The ins and outs of LinkedIn Advertising

LinkedIn has more than 57 million companies on its platform. With LinkedIn advertising, companies have seen a 33 percent increase in purchase intent. With more than 33 million professionals on the platform, many brands invest in paid social media campaigns to meet business goals. But how can you create an engaging LinkedIn ad campaign that works for your business?

Create a plan of action and stick to it

LinkedIn allows a business to advertise through various types of ads like: objective-based advertising, sponsored messaging, text ads or dynamic ads. Although advertising on LinkedIn is user-friendly, it requires close attention and tracking so it is important that businesses have a plan of action which entails advertising goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). With a plan of action, a business can ensure it does not stray from achieving its goals and will maximise advertising efforts. This is fundamental to achieving a high return on investment (ROI).

A great way to maximise ad efforts is to run A/B tests. This sounds technical but it is easier than you may think. To run an A/B test, set up two campaigns according to the same ad criteria but change just one component like the targeting, the visuals or even the caption. Run the two ads or ad campaigns for at least four weeks and then look at the results. Now you will be able to tell which ad campaign performed better and had a greater impact on ROI rate.

Emotive content is the way forward

Social media users are looking for stories, not case studies. A big part of appealing to an online community is being a part of the wider conversation. Brands must be aware of the context in which their content exists and above all, they must be human.

By taking a people-centric approach to advertising and creating content, you can have a bigger impact on your target audience. Carousel ads are a great way to inspire and motivate the audience to engage with an ad. Companies like Coca-Cola, Adobe and MailChimp are doing just that with their content.

Should a business care about analytics?

An integral part of paid advertising is monitoring engagement and performance in real-time, so the insight gained can inform your wider marketing strategy, and ensure business goals are being met. But with so much insight, it can be overwhelming and confusing to know which metrics to care about. Below we have put together some common advertising objectives and the key metrics you should use to measure performance.