LinkedIn is a great platform to obtain qualified leads. One way is to drive sales through social selling, and the other option is to use Linkedin Ads. One of the greatest advantages the latter has over other digital marketing platforms is that you can target B2B clients on the LinkedIn network effortlessly.

With Linkedin ads, businesses have far greater control over targeting the right prospects in accordance with their buyers’ persona. Here are 5 ways you can optimise your LinkedIn ads:

1. Use LinkedIn Sponsored Inmail Ads

For more direct targeting, it might be wise to optimise your LinkedIn Ads by using the LinkedIn Sponsored Inmail. The Sponsored Inmail has an advantage of a higher message open rates as compared to traditional methods of email campaigns and offers the additional benefit of conversion tracking.

Via conversion tracking, you can conveniently measure leads, purchases, and conversions in a verifiable and hassle-free manner from each campaign.

One huge advantage of using LinkedIn Sponsored Inmail Ads is that it captures immediate attention on the LinkedIn messenger platform. If you already have a well-defined buyers’ persona, you can use LinkedIn’s demographic data and rich targeting functions to reach out to an audience of nearly 500 million professionals. It is also possible to use interest-based targeting to improve your success rate further.

Be sure to use a strong and compelling call-to-action! Some words to use in your copywriting include “try”, “confirm”, “free”, “download”, “register” and “reserve”.

2. Choose The Image For Your Ad Carefully

If your LinkedIn ad is not showing stellar performance, try changing the image for the advertisement. You might also want to consider doing A/B testing with images. Prior surveys have indicated that some advertisers have been able to improve their ad performance by up to three times simply by changing the image.

Remember that your prospects are visual. When you choose the image for your LinkedIn advertisement, be sure to use one that is not only relevant but also stands out. A picture that is indicative and in line with your brand values is ideal–so be sure to choose the picture for your ad carefully.

3. Budget Wisely to Optimise

Be sure to budget wisely to optimise your LinkedIn ads. You can choose to advertise by cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Both methods are used differently, depending on your intention of advertising.

• If you use CPC, you can set the maximum amount you intend to pay for each click. If the intention of the campaign is to evoke a direct response to a clear call to action, then advertising by CPC can be wise.
• If you use CPM, you can set the maximum amount you intend to pay each time your ad is shown 1000 times on LinkedIn. If your intention is to create brand awareness for your company, then CPM would be an ideal strategy.

The key here is to be aware of each function in LinkedIn advertising so that you can budget and bid wisely to reach your campaign goals.

4. Target by Group

It might be wise to do your LinkedIn ad targeting by groups to reach your desired audience who may be interested in your product or service. Group targeting can be done via the construct of a buyers’ persona and requires in-depth research and understanding of your target audience.

Once the buyers’ persona is created, it is then possible to copywrite to speak directly to this persona. Subsequently, a list of trade and professional associations can then be consolidated for targeting.

There are some ways to break your audience into groups:

• Executives Who Can Make Core Decisions

For instance, LinkedIn has information about the seniority of its members in the organization, even if members don’t write the word “senior” in their job titles. This is an algorithm that LinkedIn has come up with through their Campaign Manager tool.

From this information, the B2B marketer can then have a higher chance of targeting the right person who can make decisions in the company to facilitate a more efficient business discussion geared towards conversions.

• Company Size and Industry

Consider how big a company you want to reach out to. Are you targeting professionals from MNCs or SMEs? If you are targeting professionals from MNCs, it is likely that track record matters. If you are targetting professionals from SMEs, it is likely that the company might not be able to pay you as much. Considering these factors is essential before you start the LinkedIn campaign.

• Job title and function

It can be wise to filter your prospects by job titles and functions– LinkedIn ads allow you to shortlist your prospects according to job titles. So if you want to sell specialized B2B employee training services, LinkedIn will help you find the HR decision-makers in the company.

• Industry and company size

The amazing thing about LinkedIn Ads is that they inform who your next buyer is likely to be. After estimating the market size and determining if the industry is a growing one, you will be able to estimate the financial size of the industry or company problem you can solve financially. Subsequently, you can then approach prospects. Do you estimate the size of a transport problem in Singapore as a certain number? Well, LinkedIn can then enable you to target those key decision-makers by industry and company size.

5. Use LinkedIn Conversion Tracking

LinkedIn Conversion Tracking is a useful tool to understand your advertising ROI, optimise for the most relevant results, and track the number of leads you are getting from your LinkedIn ad campaigns effortlessly. LinkedIn adopts a framework with a 30-day lookback window. It only credits a campaign or ad if that conversion is associated with the particular LinkedIn campaign.

You can access these analytics conveniently from the LinkedIn Dashboard via LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

One additional interesting feature of the LinkedIn dashboard is the LinkedIn Insight tag, where you can record the conversion rates (such as purchases, sign-ups, downloads) associated with your sponsored content or text ad campaigns. It is also possible to track conversion rates according to the device (desktop views Vs mobile), ROI, and cost of sales.

We hope you have enjoyed the 5 ways you can optimise LinkedIn ads today! In case you need professional help, we also offer a range of digital marketing services including Linkedin Marketing!