When you think about social media advertising, LinkedIn is not a platform that immediately jumps to mind. The LinkedIn website currently receives over 106 million unique visitors every month so if you’re looking to network with and market to working professionals, this is definitely a platform to consider.

B2B marketers don’t have nearly as many social media advertising opportunities as B2C marketers, which is why it’s so important to have a strong strategy in place in order to put your marketing budget to good use.

LinkedIn advertising opportunities

If you’re considering running a LinkedIn advertising campaign, below are the options available to you.

Sponsored content

This option allows you to boost your LinkedIn content. This can be anything from news and industry articles to YouTube videos. Sponsored content will help drive your ideal target audience to your company page, LinkedIn group or website.

Text ads

Text ads are mainly used to generate qualified leads. Text ads appear in the left hand column of a user’s newsfeed and will contain an image, a few lines of copy and a call-to-action. This option allows you to control costs with cost per impression and cost per click pricing.

Both advertising options allow you to pick specific targeting so that you’re only reaching your ideal target market.

LinkedIn advertising tips

If you’ve decided to give LinkedIn advertising a go, below are a few tips to help you get the best possible results.

Think carefully about your targeting

Before you decide on your targeting, do some research and develop audience personas. Next, do some research on LinkedIn and make a list of groups that your ideal target audience would potentially be members of so that you can add it to your targeting. Other targeting options include job title and function, seniority and industry and company size. To avoid watering down your audience, it’s best to keep your targeting list short instead of creating a very detailed list of criteria.

Spend time on your copy

Why should LinkedIn members care about what you have to say? Try and build your copy around this exact statement if you really want to grab their attention. Keep your copy simple and try and stay away from jargon that might get lost in translation.

Cater for mobile

Mobile has overtaken desktop, especially when it comes to social media traffic, so it’s essential that you develop your campaign for mobile devices too. From copy length to image sizes, users shouldn’t struggle to read your ad or the content that you’re linking to.

Keep your images relevant

Images play an important role in the success of your social media campaigns so take the time to choose something eye-catching and relevant. Try and stay away from generic stock images as this can dull the effects of your ad completely.

Track and optimize

When you’re running social media ads, testing is not an option. If you’re not keeping a close eye on your campaigns and your stats you run the risk of wasting a large portion of your marketing budget. Track your stats in order to optimize your campaign where necessary.