We love helping our clients succeed, and along the way, we've learned a lot about the concerns top of mind for IT companies running LinkedIn advertising.
With that in mind, we've curated the top 7 questions we received and summarized them to help you kickstart your next LinkedIn advertising campaign.
Read the most frequently asked B2B LinkedIn Advertising questions (and our answers) to learn what you need to get started and our tips for ongoing success:
Getting Started with LinkedIn Ads: Let's talk about targeting
7. Can LinkedIn ads target a specific list of companies?
Absolutely! If you have an Account Based Marketing (ABM) list, you can upload it to LinkedIn and pair it with additional targeting parameters such as geography, job title, job function, and job seniority. This results in a laser-focused LinkedIn campaign.
Pro tip: Include the LinkedIn Company Page URL in your ABM list for the best match rate.
Using a retargeting list generally yields better results than a cold list. Warm accounts (those that have shown prior interest in your business), typically perform better. But don't worry if you're starting with a cold list - people will engage with your brand awareness ads.
Start by tracking and collecting audience data from those who interact with your initial brand awareness campaign. This data will then help you refine and target within future campaigns to reach these engaged users effectively.
6. How large does my ABM company list need to be to run LinkedIn ads?
The size of your ABM company list for LinkedIn ads depends on who you're targeting. If you're aiming at small companies with 5-50 employees, you'll need a larger list, around 400-500 accounts, to ensure good reach. For enterprise-level accounts, a smaller list of about 200 accounts should be enough.
Pro tip: Keep your list updated and clean by regularly verifying and removing outdated and incorrect information. This will help maintain the accuracy and effectiveness of your campaigns.
The key is to have a well-targeted list to effectively reach the right decision-makers and make the most of your ad spend.
5. Can I target specific, individual contacts on the Linked ads platform?
It can be done, but it gets tricky. Let's walk through why.
Let's suppose you have built a list of target contacts along with their email addresses. Because you are targeting business contacts, that list likely includes business email addresses.
Here's the snag - the email addresses tied to an individual's LinkedIn profile are usually their personal email addresses. People want to ensure their LinkedIn profile easily travels with them from job to job; therefore, the majority of times, personal email addresses are used.
When we upload a list of business email addresses, the match rate with contacts on LinkedIn will be low. For this reason, we recommend ensuring your target contact list is made up of personal email addresses.
Pro tip: When uploading a list of emails, target personal email addresses instead of business emails
4. Where should the LinkedIn Ads lead people? Do we need a campaign landing page?
When crafting your LinkedIn Advertising strategy, where you guide users depends on your campaign goals and what action you want them to take:
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Direct to Website:
If your campaign objective is to drive traffic to specific pages - such as highlighting your latest solutions, comprehensive service offering, or thought-leadership content - sending users directly to your website from your LinkedIn Ad is a smart move. Here, you can leverage tailored landing pages, interactive product demos, and case studies to educate visitors about what makes your offering(s) unique and which speak directly to the pain points and interests of your target audience.
This approach not only drives traffic to your site, but also nurtures interest, guiding prospects further down the sales funnel. -
Lead Generation Form:
Utilizing LinkedIn's lead generation form allows users to submit pre-populated form fields (ex. name, email addresses, job title, etc.). This is ideal as it requires less effort from your audience, reducing friction to get more form fills. -
Campaign Landing Page:
For special promotions, webinars, or white paper or eBook downloads, creating a dedicated landing page can boost your conversion rates. These pages are tailored to match your company's specific goals. -
Company Pages:
Redirecting users to your LinkedIn Company Page can build brand awareness and engagement, depending on your campaign goals.
Ready to Launch! Typical LinkedIn Campaign Performance Metrics
3. How do you set LinkedIn campaign expectations?
The number of leads you will see from LinkedIn Advertising largely depends upon your campaign goals and targeting strategy. In our opinion, while LinkedIn can be effective for various marketing objectives, it's important to set realistic expectations, particularly for lead generation.
Pro tip: Use LinkedIn's extensive targeting options to reach decision-makers effectively. Tailor your content to address their pain points and interests for optimal lead generation results.
LinkedIn is effective in building brand awareness and driving website traffic, and particularly effective for reaching professionals and decision-makers. It also facilitates engagement through content sharing and interactions, enhancing visibility and credibility.
While LinkedIn can generate leads, it may not always provide the highest quality leads compared to other methods like content syndication.
2. Speaking of performance: How do I measure the success of my LinkedIn campaign?
Understanding what kind of metrics are used to track the success of your campaign is key. The metrics available while running a campaign are numerous and they correlate with the objective set at the start of the campaign. When building brand awareness campaigns, the metrics to focus on are views and interest in the content, indicated by the clicks on ads. We will focus on an objective and use one of the following LinkedIn metrics to measure success:
Brand awareness
Brand awareness is the extent to which consumers are familiar with the distinctive qualities of your brand or services. Impressions are the number of times people saw your ad, which can be a great measure of success in creating brand awareness.building consideration
When building consideration, a different tactic should be used which focuses on engagements which can include social actions such as likes, comments, or shares, as well as video views, and website visits.Conversion Goals
Finally, if your goal is to get conversions, having the viewer click on the ad to learn more is key. A valuable measure to take a look at is your click-through rate (CTR), which is the number of clicks divided by impressions.1. We're Wrapping up the Campaign. Where do we go from here?
Developing a consistent approach to your advertising is a great next step. After the campaign ends, you will have a list of companies that have engaged with your content and have shown interest in your brand and offerings. It is vital that you continue marketing to the accounts and create a nurture or retargeting program based on this new pool of information.
Pro tip: Consider thinking about your advertising, brand awareness, and lead generation strategy as an ongoing effort, rather than the typical start and stop mentality that is so common in the technology industry.
Regardless of the platform you use to target your audience (i.e., LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, Content Syndication, or other 3rd party media platforms), consistency is key and will help you hone a strategy that delivers key learnings over time.
Too often we see clients moving on to the next shiny tactic, rather than working to refine a consistent approach that can be tweaked and improved upon to deliver results over time.
This can all seem overwhelming, but with agency-backed experience and these top tips in mind, you can go into your LinkedIn campaign with your eyes wide open.
If you're interested in taking the stress out of managing your online strategy, contact us today.
