Marketers' Edition: Building your B2B storefront, AI-powered Ads, In-stream video + Inspiring conversations about design, marketing, & communications

Every few weeks, I share new products and experiments that seem to be working — or not!— to give you some ideas for what we’re building, why we’re building it, and how we operate; I’d love your feedback on everything! – Tomer?

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As we approach the end of June and prepare for summer breaks in many parts of the northern hemisphere, I hope you're making plans to rest and recharge. If you're looking for a refreshing summer read, I highly recommend the new edition of Creativity, Inc penned by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar. Having recently hosted a LinkedIn Live session with Ed, I can assure you that his insights on creativity, leadership and innovation are not to be missed.

In a previous post, I discussed the role of AI, Skills, and Climate Change as pivotal economic factors, drawing from macro-trends observed across Europe. Your interest & responses prompted me to dive deeper, and I wanted to share a few compelling data points highlighting the demand:

• AI: As of May 2023, job listings on LinkedIn mentioning GPT saw an astounding increase of almost 6X year-over-year. Last year's LinkedIn data revealed hiring demand for AI skills significantly outstripping overall hiring growth, with noteworthy figures like 37% in Hong Kong, 19% in Spain, and 18% each in Italy and the UK.?
• Green: Workers equipped with at least one green skill are being hired at a rate 29% higher than the workforce average. However, our Global Green Skills Report 2023 reveals that only 1 in 8 people possess the necessary green skills.

As you can anticipate, those trends are expected to continue to progress and strengthen over time.

And now, on to our product updates. This section, co-authored by our product leaders, Nitin Julka and 杨赫 , will offer insights and guidance on leveraging LinkedIn's organic and paid marketing tools to bolster your brand and accelerate demand generation.

1. Attract Product Buyers through your LinkedIn Page Storefront

According to Gartner, B2B buyers spend 83% of their time during the buying journey conducting self-research and consulting with their buying committee before talking to sellers. With upcoming Product Page enhancements, we’re helping B2B organizations put their best foot forward through new features that showcase key product information to buyers. Soon, you’ll be able to share information around your product’s pricing plans and supported software integrations to help potential buyers decide if your product is right for them.

We also know that social proof plays a role in the buying journey. In the coming months, we’ll add a module to your Product Page to help Buyers connect with experienced users in their extended network to help inform their buying decision. So don’t forget to add Featured Customers and encourage your existing users to add your products as skills, so that you can have your strongest advocates showcased on your Product Page.

2. Connect with Buyers, Customers and Talent through Pages Messaging

Now that you’ve won over buyers with your amazing offerings… What's next???

We recently announced the rollout of Pages Messaging which will allow buyers and companies to connect in a whole new way: Buyers will be able to directly reach out to your LinkedIn Page by sending a direct message, and Page admins will have a dedicated inbox with customizable topics, so that they can manage these two-way conversations and prioritize inquiries that matter most to their business.??

In addition to connecting with buyers, organizations can also choose to opt in to ‘job inquiries’ for all the talented individuals out there looking for career opportunities. And hey, why not also turn on ‘support’ to make it super easy for your existing customers to reach out? Fostering those relationships through messaging can make them great advocates for your products and services to future buyers as well.

3. Helping B2B marketers jumpstart campaigns with AI-generated Copy Suggestions?

We often hear from marketers that ad copy development is a manual and time-consuming process. Over 55% of B2B marketers plan to use Generative AI to increase their efficiency so they can focus on higher-value work. I am excited to share that we began piloting AI-generated Copy Suggestions, a tool that leverages OpenAI GPT models to leverage data from your Pages and Campaigns to suggest up to five headlines and ad copy variations that B2B marketers can use to jumpstart their creative process.

We are currently in a limited alpha in North America, and plan to roll it out to additional languages and regions in the coming months.?

4. Sharing your Brand Story with Thought Leader Ads

Every professional is a potential member of a buying committee. Imagine you're selling me Product Management software. When I was an entry level product manager at a startup, marketers may have excluded me from their target audience. But a mere 1-2 years later, after my startup was acquired by LinkedIn, I am championing bringing new product management software into LinkedIn with the brands that built an authentic relationship with me prior to becoming a decision maker.

Only 5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any given time and even fewer during an economic downturn. Over 50% of Active Buyers are 'actively buying' only one day in a quarter. Finally, 90% of buyers will choose a vendor that is already in mind on Day 1. B2B marketers must invest in branding before a buyer is in market to get their spot on this “Day 1 list.”?

One of the most effective ways to build your brand is by sharing thought leadership content, from real people, that feels authentic, personal, and humanizing. Thought Leader Ads is a new ad format that empowers brands to sponsor posts from thought leaders at their company to connect with buyers and build their brand. We are seeing incredible early performance in our Thought Leader Ads, with Beta customers reporting a 1.7x higher clickthrough rate (CTR) and 1.6x higher engagement rate compared to other single-image ads.

Thought Leader Ads is now available to managed advertisers and will be rolled out globally in all languages later this year.

5. B2B Buyers and In-stream Video?

A few weeks ago, eMarketer shared that “CTV is the fastest growing ad format.” Immersive video environments are essential for B2B marketers to create lasting, memorable brand experiences, and there’s so much opportunity here.?

In-stream Video Ads are now available and can be used to scale campaign reach and connect with professional audiences across our network of publishers.These ads, which will appear on mobile or desktop apps and sites, will play at the beginning (pre-roll) and middle (mid-roll) of long-form video content on trusted publisher sites across the LinkedIn Audience Network.

In-stream Video Ads are generally available, and we look forward to bringing you along on our journey to improve immersive video offerings for B2B.

Every day I’m amazed by the heart of the LinkedIn community and the incredible sense of purpose, insight, passion, generosity, and humor that is showcased through conversations across the platform. I love seeing all the unique and inspiring posts－and I’m excited to share some of my favorites with you.??

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Abdul Wahab, a product designer, breaks down the laws of user experience by outlining how Airbnb leverages these concepts to create a user-centric product.

Molly Phillips , a digital marketing executive, shares her take on Corona’s latest ad campaign and why she thought it was so successful with tips for other companies.

Nicholas Thompson , CEO of The Atlantic, shares a powerful visualization that shows the impact of smartphones on the camera market over the years?

Allison Braley a partner at Bain Capital, uses the popular show Succession as a tool to talk & spark a debate about different facets of communications and brand work

Gord Ray , the former director of product marketing at Instagram, after being impacted by layoffs shares his reflection about his career goals, reaches out to his network for help and shares how he believe he can add value.

With gratitude,

Tomer