Create Your First LinkedIn Ad Campaign: Best Practices to Maximize Conversions

For years, you've been active on LinkedIn, engaging with posts, building connections, and perhaps even securing leads. But as your business grows, it's time to adapt.

You've likely seen sponsored content on your feed, drawing your attention and prompting action. Have you considered creating your own ads?

While organic engagement has its benefits, targeted advertising can extend your reach, foster deeper interactions, and enhance business outcomes.

Embarking on your first LinkedIn ad campaign may feel overwhelming, but fear not—I'm here to assist. With step-by-step guidance, practical tips, and insights, I'll help you launch, measure, and optimize your ads for success.

Things to Do Before Starting Your Campaign

Thoroughly prepare and understand LinkedIn's capabilities to launch your first campaign effectively, ensuring efficient audience reach and engagement.

• Set Up a LinkedIn Business Account: First, create a LinkedIn business account. Then, confirm it’s set up correctly by checking for an “advertise” icon on your page.
• Engage Organically: Post high-quality content regularly to enhance your page’s visibility. This builds credibility and improves ad performance.
• Create a LinkedIn Page: If you haven’t already, create one. This is essential for running sponsored content and messages.
• Define Your Campaign Objectives: Use LinkedIn's objective-based advertising to define clear goals for your campaign, such as brand awareness, lead generation, or engagement.
• Learn About Ad Formats: Familiarize yourself with the ad formats:
• Sponsored Content: Appears in feeds; includes Single-Image Ads, Carousel Ads, and Video Ads.
• Sponsored Messaging: Delivers personalized messages directly to users; formats include Message Ads and Conversation Ads.
• Text Ads: Simple, cost-effective ads that appear on LinkedIn desktop.
• Set Up Campaign Manager: Access LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager to create ad accounts and manage campaigns. You’ll need a LinkedIn account and a credit card to start.
• Organize Your Campaign Groups: Structure your campaigns within groups for better organization and management. You can create groups annually or bi-annually for easier review and repetition of successful campaigns.
• Target Your Audience: Specify your audience by job title, function, company size, and more. LinkedIn allows intricate targeting; refining this over time can yield better engagement.
• Implement Retargeting: Utilize LinkedIn’s retargeting to engage people who have visited your website or interacted with previous ads.
• Select Ad Formats Based on Objectives: Your ad format should align with your campaign objective to optimize impact.
• Set a Budget and Schedule: Decide on a daily or lifetime budget, starting at a minimum of $10 per day, and schedule your campaign accordingly.
• Create and Name Your Ads: Use the LinkedIn Ads library to streamline the creation process and ensure each ad is distinctively named for tracking. LinkedIn ad specs suggest vertical images of 1200 by 627 pixels.
• Optimize Ad Copy: Adhere to character limits—up to 200 for headlines and 600 for introductory text. A concise, engaging copy can significantly enhance user engagement.

The Must-Have Components for Your LinkedIn Ad Copy

Here are the must-have components for your LinkedIn ad copy:

• Headline: Make it attention-grabbing and concise, conveying the core benefit in 25 characters.
• Description: Support the headline with a direct call to action in 75 characters or less.
• Call-to-Action (CTA): Ensure a clear, aligned action for users like "Learn More" or "Sign Up."
• Visuals: Use relevant, appealing images meeting LinkedIn's size and format requirements.
• Destination URL: Link to a relevant page, ensuring it works seamlessly with the ad's promise.
• Value Proposition: Clearly state the benefit to entice engagement implicitly.
• Targeted Language: Speak directly to your audience using industry-specific terms.
• Urgency or Scarcity: Add urgency or scarcity elements for immediate action if applicable.
• Proof Elements: Incorporate testimonials or awards for credibility.
• Compliance and Clarity: Check for errors, comply with LinkedIn's policies, and avoid jargon.

Integrating these components will help you create compelling LinkedIn ad copy that captures attention, communicates value, and drives action.

Steps to Create Your First LinkedIn Ad Campaign

Follow these steps to create your first ad campaign for LinkedIn:

Step 1: Set up your LinkedIn campaign

To initiate your campaign, select the LinkedIn Page and ad account you wish to use. Proceed to choose a campaign group that helps manage related ad campaigns on a larger scale and establish a campaign objective.

1. Navigate to Composer and click on LinkedIn ad campaign, which should be highlighted in the menu.

2. In the pop-up window for a new LinkedIn ad campaign, choose the LinkedIn Page and ad account for your campaign.

3. Select a Campaign Group from the options available.

1. Name your campaign appropriately.
2. Determine the objective of your campaign, aligning it with your business goals. Options include:

• Website visits - Aim to increase traffic to a website or specific landing page.
• Brand awareness - Broaden the visibility of your ads.
• Engagement - Boost interaction with your content.
• Lead generation - Gather contact details from prospective clients.
• Conversions - Encourage actions like purchases, event registrations, or downloads. For this option, specify the event you will use to track conversions.

Step 2: Choose your target audience

Begin by specifying the target audience for your LinkedIn ad campaign to ensure your advertisement reaches the appropriate viewers.

1. Navigate to the Audience section and click on Edit.

2. In the window labeled Build your audience, choose a language for your audience targeting. LinkedIn will direct your ad to users whose profile language aligns with your selection.

3. Under Locations, choose how you want LinkedIn to identify your audience's location.

• Select Target by recent and permanent location to target users based on the location in their LinkedIn profiles and their IP addresses, which accounts for temporary visits elsewhere.
• Choose Target by permanent location to focus on users solely based on the location indicated in their LinkedIn profiles.

4. Input a location in the search bar to target a specific geographic region, ranging from cities and metropolitan areas to broader regions like states or countries. You can also select Exclude Location to omit certain areas.

5. Under Detailed Targeting, select Include People to access a broader range of categories for more precise targeting based on specific characteristics, such as:

• Company: connections, followers, industry, name, and size
• Demographics: age and gender
• Education: fields of study, degrees, schools
• Job Experience: job function, title, seniority, years of experience
• Interests: LinkedIn groups and member interests

6. For a deeper understanding of the available attributes, refer to the LinkedIn help article titled Targeting Options for LinkedIn Advertisements.

7. You can also choose Exclude People to specify the characteristics of individuals you wish to omit from your target audience

8. Click Save Audience to store your settings.

9. If you prefer not to use LinkedIn’s Audience Network feature, enabled by default to increase your ad’s reach, toggle the Enable LinkedIn Audience Network option off.

Step 3: Set your campaign budget and duration

You can set a daily or lifetime budget for your ad campaign or set a budget for both. LinkedIn allocates your ad spend until the campaign ends or the budget runs out.

Ensure your campaign budget doesn't exceed the budget allocated for the campaign group.

1. Select how you want LinkedIn to allocate your budget in the Budget and Schedule section.

• Set a daily budget: Set a limit on how much to spend daily.
• Set a lifetime budget: Limit how much to spend for the campaign.
• Set a daily and lifetime budget: This budget type limits how much you can spend per day and for the entire campaign. Campaigns with this budget type have no end date.

2. Enter the amount you want to spend.

3. Select a start and end date for your campaign. Your campaign end date must be no later than the set date for the campaign group.

4. Select Next

Step 4: Build Your LinkedIn Ad

As you build your ad, Hootsuite displays a preview of what your ad will look like on mobile and desktop platforms.

1. Enter a description for your ad to tell people what you’re promoting (up to 3000 characters).

2. Add an image or video. You can drag a media file into the box or upload a file from your computer.

3. Enter a headline to get your audience’s attention.

4. Enter a URL for your website or landing page.

5. Select a call to action. This is the text on the button you want your audience to click or tap.

6. If you want to build another ad, select Create a new ad. To create a variation of an existing ad, select Copy details to a new ad and then make any necessary changes.

7. Repeat step 6 to create more ads. You can include up to 50 ads in your campaign.

Step 5: Publish Your LinkedIn Campaign

Once you've built your ads and checked the ad preview on mobile and desktop platforms to ensure you're happy with how they look, you're ready to publish your ad campaign.

1. Select Summary to review your campaign details. You can return to previous screens to make any changes you need to.

2. Select Publish campaign.

Best Practices to Follow for Your First LinkedIn Ad Campaign

Launching your first LinkedIn ad campaign can be an exciting step toward growing your business’s online presence. To maximize your success, consider these best practices:

Next Steps

While starting your first LinkedIn ad campaign is exciting, it's also complex. Following best practices can help, but working with a digital marketing expert offers additional benefits. They bring experience, insights, and ongoing support to ensure your ads resonate with your audience and drive results.

That's where I can help. With extensive expertise in LinkedIn ads, I offer tailored strategies and hands-on guidance to maximize the impact of your campaigns. From crafting compelling ad copy to optimizing targeting and budget allocation, I'll work closely with you to achieve your advertising goals and elevate your business on LinkedIn.

Book a 1:1 call with me .