LinkedIn can be an extremely lucrative source of marketing for B2B brands – but only as long as you’re using it properly and monitor your LinkedIn ads metrics. If you’re not sure where to begin, comparing your LinkedIn ads clickthrough rate (CTR) to the average CTR of other LinkedIn advertising campaigns is a good start.
Not sure what that means? No problem. Here we will go through what your CTR is and the best practices used by our LinkedIn Ads agency.
1 – What is the Average Click-Through Rate (CTR) on LinkedIn?
For those unfamiliar with the fundamentals of LinkedIn, in a nutshell, it is a social networking site designed exclusively for working professionals – particularly those in the B2B community. It serves as a great channel to seek new employment roles, recruit new team members, post sponsored advertisements aimed at a specially-built list of warm leads for lead gen/conversion purposes, build your brand’s network, and enhance your online presence.
But what exactly is a click-through rate?
LinkedIn’s CTR feature is designed for monitoring your sponsored ad campaigns to see how they’re performing. It is done by measuring it against what’s known as the ‘average’ CTR. With sponsored content on LinkedIn, a lead will click on your ad with the goal of discovering your brand or product being advertised. Every time a lead clicks on your ad, they can then (hopefully) go on to be converted.
Here are the current global average LinkedIn CTRs based on ad format:
- Message Ads: 3%
- Sponsored Content: 0.4%
- Dynamic Ads: 0.06%
- Text Ads: 0.02%
Expert Tip: If your campaigns have a below-average CTR, it’s a good time to review your ads and audience. Are your ads relevant to your target audience? Evaluate the intro text, headline, creative, messaging, and the offer. Are your ads reaching the right people? Check your demographic reports and review metrics like job function, job seniority, industry, company size, and more.
It is important to note that LinkedIn’s metrics here doesn’t count every single click on your ad, however. This means that you won’t necessarily be charged for every single click. You get charged on the volume of impressions, which is divided by the amount of clicks your ad receives.
2 – How the CTR impact the cost of your campaign
When your LinkedIn ads compete in an auction, it’s not just your bidding strategy but also your relevancy score that determine the auction winner. The relevancy score is not visible, but you can access a proxy – Campaign Quality Score – which is a measurement of how likely a member is to respond to Sponsored Content ads in your campaign.
LinkedIn determines which ads are shown to whom and when through an “ad auction.” Two main factors influence who wins the auction: your bid and your relevancy score. To put it simply:
Actual bid = Relevancy score × Bid (similar to how other platforms work).
– Bid Price: This is the amount you’re willing to pay for a key result, such as clicks, impressions, or conversions.
– Relevancy Score: This score reflects how likely your ad is to resonate with the audience. It’s influenced by factors like expected click-through rates (CTR), engagement (likes, comments, shares), and overall ad quality.
If you want a better chance of winning the auction without increasing your bid, focus on improving your quality score. This score is based on several factors, but it mainly reflects how engaging and non-disruptive your content is to users. LinkedIn prioritizes content that keeps users engaged on the platform.
So, what does this mean for you? Aim to boost your click-through rate (CTR) as it’s a key signal of quality to LinkedIn.
CTR plays a crucial role in the overall campaign cost. The higher the relevancy score, the lower your bid will need to be to win the auction, and the better your CTR, the higher your relevancy score may be.
Also, having a higher relevancy score can help lower your CPC.
3 – CPC And CPM Benchmarks on LinkedIn
Your CPC (cost-per-click) fee is what you end up paying to LinkedIn for your CPC ads. This determines how much you need to pay per click on your ad. The worldwide global CPC in LinkedIn sponsored ads is currently $5.58*.
The CPM is your cost per impression (impression otherwise known as an engagement), so where your CTR fits in here is determined by the cost per impression, as well as your cost-per-click. The average CPM benchmark at present is $34 per 1000 impressions.
4 – How to Improve Your CTR on Your LinkedIn Ads
Sometimes it can be hard to get (and stay) on track with your ads on LinkedIn. Luckily there are a few ways of getting the results you want:
– Be personable by adding an emotional element to your ads. Your ads are aimed at humans, so it’s important that they understand the humanity behind the purpose of your ad.
– Include your job type and other relevant details to your own profile. Make sure to provide information about your company as well.
– Network with other people on LinkedIn who have similar targets or brands. This can help you explore and expand your audience, as well as build brand awareness.
– Repurpose your content. Go through your previous blogs, social media posts, and your current website/s regularly to see if you can recycle and revise any of the content. Always create new content when necessary to stay ahead.
– Experiment with different ad options other than basic image-text ads. Consider delving into video and audio advertising. Always keep up to date with any new ad format options that are introduced on LinkedIn.
– Test your campaigns regularly, so that you can know what’s working on your audiences and what’s not. You can then use this information to rework and improve and create more successful ads.
5 – Defining Your LinkedIn Ads CPC & CPM
LinkedIn itself holds the answers to your ads’ CPC and CPM; both of which the cost is generated via a native auction.
How the platform defines these can often dial down to specific factors such as seniority or decision-making authority. Naturally, these enhance the chance of conversion, so they can have a higher CPC than, say, a junior employee, or someone with less authority in company decision-making. To simplify: the hotter the lead, the higher the CPC.
If you’re still feeling a bit bamboozled by all of this – no need! There is a forecasting tool that can determine your average CPM. But remember – to determine your CPM, it is measured per 1000 impressions, so, divide your predicted impression number by 1,000 and divide that sum by your ad spend and then compare it with the average impression cost to get a good estimation of what’s going on.
6 – Other Useful Information
It is important to know that your CTR is dependent on where in the world you are, as it can vary from country to country – much like monetary currency. The more developed the country, the lower the click-through rate is. It can also depend on the ad format you use on LinkedIn. Industry niche can also factor in.
Conclusion
If you’re working with a limited budget, it can be wise to take into consideration all of the above. Your ad’s CTR isn’t a one-size-fits-all outfit, there are multiple factors that can affect it and shouldn’t be overlooked.
The bottom line, however, is that monitoring your CTR is important because it can help you see how your campaign is performing and it can provide priceless insights in which you can then go on to use in future campaigns to garner further success.
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.
You might also be interested:
