#0: Choosing the Right Channel: LinkedIn Ads Focus

This is the first post in a LinkedIn Ads series for marketers and managers to help them navigate the B2B world.

First, let's assess whether LinkedIn Ads is the right channel for your project - whether it's a must-have or a nice-to-have.

Key Criteria for Choosing the Right B2B Marketing Channel

1. Audience: Is your target audience (regularly) on the platform? Possible reach and activity: How big is the audience and how do they behave on the platform?
2. Targeting: Can I effectively target my ICP?Targeting capabilities of the platform: Do users provide relevant information to the platform to enable targeting (current job, skills, interests)? How accurately can you target your ICP (ideal customer profile)?Optimization capabilities: How powerful is the algorithm? Is it possible to optimize targeting based on the conversion data you provide, and how accurately can the algorithm find new audiences similar to your existing audience lists?
3. Price: Can this be worth it?Profitability: Compare your conversion rates and average deal size to media cost (CPM and CPC).
4. Content: How do I get the message across?Ad formats and content consumption habits: Does the platform have ad formats that resonate with your target audience?
5. Restrictions: How strict are the platform's policies?

Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Ads

How well do LinkedIn ads score against the criteria?

Audience

Only about 10% of the EU population logs in to LinkedIn at least once a month. (Jan - Jul 2023, DSA Transparency report)

Some industries may find it difficult to reach the ICP. They may be registered on LI but not active. For example, in the EU, only 32% of members log in monthly. So you can expect to reach only about 1/3 of your target audience forcasted in the UI.

Targeting

Your target audience is more likely to be on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram than on LinkedIn. But LI has the best data about the professional life of its users.

You can even target employees of specific companies just which I find the most powerful.

On the other hand, optimization capabilities are far behind Meta's algorithms. Don't expect high quality lookalike audiences or conversion optimization like on Facebook.

Price

The benchmark data I got from my LI rep on Tuesday was CPC $8.9, CPM $39.7 (USA data without LAN).

To make it very simple, I estimate that LinkedIn's CPM is about 2-3x higher than Meta. So I need to have at least 3x more precise targeting when using LinkedIn.

Metadata 's data shows that cheaper CPM and clicks do not guarantee cheaper acqusition.

You need to compare the CPCs with the win rate and deal size of the particular segment you are trying to target and whether the payback period is reasonable and you even have a chance to make LinkedIn Ads a profitable channel for you.

Content

The business nature of LinkedIn makes job-related content natural and ideal for lead generation.

Build-it lead gen forms come in many formats. These include formats designed specifically for these forms - such as Document ads, where you can preview the first pages of a gated ebook or whitepaper.

LinkedIn has many features that give you organic exposure. Like Events and the ability to invite up to 1000 connections per week for free and each attendee's followers will see the event in their feed. You can even promote it with a special event ad format.

You can promote employee posts (Thought Leader Ads). This enabled new tactics based on company amabasadors, especially for startups relying on founder's network.

Outside the EU, you can get ads in the message inbox using Conversation Ads, which is a great tool for sales teams that are hitting the limits for InMail messages or the 100 weekly invitation request limit.

Restrictions

The only disapproval I've seen was for excessive use of emojis ??

To wrap up

On LinkedIn you're paying extra for specific targeting. Take advantage of it!