As any LinkedIn advertising agency will tell you, poor ad planning can result in an extortionate marketing budget and an unimpressive return-on-investment (ROI).
As of 2022, B2B networking platform LinkedIn boasts an impressive 61 million senior-level users and over 40 million business decision-makers, which makes it a prosperous online marketplace for advertisers using the platform to target audiences (as well as network, of course).
But profit isn’t guaranteed, and if you’re not careful, you may find yourself going over-budget with your ad campaign.
Here are seven ways to avoid that.
Lowering Your LinkedIn Ad Costs: 7 Tips
Spend management is a crucial part of staying within your marketing budget and getting the best possible ROI. Here are the best ways of keeping your LinkedIn ad cost on the lower side.
1 – Find Your Audience Size “Sweet Spot”
LinkedIn allows you to create ad campaigns that pinpoints your ideal target demographic as narrowly as you want it, meaning conversion success is often high.
But it is crucial during the campaign building process that you adhere to several key elements surrounding your audience list, and perhaps the most crucial one is to resist the urge to over-target.
It might seem like a case of “more is more”, but in reality you’re doing your campaign a disservice by advertising too widely or generically – and the results of that will be very apparent when you monitor your metrics.
It is important to remember that at the end of the day, you’re aiming for lead generation and/or conversion, not just ad clicks – which you will be charged for. If your audience is too generic, there’s less chance of them converting. Yes, they may click on your ad, but your ad will not generate a ROI – far from it.
Conversely, it is imperative you don’t “under-target” and go for an audience size that’s too small (unless your brand/sector is incredibly niche), otherwise the engagement will be sparse.
The solution? Find your “sweet spot”, which is usually between 30,000 – 90,000 members.
2 – Aim Low With Bidding
At least at first.
Bidding can be tweaked later down the line, but it’s wise not to aim for the stars at the beginning of your campaign.
LinkedIn will recommend a bidding amount, which many advertisers opt for, but this doesn’t always rake in the numbers you’re hoping for. A better solution is to aim your bid level at just above the minimum floor. Do this for the first few days of your campaign and then raise it a little higher if you think it’s needed (i.e., if you think your ad isn’t reaching enough people).
3 – Divide Your Audiences
Resist the urge to include all your targeting perimeters within one campaign. While it may seem like the best approach to build a well-rounded, inclusive audience, it makes it very difficult to segment your data to see which perimeters are working and which aren’t (or aren’t working as well as they should).
When reading your KPIs, you want granular data because it gives you the best impression of how your campaign is performing, which allows you to manage your campaigns better – as well as your costs.
4 – Use the Right Offer
This part is critical. LinkedIn has its own content funnel, which looks like this:
| TOFU | MOFU | BOFU |
| Meaning: Top of Funnel | Meaning: Middle of Funnel | Meaning: Bottom of Funnel |
| Infographics, blog posts | eBooks, webinars, white papers (gated content assets) | Trial, demo offers |
Basically, your campaign – if executed properly – should be aimed at the audiences based on which area of the funnel they are in, and the content and ad type should mirror that accordingly. This will ensure your ad meets its objective, and will ensure you don’t overspend.
Also, don’t lose sight of the key driver of any ad, which is to solve a problem that your audience is suffering from – not selling them a product/service.
5 – Be Creative
B2B ads aren’t generally as interesting as perhaps B2C ones, and there are text limits to contend with, which can stump your creativity.
Nevertheless, persist in making your ads as creative as possible. Nothing disappears into the advertising ether faster than a dull ad. Here are a few ways to keep your ads easy on the eye:
- Keep them visually-appealing. Graphs, stats, charts, etc., convey messages quickly and successfully.
- Test your ads; particularly when it comes to text/headers, lengths, etc.
- Implement a good, easy-to-see CTA (call-to-action).
- Avoid stock images and instead opt in for your own photography, or utilise something like Canva to add a touch of creativity to your ad.
6 – Lead-Gen Forms
If you’ve not used lead-gen forms on LinkedIn before, now may be the time to get familiar with them, because they can be extremely lucrative – and they can really keep costs down.
As the title alludes, the purpose of lead-gen forms is to generate leads by targeting your audience in a manner that allows them to input auto-filled data quickly and effortlessly.
Larger organisations can implement their automation software to make the data gathering process quicker and easier. SMEs can easily do so manually.
In short, lead-gen forms keep costs down by cutting out the sometimes expensive CPC rate that comes with other LinkedIn advertising methods.
7 – Dig Deeper Than Just Job Title Targeting
Targeting via job title isn’t necessarily the most lucrative option – and not only that, it’s also a pretty expensive way to go about building your audience.
More often than not, looking at areas such as seniority and job function is more fruitful and cost-effective.
Keep in mind the users who will convert are company decision-makers, and aiming for lower-level decision makers is the happy medium of low cost and high conversion.
Conclusion
CPC or sponsored ads on LinkedIn do not necessarily require a big marketing budget, and by adhering to these seven useful tips, you can keep your spend down and your conversion levels up.
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.
