highest probability of converting.
As of early 2024, LinkedIn boasts circa 63 million decision-makers and around 10 million C-level members. This allows for B2B liaisons to be struck, which will be far more professionally focused than on other channels.
Just some of the segments you can hone for your targeting include:
- Skills
- LinkedIn groups
- Company names
- Growth rate
- Job titles
- Schools
- Degrees
- Industry
- Job seniority
Potential High-Quality Leads
If your organization boasts a high average order value (AOV) and/or a high lifetime value (LTV), LinkedIn may be the bridge that secures one (or more) high-quality leads, which can be generated, nurtured, and converted from your LinkedIn ads.
LinkedIn ads are high-funnel-focused and can be quite costly in terms of your daily spend, so SMEs (small or medium organizations) or start-ups with low LTV or AOV may not benefit from them.
This alone can be the deciding point on whether or not it is time to start advertising on LinkedIn. Another important factor includes whether or not a company harnesses account-based marketing within its strategy.
Although LinkedIn advertising can be pretty competitive, if you’re following the right segmenting steps and bolstering the platform in the best way, you can expect the fruits of your labor to be, well, fruitful!
It is B2B Oriented
As we mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is primarily geared towards the B2B marketer/company looking to expand their client base and/or boost their brand awareness. This means, you – the B2B member – can bolster the platform’s tools that are available to you.
While B2Bs can use other platforms such as Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), these aren’t solely designed for this area of marketing, so their tools aren’t as focused on B2B lead generation as they are on LinkedIn.
Using channels like Facebook to market can often mean your ads get lost in the abundance of personal posts, memes, and other content that is rife on those platforms. With LinkedIn being a professional networking site, this won’t happen, because your ads, instead, are aimed at other LinkedIn members who will be specific to your target audience.
Great Place to Share Marketing Content
LinkedIn is constantly evolving to become the ultimate platform to advertise your B2B content on – and sponsored ads are a big part of this.
Your expertly curated content can be displayed on the feeds of the most profitable members based on their user data that correlates with what your brand has to offer, which you can advertise through the sponsored content you create, which allows users to interact (like/react, comment, share, etc.).
Before you create a LinkedIn marketing campaign, you will likely be asking yourself questions like ‘What does my Buyer Persona use LinkedIn for?’. These questions will help you fine-tune your segmenting to create the most profitable, high-engagement audience, thus allowing you to tailor (and personalize) your content specifically to them.
Your Ideal Clients Will Likely Be LinkedIn Users
Because LinkedIn is a professional organization aimed at professional users, chances are your target audience will already have LinkedIn accounts, meaning they are ready and waiting to be converted.
Most LinkedIn members use the site regularly to recruit, build their network, or advertise their own products/services, so they will very likely be present to see all your fabulous content and be willing to engage with it.
Ideal for High-Funnel Advertising
Because the platform isn’t geared towards B2C brands (and isn’t an e-comm site), B2B marketers looking to generate, nurture, and then convert, can do so through a well-designed LinkedIn ad campaign.
Brands looking for quick sales will not benefit from LinkedIn because it has a very high funnel focus, meaning users aren’t there to shop for products/services. But they can and will be generated into customers with the right advertising approach.
Great for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Campaigns
We touched on this earlier, but LinkedIn’s advertising tools are primarily focused on ABM marketing, which often goes hand-in-hand with B2B marketing. And as a B2B marketer, chances are you are already very familiar with this form of advertising.
You can create a tailored audience from scratch or you can upload your CMR contact list to build your audience and target them via various types of ads, depending on your specific marketing goal, and because of the extensive focus on targeting tools, success is easy to garner on the platform.
Whether managing your LinkedIn advertising yourself or hiring a LinkedIn Ads agency to do the legwork for you, you can rest safe in the knowledge that LinkedIn is a positive entity for your marketing goals.
If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through LinkedIn advertising, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.
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