LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads 101: The Definitive Guide for B2B Marketers

The traditional approach to LinkedIn ads involves running ads through a LinkedIn company page, with the audience perceiving them as brand-centric promotions. However, the landscape has evolved with the introduction of LinkedIn thought leader ads, which allow you to pair your LinkedIn ad account with a personal profile.

In this article, we will delve into the concept of LinkedIn thought leader ads, explore their advantages and drawbacks, and provide valuable insights derived from our successful implementation for clients.

What are LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads?

LinkedIn thought leader ads enable you to sponsor personal posts from your LinkedIn ad account and target them to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). You have the flexibility to target specific audiences, allocate a daily budget, monitor click performance, and retarget user interactions. Essentially, you are harnessing the combined power of LinkedIn’s paid advertising capabilities and the organic nature of personal profiles.

Unlike traditional ads that appear as company-sponsored content, thought leader ads resemble regular posts from a personal profile. The key difference is a small note indicating the promotion by the sponsoring ad agency, which makes the ad look less salesy and more authentic.

Benefits of Thought Leader Ads

Here are a few reasons why thought leader ads are a good choice.

1. Authenticity

The big value of LinkedIn thought leader ads lies in their ability to avoid the typical “salesy,” pitchy, or corporate feel commonly associated with traditional ads. In fact, if the exact same message were posted by a company page and an individual profile, the personal post would likely get more traction, views, engagement, and interest simply because it comes from a person.

By thought leader ads into your strategy while keeping all other factors constant, you can significantly improve key metrics such as cost per click and click-through rate. Leveraging the power of personal profiles enhances the chances of successfully conveying your message to your target audience.

2. Humanizing the brand

Another thing that opens up is that LinkedIn influencer ads humanize your brand. When individuals receive information about your company from real people like the CEO, head of marketing, or various employees, it creates a different psychological effect. This way, the audience feels a deeper connection with the individuals behind the brand.

3. Extracting subject matter expertise

A huge advantage of LinkedIn thought leader ads is their ability to extract and showcase the subject matter expertise within your organization. In line with the demand-generation movement, involving key individuals from your company and transforming their expertise into compelling marketing materials has proven to be very effective.

By featuring thought leadership or subject matter expertise posts from key team members, you establish trust and credibility in potential clients. They gain a better understanding of your company’s values, expertise, and what sets you apart.

The Limitations of LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

Here are a few things we should be careful about regarding LinkedIn thought leader ads.

1. Better work as a part of a broader strategy

LinkedIn influencer ads should be integrated with other ad types as they do not include headlines or call-to-action buttons, meaning they are not designed to drive significant traffic to landing pages, this is why they should be used in conjunction with other LinkedIn ad types.

2. Not suitable for smaller businesses

Thought leader ads might not be an ideal strategy for those new to LinkedIn advertising if they don’t have any other website traffic or paid channels in place. To present your company as mature and robust, a mix of different ad types is necessary as well as optimized personal LinkedIn profiles of the company employees whose posts will be promoted.

3. Time-limited campaigns

LinkedIn thought leader ads are limited to the most recent six months of posts. Older posts cannot be retroactively promoted, so you can’t use the top-performing posts of all time.

4. Dependency on profile attachment

Another limitation is that thought leader ads rely on the person being attached to the company. If the individual leaves the company or detaches, the ads become unusable.

5. Chargeable interactions – Awareness vs Engagement

Every interaction with LinkedIn thought leader ads, such as clicking “read more,” liking, or commenting, is considered a chargeable click with an awareness objective. While the cost per click is really low, these interactions do not directly lead to website conversions, this is why influencer ads should be seen as part of a larger marketing system where other ad types generate website traffic.

The other option is the “Engagement” objective which has slightly different rules and should include an option to follow.

Best Practices for LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

We’ve been testing LinkedIn thought leader ads in both our own campaigns and those of our clients, and we’ve gathered some valuable insights and fundamental best practices to maximize the effectiveness of thought leader ads.

1. Retargeting with LinkedIn influencer ads

One of the effective ways of using thought leader ads is in retargeting campaigns, as they may not generate substantial website traffic when used in cold ad campaigns. When running cold ads, my preferred strategy involves driving prospects to the website to learn more about our organization and establish connection.

From there, I retarget website visitors, company page visitors, and individuals who engage with my cold ads, applying LinkedIn filters to qualify them. By showing them my top-performing posts in a 30-day retargeting group, I maximize the impact of thought leader ads on those who have already shown interest in our brand.

2. Selecting the most impactful posts for promotion

The second best practice is to avoid solely focusing on your most popular posts based on likes, comments, or views. Instead, prioritize posts that have demonstrated the ability to generate inbound leads.

These posts typically involve real examples from your own experiences, such as case studies, partnerships, or deep-level expertise where you offer valuable frameworks. By strategically promoting these impactful posts, you can maximize the effectiveness of your thought leader ad campaigns.

3. Attach interactions to retargeting audiences

Many people don’t know that interactions with LinkedIn thought leader ads can be incorporated into retargeting audiences. All clicks generated from these interactions are trackable, enabling you to include them in 30-day or 90-day retargeting audiences for further engagement.

4. Using Videos and GIFs to grab more attention

Thought leader ads support single image, text posts, as well as those containing videos and GIFs. Combining a boosted personal post with a video or GIF can help attract attention and increase click-through rates.

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating a LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Campaign

LinkedIn thought leader ads can be a bit challenging to navigate. To help you through the process, here is a step-by-step guide on creating a LinkedIn thought leader ad campaign.

1. Choose engagement or brand awareness objectives: Thought leader ads are only available with these objectives, so select the appropriate one.

2. Browse existing content: Access the ad creation interface and click on “Browse existing content.” This will display both the company and employee tabs.

3. Select the employee tab: In the employee tab, search for the relevant individual and browse through their posts from the past six months. Send requests to the person for approval to use their posts as ads.

4. Launch the campaign: Once approved, select the desired posts to sponsor and launch your Linkedin thought leader ad campaign.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn thought leader ads provide a powerful way to leverage personal profiles for effective advertising. By combining the authenticity and human touch of personal posts with the reach and targeting capabilities of LinkedIn, companies can enhance their brand image, showcase subject matter expertise, and engage with their target audience in a more meaningful way. Impactable will help you incorporate thought leader ads into your marketing strategy to yield incredible results – book a demo to learn more!

More helpful resources:

• 8 Game-Changing LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads Strategies for B2B
• LinkedIn Video Thought Leader Ads and Their Best Practices
• 7 High-Performing LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads Examples