The Complete Guide to LinkedIn Paid Ads

Linkedin paid ads are a hot ticket item within the digital marketing industry right now and for good reason. Did you know that four out of five Linkedin members fall into the “decision-maker” category? That’s a powerful statistic on a social media platform that counts over 690 million members. And those nearly 560 million decision-makers on Linkedin have twice the trigger-pulling buying power than prospects found elsewhere. Read more in this complete LinkedIn Advertising guide.

So, it’s really no question that LinkedIn paid ads are effective if they are created and managed in the right way. And that’s exactly what this blog will detail – the different types of Linkedin paid ads and the objectives your Linkedin paid ads should accomplish.

Let’s dig in.

Types of Linkedin Ads

There is more than one way to design Linkedin paid ads. Between sponsored content and sponsored messaging to text and dynamic, a strategy will work for your business. Let’s take a look at the various forms of Linkedin paid ads.

1. LinkedIn Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is the ads that appear in your prospect’s Linkedin newsfeed. These show up on both mobile and desktop screens as “promoted” ads to distinguish them from the non-sponsored content posted by your prospect’s network.

2. LinkedIn Sponsored Messages

Beyond the sponsored ads that show up in your prospects’ newsfeed, you can also run Linkedin paid ad campaigns as sponsored messaging that is sent directly to your prospect’s Linkedin inbox.

These ads can be effective, but Linkedin caps how many sponsored messages you can send each month. This cap is part of Linkedin’s initiative to keep the platform professional and clear of spam.

Text-based messaging is becoming increasingly more popular in the marketing world and 89% of consumers have stated that they prefer business to follow up via text messaging, but only 48% of companies currently use sponsored messaging. This means that there is a massive opportunity for your business to harness the power of sponsored messaging with less competition.

3. LinkedIn Text Ads

Text ads show up on the top and right-hand side of your prospect’s Linkedin feed on the desktop version of the platform. These are a great avenue to take to build a strong Linkedin lead generation strategy with a target on a specific demographic. Just make sure to use a retargeting campaign to further focus on your prospects who have clicked on one of your ads but who have not taken action by either booking a sales call or making a purchase.

Check out this in-depth video on LinkedIn Text Ads

4. LinkedIn Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are highly personalized messages that appear on the right-hand rail of your prospects Linkedin newsfeed. These ads show your individual prospect’s information including their personal Linkedin profile photo, employer’s name, and job title.

This may seem overly personal, but that’s the goal. You want your prospect to feel like you know them and are talking directly to them. You can soften these ads and make them less personal if they seem too aggressive, or if your Linkedin ad campaign isn’t creating enough lead generation or your business.

5. Retargeting Ads

When your prospect clicks on your Linkedin ad, it should take them to some sort of sales-based and take-action-oriented part of your website like a sales page or a landing page. Most of your prospects won’t take action at this point. That’s why you need to set up retargeting ads to continue to capture your prospect’s attention, gently nudging and leading them back to your website to take action by either making a purchase or booking a sales call.

Retargeting ads are some of the most important Linkedin ads in your campaign. Some Linkedin ad managers even consider them to be the most important series of ads in your campaign.

Okay, now that you know the different types of Linkedin paid ads available, let’s talk about the objectives of your campaigns.

Objective-Based Advertising

Linkedin paid ads are what’s known as “objective-based advertising” in the marketing world. This means they are built for a specific audience and for a specific purpose, usually to create a robust Linkedin lead generation campaign. There are Linkedin ads for each stage of your sales funnel – top, middle, and bottom.

Here are the three most common objectives of Linkedin paid ads.

1. Awareness

Linkedin is one of the best places to build awareness for your brand and Linkedin paid ads are one of the best ways to do it. Get the right Linkedin paid ads in front of the right audience and your brand will soon become top of mind when they need a service or product you offer.

2. Consideration

Once you have built awareness for your brand, the next objective of your Linkedin paid ads should be considered. As in, you want your brand to be a top consideration when your prospect needs a service or product you offer, compared to a similar product or service offered by your competitor.

You can build consideration for your brand by achieving the Linkedin paid ad objectives of increased website traffic, content engagement, and video views and shares.

3. Conversions

You’ve built brand awareness and you are a top choice amongst your target demographic for your product or service. Now you need to convert prospects to customers. Linkedin paid ads are one of the most effective ways to do just that.

Your conversion goals for your Linkedin paid ads should be increased lead generation and increased website visitor conversion. If you are currently in the hiring process you can measure your Linkedin paid ads conversion objective by the number of applications you receive.

Let Impactable Show You the Way.

If you aren’t seeing results in your Linkedin paid ad campaign or if you want some professional guidance, Impactable is here to show you the way. Our Linkedin paid ad services are trusted by over 1000 companies who book calls with major Fortune 300 companies like PayPal, Nike, Visa, and Google. Contact us today to get started.