LinkedIn advertising services: All you need to know before hiring an agency

Hiring an agency to help you with LinkedIn advertising is always difficult. Not only do you need to find the right Linkedin advertising agency and/or professional according to your industry and vertical, but you need to make sure the service you’re hiring fits your company and your budget.

Other than that, there are many different factors to weigh in before committing to a professional or a digital media agency – and especially when it comes to agencies.

Also, there’s the investment and finance side of things. Working with agencies is expensive, and in some cases, a freelance contractor might just be enough. Nonetheless, an agency usually offers a 360-degree wide experience: you can get all the support you need for your LinkedIn ads campaigns, and more. In this article, you’ll find out what you need to know before signing a contract with a digital agency.

Case Study: How We Helped a Security Analytics Software Company Generate 42% More SQLs Using LinkedIn Ads

1 – How you can use LinkedIn Ads to your advantage

One of the main specificities of LinkedIn is the fact that it is highly targeted. LinkedIn is a network for professionals who want to connect with other professionals, and that makes it quite niche. Unlike generic social media like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, LinkedIn has the goal of facilitating professional relationships. It is a network for business.

Taking that into account and adding the fact that LinkedIn sponsored content can be extremely targeted, it’s easy to know why you would want to invest in this platform to get more leads and clients for your business. These are just a few targeting options you can find when setting up and create a marketing campaign:

Gender
Skills
Degrees
Years Experience
Age
Job Title
Job Seniority
Job Function
Company Industry
Company Size
Company Name
Fields of Study

So, let’s say your company provides a SaaS that does social monitoring for brands. In this case, you are aware that your target audience includes CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) and Social Media Managers. Therefore, you add that to the segmentation in your LinkedIn ad marketing campaign and you’ll be able to sift through all possible leads and clients.

Using LinkedIn’s highly advanced segmentation makes your CPL (Cost Per Lead) a lot lower, because you’re aiming at exactly the type of paid lead that would subscribe to your service.

Your goal might be generating more leads, content awareness, purchases, anything that matters for your business: using LinkedIn, you’ll get to those users. Harnessing the power of this social network can make a whole lot of difference to your business.

2 – What are the services of a LinkedIn marketing agency?

LinkedIn advertising services imply several “layers” of work that are interconnected. In this section, you’ll find out about what a LinkedIn advertising agency offers and what you should expect from this partnership. And it all starts with…

LinkedIn Advertising Strategy

No matter what kind of advertising you need, the first thing you should always define is strategy. How are you going to proceed and why?

In order to figure this out, you need to evaluate your current challenges and strengths. What are the things your company does best? What could be improved? What kind of clients or leads do you need and when?

Once you have asked all these questions to yourself and replied confidently, you can proceed with setting up a plan for your LinkedIn advertising activities.

The right digital media agency for you will understand your needs and customer pain points through an assessment of your business. Then, how are you going to fix what is broken and maintain what is working?

That’s what LinkedIn advertising strategy is for. Find out what do you need, and make it happen.

LinkedIn Ad Development

Now, it’s time to get creative. Ad content development consists of creating content for your banners. This means, putting together design (images content) and copy (written content).

You want to make your adverts compelling, your CTAs engaging. Every bit of this marketing content process needs to be done thinking on results: will this ad resonate with my audience? Does this piece of advertising reflect what my brand does and the problem we solve?

If the answer to both these questions is yes, you’re on the right path.

LinkedIn Ad management and Optimization

Now, no matter how good an ad is, i can always be improved. Also, as you evaluate results, it might seem that you should change your strategy. All of this is normal: optimization and management are a great part of LinkedIn advertising services.

Most optimization and management performed on LinkedIn ads are based on analytics. This takes us to the last service your LinkedIn advertising agency should have: reporting.

LinkedIn Reporting

As with any digital marketing campaign, reporting is more often than not the crux of your constant iteration.

If you are running a Linkedin social ads campaign, how will you know if it’s working unless you analyze your data? The platform itself gives you a few data points that can help you get a glimpse of how you’re doing. But unless you have an internal marketing team, you probably need help from the agency when it comes to turning data into actual insights.

A good LinkedIn agency will provide you with a report that includes not only data and rates (you could find that on LinkedIn, after all) but also explains how to optimize, improve, increase ROI and reiterate in the long term.

Case Study: How We Helped Kodo Survey to Generate 167% More Leads in 3 Months Using LinkedIn Ads

3 – Are LinkedIn ads worth it?

This is a tough question to answer. Mostly, because the straight answer is: it depends. There is not a cookie-cutter approach to LinkedIn ads, and therefore they might be worth it for you or not. There are several factors contributing to this.

First of all, there is an inherent cost to LinkedIn ads. Even if you don’t hire LinkedIn advertising services from a digital media agency, you would still be paying a decent amount of money (think thousands, maybe tens of thousands) to run these marketing campaigns. LinkedIn’s highly targeted approach means that you have to have a decent budget to be able to profit from all of LinkedIn’s ad options.

Also, with a lot of segmentation comes a higher CPC. Just like it happens on Google Ads, LinkedIn ads work through a bidding system. If you’re willing to pay extra, there’s a higher chance for your ad to show. Therefore, your cost per click increases. Competition doesn’t help either: the narrower is your target audience, the most competitive the bidding gets. If your budget is too low, you might end up missing most opportunities to sell.

Your relevance to the users is important too. If your ad is not relevant for LinkedIn’s users, it will stop appearing. The platform itself makes sure every user sees relevant social ads. So, your copywriting and design work are also crucial for the success of your LinkedIn marketing campaign.

When it comes to actual figures, a minimum budget of $2000 to $5000 per month is recommended. This will allow you to reach people with high precision while allowing for a great daily budget. There needs to be a balance between how much you segment (and how short is your target on LinkedIn) and trying to get to other people that might see our social ads.

So, in short, LinkedIn marketing is worth it for businesses have enough money to invest, and if your target audience is engaged. If your paid users are on LinkedIn, and you have a decent budget, these social ads might make a whole lot of difference in your marketing and sales strategy.

If you can’t afford these ads right now, or you don’t have a clear-cut buyer persona, we recommend investing in other PPC channels such as Google Ads or Taboola. Then, move to LinkedIn.

4 – How much do LinkedIn ads cost?

Before hiring a LinkedIn Ad agency, you need to know if your budget fits, just like with any other social network.

In LinkedIn’s case, CPC (cost per click) will fluctuate from $2 minimum to maybe $5 or $8 per click. It’s not a cheap traffic, but if your banner are highly targeted and your budget allows for it, this could increase your chances of getting a click.

The usual CTR (click-through rate) for LinkedIn Ads is between 0.08% to 0.1%. It is recommended to aim for at least 1 click per 1000 impressions (when your ad is shown, it counts as an impression).

So, LinkedIn Ad services aren’t cheap. You pay a high CPC and there is a lot of competition. However, designing your creatives with a compelling CTA (call to action) and an alluring picture makes a difference since ads that have a high CTR end up appearing more often. To sum up, there is a cycle: good ads get good CTR, and ads with good CTR have a higher chance of appearing for your target audience. As they are shown more often, your CPC lowers.

5 – Wrapping Up

As previously mentioned, LinkedIn advertising services are not for every company. But if you run a tech-related company, a SaaS, or any businesses that targets B2B clients, it is easier to earn big bucks from LinkedIn Ads. Conversion rates, when matched to the CTR, are quite high. Your audience is actually affected by the problem your product solves.

In short, LinkedIn Ad services can be quite profitable for your brand: taken you evaluate your needs first, LinkedIn marketing can be a great choice as an advertising channel for your website and increase your sales.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How much does it cost to advertise on LinkedIn?

Linkedin CPC (cost per click) will fluctuate from $2 minimum to maybe $5 or $8 per click. It’s not a cheap traffic, but if your ads are highly targeted and have a high click through rate you can lower the CPC.

Can you advertise services on LinkedIn?

If you’re selling a service direct-to-business instead of direct-to-consumer, LinkedIn is probably one of the best channel for your ads. This social network is the place for all type businesses and professionals to interact.

What companies advertise on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the biggest B2B lead generation platform for professionals and companies. If you represent a B2B company with a B2B service or product Linkedin ads is perfect for your business.

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.