If you’re tired of the same perpetual methods of B2B marketing and are looking for fresh and exciting new advertising options to add to your strategy, you’re in luck.
Those familiar with LinkedIn may be aware that the platform has recently launched a new type of ad option for users: Though Leader Ads. A Thought Leader Ad is a new type of sponsored post on Linkedin that enables business owners to bolster one of their best tools to help promote their brand: their employees.
For the first time in LinkedIn’s history, there is now a marketing option that allows an ad to be promoted via LinkedIn users and not just the brand’s official page, and B2B marketers are flocking to this method because of its proven ways of boosting brand awareness and achieving dizzy new heights of engagement.
Let’s get acquainted.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize the Brand Awareness Objective: Brand Awareness objective is the smarter choice over Engagement. It offers lower CPMs, more cost-effective landing page clicks and doesn’t penalize you for creating engaging content.
- Use the video format for Cold Audiences: Video ads deliver better results by building high-quality retargeting audiences from video views and engagement. They also drive landing page traffic while building trust and credibility with new audiences at a lower cost than other ads formats.
- Maximize the Value of Thought Leader Ads: By leveraging employee or influencer profiles, Thought Leader Ads humanize your brand, increasing trust, engagement, and the effectiveness of your campaigns.
1 – LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads Explained
Thought Leader Ads are the latest offering from the B2B platform, LinkedIn, which is constantly evolving and improving to cement itself as one of the best channels for business-to-business marketing.
These ads are a new and innovative type of sponsored content marketing that far transcends the generic advertising possibilities of traditional LinkedIn ads.
Instead, Thought Leader Ads allow users to post and promote ad content from their employees’ LinkedIn profiles, as opposed to from the brand’s own page exclusively. This provides multiple benefits otherwise unavailable from the more traditional approach to LinkedIn marketing. So, if you’re seeking innovative strategies for your B2B marketing efforts, consider leveraging the power of LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads with the expertise of a LinkedIn advertising agency.
However, since the end of March 2024 you are now able to promote posts of unassociated users of your company that are relevant in some way.
For example:
- Investors
- Influencers
- Customers
- Partners
- Affiliates
These open the gate to B2B-using influencers to put their relevance and popularity at the service of your product. Similar to Instagram, an influencer can show the product to your audience and explain the benefits of it.
2 – What’s So Great About Thought Leader Ads?
As we mentioned above, LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads bring more to the table than traditional LinkedIn advertising. Some of these benefits include:
More Engagement
We all want increased engagement on our LinkedIn ads, right? Well, Thought Leader Ads will help to achieve that.
Thought Leader Ads aren’t posted on just the organization’s LinkedIn page; they are posted from the company’s employees’ pages, which drastically increases the number of LinkedIn members who will view the ad, thus encouraging further engagement and brand visibility that the ad wouldn’t have received had it only been posted from the company profile.
Trust & Validity
Because the ad is being posted via a person/s account and not just a company page, audiences are more likely to trust the authenticity of the brand. Again, this encourages engagement, as users are more likely to interact with a post from someone they’re connected to than that of a random promoted ad they see on their LinkedIn feed.
Harness Employee Influence
If your staff members have a wide and robust following on their LinkedIn profile, it would be foolish not to leverage this by showcasing your ads via that employee. This will undoubtedly boost your brand’s credibility and well as broadening brand awareness and increasing engagement/
3 – Using Thought Leader Ads: How to Set Up Your First Campaign
The great news is that LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are easy to build and easy to launch. Here’s how to get started.
Log On to LinkedIn & Go to Campaign Manager
This is where you’ll find the Thought Leader Ad section, which you will need to click on.
Pick Your Objective
Before you can create your ad, you will need to select a campaign objective. Be mindful that, at present, only two objective options are available: ‘Brand Awareness’ and ‘Engagement’.
Choose Your Ad Format
At present, the only ad format available for Thought Leader Ads is ‘Single Image Ad’, so you will need to be happy with this option until more become available.
Once you’ve done this, the foundation of your campaign is set up.
Select the Content You Wish to Promote
Click on the ‘Browse Existing Content’ button to upload the particular employee’s content you wish to sponsor.
Request Permission
You won’t be able to sponsor/promote any of your employees’ content without their permission, so you will have to request it by clicking on the ‘Request Permission’ button. This will send them an email notification that gives them the option of approving or denying the request.
Launch the Ad
Once the permission has been granted, your ad is now ready to go live. You will be able to click on the content of choice and there will be a ‘Sponsor’ option, which will launch your ad.
4 – Choosing the Right Objective for Thought Leader Ads
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen in Thought Leader Ad campaigns is picking the wrong LinkedIn ads objective. Most people choose by default ‘engagement‘ thinking it’s the best choice but in reality this approach is costing them far more than they realize.
Here’s why ‘engagement‘ objective is a not the best option:
– You pay for every interaction—likes, comments, shares, and even clicks on the “see more” toggle.
– Engaging posts often result in higher costs per engagement because LinkedIn basically penalizes you for getting attention.
– The cost per click (CPC) on engagement-optimized campaigns tends to really high and most of clicks are the ‘see more‘ toggle.
Now, let’s talk about why Brand Awareness is the smarter choice for Thought Leader Ads:
– You’re charged based on impressions (CPM), not individual clicks or actions. This keeps costs predictable and manageable.
– Engaging posts will still drive interactions organically, without you having to pay for each one.
– CPMs are significantly cheaper—some tests show a 60%+ reduction compared to engagement campaigns.
– Landing page clicks are far cheaper. With the Brand Awareness objective you’ll often see a much lower CPC to the landing page making it one of the most cost-effective ad formats for driving relevant traffic.
If you’re not sure which objective to choose you can always run an A/B test. Compare Engagement against Brand Awareness and you’ll see a clear difference in performance.
5 – Getting the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
These top tips will help ensure you get the best results from your Thought Leader Ads.
LinkedIn Influencer Ads for Retargeting
Thought Leader Ads are ideal for retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn, as this type of advertising can help increase website traffic in a way that you may not get with cold ad campaigns.
While your cold ads might not get the traffic you want, you can use the insights and data you receive to then build an audience to retarget via your Thought Leader Ads. Because this audience has already shown an interest in your brand, they are more likely to be responsive to your Thought Leader Ad.
Interactions for Retargeting
In case you weren’t already aware, you can use the interactions you receive from your Thought Leader Ads in your retargeting campaigns. This is because all clicks on the TLAs are trackable and therefore can be applied to your retargeting marketing.
Promote the Lead Conversion-Heavy Ads
It can be tempting to promote the ads that received the most engagement, but that is an error of judgment. Instead, you’ll want to opt for the ads that converted the most leads, so keep a regular eye on your KPIs.
It’s also worth noting what key features appear in all conversion-heavy ads. Do they feature case studies or partnerships? Keep an eye out for nuances that point to the reason why the ad was more conversion-friendly than others.
Choose Video Thought Leader Ads for Cold Audiences
Video Thought Leader Ads are incredibly effective for top-of-funnel campaigns offering more than just clicks. They help you build high-quality retargeting audiences from both video views and engagement, making them a dual-purpose tool for engagement and qualification.
Unlike traditional ads that focus on a single outcome this format drives landing page clicks while simultaneously creating retargeting audiences at a lower cost per click. The organic feel of these ads, tied to personal profiles also increases their appeal and effectiveness with cold audiences.
If you’re looking for a cost-efficient way to engage new prospects while preparing them for deeper funnel campaigns, Video Thought Leader Ads are your best bet.
6 – What are the metrics to monitor for thought leader ads
1 – Engagement rate ( comment, likes share, ect)
Engagement rate shows how much people interact with our ad, like when they like, comment, or share a post. It helps us see how involved the audience is. In general you will have higher engagement rates on your tought leader ads especially for the one who looks like an organic post.
2 – Average Dwell Time.
It shows “the average time, in seconds, that member accounts spent viewing your ad”
It can help advertisers understand how eye-catching and scroll-stopping the creative is even if there are no clicks and engagements.
3 – CTR
From our experiment and general consensus, the CTR is much higher for Thought Leader Ads than for traditional sponsored posts. Most engagement comes from people clicking ‘see more’ to read the post and then liking or commenting. However, there’s also an important flow of clicks to the company page and website.
Our benchmarks show a CTR between 2,5% and 5%
4 – Follower rates
Follower growth rate is the speed at which a user’s followers increase. Check regularly if this metric improves because sometimes it’s not only about engagement rate and CTR. If your follower rates grow consistently with Thougth leader ads this a KPI to take into consideration to evaluate the effectiveness of these campaigns.
5 – Direct messages
Since the Thought leader ads are tied to an employee profile you should montoire the direct messages received from other linbkeidn member, these should count as a type of conversions.
6 – Demographic reports
Are you promoting to the right Linkedin members? Looking on the demorgaophics will help you to refine your audience attributes and also notice some difference between the traditional sponsored post content. In our test we have seen big differentrce of seniority interaction
7 – Examples of LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
Launching a new product or service
Introducing new features or integration with a personal touch from your clients adds credibility and excitement. Focus on the experts and communicate with them as professionals. Highlight all the amazing things they can accomplish with your product.
Humanizing the Brand
LinkedIn influencer ads also help to humanize your brand. When people hear about your company from real individuals, such as the CEO, head of marketing, or other employees, it creates a unique psychological impact. This approach allows the audience to form a stronger connection with the people behind the brand.
Sharing Industry Insights
Commenting on trends and sharing research helps position your brand as a thought leader.For example, your VP of Sales could discuss upcoming trends in sales strategies through a video ad, while your CTO provides updates on the latest developments in sales training using artificial intelligence.
Lead generation with expert content
Checklists, cheat sheet and templates can help you showcase your expertise in your industry in order to generate qualified download with a downloadable asset. They allow you to deliver a more detailed and authoritative message about the value of your content compared to a traditional sponsored post.
Conclusion
Now that you understand what Thought Leader Ads are, why they’re beneficial, and how to set up your first campaign, you’re ready to leverage this innovative new method of advertising on LinkedIn to boost your brand awareness, encourage more audience engagement, and ultimately, bring your bigger marketing goals one step closer to fruition.
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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