LinkedIn advertising step-by-step

Throughout the article, we will discuss LinkedIn advertising step by step.

LinkedIn is the right platform for all businesses that want to sell to other businesses (B2B). This is also confirmed by the data, as the most B2B sales happen on LinkedIn. At the same time, LinkedIn is a great place to quickly and efficiently find new co-workers or jobs. The number of users of the business network Linkedin is growing rapidly. The percentage of those who use LinkedIn on a daily basis is also growing.

Linkedin advertising provides unique opportunities to pinpoint the target audience. One of these is shaping the audience according to the company in which the user operates. However, you will also be able to target people based on their past functions, years of experience in the industry and similar.

So you can advertise, for example, only to business owners. If you are targeting, for example, small business owners, you can pinpoint the target audience according to the names of the functions entered by the business owners (some enter e.g. CEO, some “Owner”, others “Founder”), as can be seen in the example below.

You can then further refine your target audience by selecting the “AND” option and selecting targeting based on business size.

Creating ads on LinkedIn is not yet possible in some languages. Except for the dynamic ads that allow Autotranslate (you will create the ad in English and the ad will then be translated into the user’s language).

If you still create a LinkedIn ad in the the language that is not supported and publish it, it will be withdrawn after review. You will receive a message as in the picture below:

Advertising on LinkedIn – ad disapproved due to unsupported language.

At this moment, all you have left to do is communicate through advertisements in English on the market of the selected language, or use Linkedin advertising to expand into foreign markets. The image below shows a view of the currently supported languages in which you will be able to create ads on LinkedIn.

The fact is, however, that most LinkedIn users accept the fact that the official language of communication is English. Therefore, ads in English for a local business are also accepted. That is why it pays to start advertising on LinkedIn as soon as possible, because relatively few companies in Slovenia use it.

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Types of ads on LinkedIn

In this section, I will briefly present the main differences between the types of ads on Linkedin.

Posts you’ve already posted on a LinkedIn page can be sponsored (similar to sponsoring posts on a Facebook page).

There are three different ad formats: image, video, or carousel.

You can also choose between “Native news feed ad” or “Lead gen form“.

The Sponsored Content ad is primarily intended to gain new followers for your LinkedIn site. Likes and comments on the promoted post will also be visible on the original post on the LinkedIn page. This type of advertising does not contribute to higher sales.

LinkedIn advertising – sponsored post.

This differs from the previous ad type in that the sponsored post was not previously posted on your LinkedIn page but only as an ad. This format is suitable e.g. for tests or ads/posts that are not suitable for all followers of your LinkedIn profile.

An interesting type of ad that allows you to send messages directly to InMail – the mailbox of a personal Linkedin profile. On average, one message sent like this costs 0.25 €. There is no guarantee that the recipient will open it at all, but you increase this possibility with a well-written title. It is crucial for the response that the content of the message is written as if you were writing it to your business partners. It should not be read as an ad. This type of ad can be a great opportunity to establish a new business contact and consequently business opportunities.

LinkedIn advertising – InMail ad

Text ads appear only on desktop devices in the right-hand column or at the top of the page. The ad consists of a short title (up to 25 characters) and a description that can contain up to 75 characters. In the ad that appears in the right column, a profile image of your Linkedin page will appear next to it. Linkedin automatically determines where to place this type of ad, leaving you no choice.

The cost per display of 1,000 ads is cheaper than other forms of advertising. However, because it is relatively invisible, you can expect only 1 click per 1,000 impressions. So this type of advertising is not exactly effective in terms of getting visits or contacts.

LinkedIn ads – Text Ads do not contain an image and are quite invisible.

Dynamic ads appear in the right column and are, as I mentioned earlier, the only option to advertise in languages that are not supported for Twitter ads, as the text of the ad, which you would otherwise write in English, is automatically translated into the language in which the person who sees the ad, uses LinkedIn (so-called Autotranslate).

There are two types of dynamic ads, namely “Follower” and “Spotlight” ad.

The “Follower” ad will contain a button to start tracking your LinkedIn page.

The “Spotlight” ad allows you to create a button, name it and add any link to your website. The ad can contain up to 50 characters in the title and 70 characters in the description.

LinkedIn ads – Dynamic Ads in which the text is automatically translated into another language.

LinkedIn advertising step-by-step

First you need to create your personal LinkedIn profile and through it a business page on LinkedIn. Log in to your personal LinkedIn profile and click on the square icon made up of small squares, named Work, in the top menu on your computer on the right. Click Work, and then scroll down the drop-down menu. Select the Create Company page option. Then follow the instructions and create your LinkedIn page.

In the same way, you access LinkedIn Campaing Manager in which you create advertising on LinkedIn. Click on Work, then select Advertise from the blue icons.

Alternatively, you can visit linkedin.com/campaignmanager directly.

LinkedIn ads – Campaign manager for creating advertising campaigns.

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Creating an advertising account

When you first sign in to Linkedin Campaign manager, you will create a new advertising account. Click on “Create account” and specify a name for the account, select the currency and link it to your LinkedIn page.

Create an advertising campaign on LinkedIn

Once you’ve created an advertising account, click on it and you’ll be taken to the next window ”Campaign group”, where you’ll be able to start creating your campaign. As the name suggests, you can manage multiple campaigns under one campaign group. The system is similar to that in Facebook Ads Manager or Google Ads, but it is not so refined and offers significantly fewer options and settings.

When you create a “Campaign group”, click on it and the “Create Campaign” window will appear.

This window consists of two columns. Smaller on the left and right or center column.

The left column shows all the steps of creating an advertising campaign (Objective selection; Audience; Ad format; Placement; Budget and schedule; Conversion Tracking).

In the right or in the center column, you first select your campaign goals. These are very similar to the goals in the Facebook advertising campaign.

LinkedIn ads – steps to create an ad campaign and select campaign goals.

Goals of a LinkedIn campaign

Similar to other platforms, Linkedin has, as the most basic version of advertising, prepared a type of campaign that will be optimized for the maximum number of impressions for the selected target group. If you select this option, you will be able to create all types of ads except the InMail ad.

With this campaign goal, the ad will appear to selected audiences on LinkedIn who are most likely to click on a web link based on their previous behavior. You choose this option when the goal of your advertising is to get as many visits to the website as possible. However, keep in mind that clicks are quite expensive. For the most part, LinkedIn will require you to bid at least 2 € per click.

Your ad will contain a “Follow” button, which means that this type of campaign will be appropriate if you want to gain new followers. Your ad may contain an image, video, or be created as a dynamic “Follower” ad.

The campaign is optimized to get as many video views as possible from people who have previously enjoyed watching video content on LinkedIn. Of course, you can only create a video ad, not other types of ads. Based on my experience, I recommend this type of advertising. Also, add subtitles to the video (at least in the beginning part) in English. The text of the ad itself should also be in English, so that the LinkedIn team reviewing the ads will also confirm it.

You can save a lot with video ads. Because you only pay for video views, you don’t pay for clicks on the link. So make a very interesting video and attractive text with a call to action inviting viewers to visit the site. With such a strategy, the price per video in my campaigns is 0.02 € per 30 seconds of video (which is cheap also on Facebook). The price per click is around 0.30 €. This is actually comparable to the cost of advertising on Facebook.

You choose this campaign goal when you want to get contact information from people who click on your ad. When creating an ad, you’ll be able to choose from image, video, or InMail messages. In the text of the ad, persuade the target group to download the e-book, sign up for the webinar, etc.

While creating your ad, you will have the option to create a subscribtion form that will appear to the user after clicking on the ad. User data such as name, surname, e-mail address will be filled in automatically in the form. Thus, the user just clicks on the Subscribe button and gives you contact information. However, this type of ad is quite expensive and is suitable for those who sell more expensive products at a higher price and are used to the fact that the purchase decision is quite long and requires a lot of interaction between you and a potential buyer.

On LinkedIn you will also be able to use campaign optimization based on different conversions on your website. These can be e.g. subscribe to the e-news, download the e-book, add the product to the cart and complete the purchase. You will be able to use all types of ads except the dynamic “Follow” ad. However, in order to select a campaign with conversions, you must first create a conversion.

This campaign goal is created for companies that want to gain new employees (with specific experience). There is a special type of ad called ‘Jobs Ad’ when creating an ad.

In the next step of creating a LinkedIn ad campaign, you will create a target audience. Specify the following parameters:

Select the locations where you want to advertise. You can also advertise at the city level.

If it is a market whose official language is not supported by LinkedIn, choose English. If you advertise with a dynamic ad, the autotranslate text translation option will automatically appear here.

Here you will form your audience based on business, demographics, education, professional experience and interests. Of course, the possibility of forming an audience according to the company stands out the most.

No other platform has that much detailed information about companies and links to its employees as Linkedin, so this may be the biggest added value of advertising on this platform.

Audience settings offer two major categories of audience settings:

“Audience attributes” and

“Matched audiences.”

Matched audiences could also be called a custom audience, as you can create it from users who, for example, already visited your website or by uploading a list of email addresses or company names. For the former, you need at least 300 personal contacts, for the latter, at least 1,000 company names are recommended. From the groups you will already form, you will also be able to form Lookalike groups. Once you’ve created these types of audiences, you can use them to create a campaign.

Most advertisers will initially only use the options in the “Audience attributes” settings category and shape the audience according to Company / Demographics / Education / Job Experience / Interests and Personae. And of course all the sub-options.

LinkedIn advertising – target group settings can be very detailed.

Examples of sub-options offered for audience formation in a LinkedIn campaign under the “Company” choice: Company Connections / Company Follower of / Company Industries / Company Names / Company Size.

It is very important to use the Narrow audience further (AND) function to pinpoint the target audience. Thus, you first form a target group of people working in the field, e.g. Accounting, and have at least 5 years of work experience.

Then define for this target group that they have to work in companies in a certain industry and that the companies have to have a certain number of employees and that the companies grow at least at a rate of 10% per year.

At the same time, you can also exclude specific audiences by selecting the Exclude audience option. Thus, e.g. exclude current visitors to your website or e.g. people with interests in certain business areas.

In short, such settings for the B2B realm are nowhere else than on LinkedIn. So review them carefully and don’t just use the most general settings.

Linkedin advertising allows for detailed audience settings.

The type of ad depends on which campaign goal you have chosen, which I explained at the beginning of this article.

Placement means where the ad will appear. I recommend that your ad only appears on LinkedIn, not on Linkedin Audience Network – that is, on partner sites outside of LinkedIn. Uncheck this option to spend your budget on LinkedIn only.

The minimum daily budget is 10 €. This can pretty much compare to Facebook or Google. Therefore, make a special effort when preparing an ad on LinkedIn (and the web subpage to which it leads).

The Bid type must also be selected.

If your main goal is to get the most views / clicks for the entire advertising investment, then select the “Automated Bid” option.

If your main goal is to maintain consistent costs per result, choose “Target CPV Bid“.

If your main goal is to increase control over bidding at auctions, select “Maximum CPV Bid“.

Here you select conversions (which you need to create before creating a campaign).

To do this, look for the Account Assets category at the top of the main menu.

From the options, first select the Insight Tag. Here you get the LinkedIn tracking code that you place on your website.

Then select Conversions and set different types of conversions (preferably based on landing page URLs).

Once you’ve edited all this, you’ll click on the button Next and start editing the ad (title, text, video / photo, button – depending on the type of ad you choose).

A photo or even better a video should attract attention in a split second. The video in particular has a big advantage here because you can ask a question at the beginning of the video that targets the “pain” of the ideal customer. Pain is not necessarily a problem. It can also be a desire, a benefit, an experience they want.

The title of the ad should mention a solution to a problem your ideal customers have.

Deepen the expectations in the text of the ad and promise detailed information on your website.

LinkedIn is a business platform. However, your goal should be to get people from a well-defined target group to your website as soon as possible.

I recommend that you pay a lot of attention to LinkedIn because, unlike other networks, there are people on it who have a job, occupy certain positions in their companies and come to LinkedIn for the purpose of education and establishing business contacts.

Start advertising as soon as possible, because with the number of companies advertising on LinkedIn, competition for the same target groups will intensify and advertising prices will increase.

Don’t compare the price of advertising on LinkedIn with the price of advertising on Facebook or Instagram. Rather, compare it with the price of a presentation at a fair, sending a classic direct mail, telephone marketing, personal visits. Because part of that – an introductory presentation and getting a contact – can be done on LinkedIn.

In this light, however, advertising on LinkedIn will no longer be a cost but an investment. And not even that expensive anymore.

I invite you to read another one of our articles on the topic of digital marketing. And for step-by-step video tutorials, check out our hands-on e-courses.

Find out more about them at https://www.martin-orange.com/e-courses/