LinkedIn advertising often takes a back seat to Facebook and Google Ads, but marketing experts are now recognizing what a colossal mistake this is. Not only is their advertising highly targeted but this is the largest professional network there is. All one needs to do is look at this LinkedIn infographic to see the amount of powerhouse profiles that are on the platform:
- 610 M professionals on LinkedIn
- 90 M senior-level influencers
- 17 M opinion leaders
- 63 M decision makers
- 10 M C-level execs
- 3 M MBA grads
The good thing about LinkedIn flying a bit under the radar is that there’s still a chance your competition isn’t on there, thus giving you a leg up. But, really, there are plenty of reasons even small business owners should be advertising on this juggernaut of a professional network. We share some of them below.
1. Your Business is B2B
With all of these decision-makers and influencers in one place, advertising on LinkedIn for those in B2B should be a no-brainer. You can target people by their LinkedIn profile content so knowing the job titles of your customers is helpful. Because of the sheer numbers, though, it can also be quite effective for B2C as well. Targeting people in certain fields or niches makes this a good idea.
2. You’ve Got High Value Targets
LinkedIn ads allow you to target by title, company size, industry, and geolocation. And if you run a small business, you almost definitely have HVTs. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the thought leaders and companies you have on your list. This can help in your attempt to convert more leads and also to simply raise awareness about your business. Although LinkedIn ads are considered to be highly targeted, it is also good to take into consideration that they don’t allow you to target audiences with fewer than 1,000 people.
3. You Want Flexibility
LinkedIn is a wonderful platform for trying out their many ad types to see what’s working best until you’ve got your campaign perfected. In fact, most industry gurus will tell you that it’s best to have several campaigns going at once. As a small business, you have a unique opportunity to try various audiences and offers, and you’re often reaping the benefit (read: money!) left behind by the bigger companies.
4. You’ve Got a Variable Budget
Small businesses don’t always have a steady amount of money they can dedicate to ads. If this describes your biz, LinkedIn is a great option. You can choose your pricing by picking from CPC or CPM pricing. Sponsored InMail is another option, as you only pay for this once your message is delivered. You are in control of how much you bid, your budgets, and your schedule, and you can stop your ads at any time. What we often recommend is that you launch LinkedIn ad campaigns simultaneously other retargeting and paid search campaigns. This is because, despite its many targeting benefits, LinkedIn does not have the ability to control the position in the sales funnel. This is where something like Google Ads would come in, allowing you more confidence in knowing when a prospect is about to make a purchase.
5. Lead Gen Forms Allow for Seamless Conversions
We all know the dangers of users bouncing once they’re asked to fill out a form. However, when LinkedIn members click on your ad, their profile data populates a form automatically that they can submit with one click. They’ll be glad you saved them time and you’ll have a more complete profile to use for leads.
6. You’ve Got Content to Share
LinkedIn has really evolved since its inception. What many people thought would be a site mainly used by job seekers has become a huge networking and information hub. The advent of Sponsored Updates really helped with this evolution. These are native ads that appear in the site’s news feed. They are ideally formatted ads for featuring content you want to share and, as the users can comment, “like” posts, and share just like on other sites, this is perfect marriage of social media and ads.
When it comes down to deciding whether or not to advertise on LinkedIn, it’s good to ask yourself why a person goes on this site anyway. It’s typically to network, gather information, better careers, and/or find a new job. As long as your ads cater to those in this state of mind, you should be good to go. Still overwhelmed at the notion? Contact us to find out how we can launch and optimize your LinkedIn Ads campaign to ensure it’s a huge advertising success.