Gone are the days when LinkedIn was solely used for job-seeking purposes (although it is still an excellent base for those looking to grow or change their careers). Nowadays, LinkedIn is one of the most evolved and effective platforms for advertising and professional networking.
One of the primary perks of this platform is its PPC (pay-per-click) ad options, and whether you decide to partner with a LinkedIn ads agency, or go it alone and create your own Sponsored Ads campaigns, there are a few things to consider first.
1 – Should Your Organization Advertise on LinkedIn?
Digital marketing channels play a huge role in modern advertising, so for those considering bolstering LinkedIn for their strategies, let’s look at the specifics of why it’s such a popular platform for B2B brands – and whether it’s right for your business.
Laser-Pointed Audience Targeting
A marketing platform that allows you to get ultra-specific with audience targeting is a no-brainer.
Although most social media channels enable marketers to hone in on their audience by way of data-collated demographics, LinkedIn has even more pinpointed options to nail the right viewers. In terms of segmenting, no other channel comes close to these tools.
This data collection is also tailored to professional information, as opposed to general web-browsing activities. This includes:
- Job title
- Job seniority
- Education
- Company name/s
- Company growth rate
- Skills
- LinkedIn user groups
As of early 2024, LinkedIn boasts an impressive 180 million senior-level users, 63 million decision-maker-level users, and around 10 million C-level executives, making it an extremely lucrative channel for B2B marketers.
AOV & LTV Considerations
When it comes to company growth and revenue, sometimes one single lead can make all the difference, and can be the bridge between your current net worth and your target net worth.
It’s important to take into consideration that LinkedIn is most fruitful for organizations of a larger nature and for those who are focusing on high-funnel marketing, so if your average order value (AOV) or LTV (lifetime value) numbers aren’t high, LinkedIn may not be the right solution.
The reason for this is that advertising on the platform can be costly, and each new sale will need to make a profitable return on investment for SME companies (specifically those with 300 or fewer target audience members) and this may not be a worthwhile investment.
However, if your company can benefit from just one high-value client, despite all of the above, LinkedIn ads can be beneficial because of the laser-focused segmenting tools.
B2B Focus
We’ve touched on this briefly already, but to really drum it in – LinkedIn is designed for B2B companies and advertisers.
Unlike other social media channels, such as Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter), which are predominantly profitable for B2C organizations, LinkedIn is all about B2B brands.
This means all of your beautifully crafted content will not get lost within the vast ether of lost dog posts, pregnancy announcements, and questionable pyramid schemes – it goes straight onto the LinkedIn feed, which is exclusive to business posts only – specifically the feeds of your target audience, meaning the quality of your leads will be much higher than that of the ones cultivated on other platforms.
Content That Will Be Appreciated
One of LinkedIn’s most powerful tools is its Sponsored Updates. These paid ads allow you to create your fabulous content and market it directly to your leads, who must also be LinkedIn users.
With these ads, members can interact with them (like/react, comment, share, and so on – just like a standard social media post), meaning they appear more like posts instead of spammy or irrelevant adverts.
If you’re considering harnessing LinkedIn as a marketing tool, you need to consider your Buyer Persona in the form of a LinkedIn user and ask yourself the same questions (‘Why are they using LinkedIn?’, ‘What do they want/need for their organization?’, ‘What are their business goals?’, etc.).
This will help you finetune your segmenting later when it comes to creating your first campaign and testing audiences.
LinkedIn Regular Users
When advertising on LinkedIn, your target audience will already be present and will be active members of the channel, and because the channel is B2B-focused, naturally, the users are abundant in their likemindedness – and therefore will be regular users that can often be found scrolling through their feeds (making them a prime target for your content!).
Although B2C organizations can use LinkedIn, they will not find it as fruitful, therefore, their presence on the channel won’t be as frequent. The bottom line here is that inactive members (AKA, B2C audiences) don’t make for good targets.
2 – Considerations When Using LinkedIn to Advertise via a Paid marketing Agency
We touched on this briefly at the beginning of the article, but to dig a little deeper – a busy organization, such as yours, can often benefit from hiring a PPC agency to do the heavy lifting for them.
But before you consult any old agency, take the following into consideration:
- Make Sure They’re Transparent From Day 1
Transparency is the key to a healthy, prosperous business relationship, and anything less is headed for disaster. After all, your company is paying its hard-earned money for these services, so you need to know what you’ll be getting.
This means vetting the company on everything they intend to provide – and making sure they know their stuff when it comes to B2B advertising on LinkedIn. Quiz them on audiences, social ads strategies, and the expected outcome.
Also, make sure you get a price breakdown of the full coverage, including how the marketing budget will be spent, everything that is included within the price of the agency’s services, and that there are no hidden costs.
- Do They Have Industry Expertise?
Any PPC agency worth its salt will have the knowledge and experience to market on the right digital platforms, and a particularly good agency will have niched down in one specific PPC area (such as LinkedIn).
Since we’re here to talk about LinkedIn, it is crucial to sniff out the good LinkedIn ads agencies before investing, because in order to reap success, they will need to specialize in that area.
Ask yourself the following questions before signing any contracts:
- Is LinkedIn the best channel for your marketing needs? If not, which one is?
- Are you looking to collaborate or to assign an agency full control over your advertising?
- What is your marketing budget and does it align with a specific agency’s package costs?
- Budget Considerations
A good marketing strategy will have a clear budget and any forthcoming campaign will stay within that budget, but first off, you’ll need to find an agency that offers a price plan that is in keeping with your budget.
There’s no guarantee you’ll see a return on investment, no matter how good your content is or how experienced the ad agency is. All social advertising comes with a small gamble and it’s crucial not to overspend.
A classic mistake advertisers make is assuming that overspending will guarantee a higher ROI. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Similarly, going too low will not protect you either. The secret to paid marketing is finding the budget ‘sweet spot’, and a good agency will be able to identify that.
- Do Your Research
Every company is only as good at its reviews and testimonials, so make sure your ad agency has a good track record with current or previous clientele.
And don’t just rely on the authenticity of their website testimonials – do your research and visit third-party feedback sites to really get the scoop on their prowess.
- Strategy Customization
There’s no such thing as a blanket template or ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to marketing, so your agency of choice will need to create a customized strategy that suits your brand.
The same goes for a social ads strategy. What worked brilliantly for one company (with different goals, problems, needs, and budgets) may not necessarily bring home the bacon for you, so if your ad agency offers a blanket paid strategy – run!
- Do They Analyze & Optimize?
A LinkedIn ad campaign – like all ad campaigns – needs to be regularly monitored, analyzed, and optimized, and a good agency will prioritize this part of the process to ensure the best outcome.
This means they will keep a regular eye on the data and use it to make informed decisions about how to proceed. LinkedIn’s KPIs are brilliant at this, so when discussing a potential business liaison, be sure to vet their approach to analyzing and optimizing to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth from the campaign budget and the agency’s fees.
Conclusion
We hope this article has helped you make an informed decision on whether or not to harness LinkedIn for your future LinkedIn ads marketing campaigns.
Whether you choose to work with an ad agency or go for a DIY approach, make sure the platform is right for your business before spending time (and money) on creating your content.
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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