You’re falling behind if you’re a marketing manager who’s still in the dark about LinkedIn’s top advertising tools: Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail and Matched Audiences. These three promotional tools can help marketers working in B2B, B2G and even B2C quickly gain qualified leads, increase brand visibility, grow event attendance, retarget website visitors and more. LinkedIn marketing campaigns are easy to set up and manage, and for businesses with a limited budget, they can even replace your Google Ads efforts from time to time for a more targeted strategy.
If you’ve researched the benefits of LinkedIn advertising on your own or discussed it with your marketing agency, you likely have a sense of the lead generation it can deliver. But how much really goes into building a campaign and what resources will your marketing agency need to deliver you maximum ROI? Here’s what you need to get started:
1. The Content
First, you’ll need a valuable, substantial piece of content to offer your target audience through a LinkedIn ad or InMail message. If you’ve invested in content marketing, chances are you already have an offer like this waiting on the sidelines, ready to go. But if you need some guidance to create a fresh piece, look through our tips on developing outstanding content offers. Here are more things to keep in mind when choosing or creating your content for LinkedIn advertising:
- Ensure the content speaks to the right buyer persona. In other words, the offer should match the focus and intent of the campaign. LinkedIn allows you to narrow down large segments of the platform’s users based on location, industry, job title, age and more. Because you can always construct more than one campaign to target each of your buyer personas, you shouldn’t create a catch-all offer that tries to lump together the pain points of all personas.
- Choose a truly substantial piece of content worth downloading. While they’re great for content marketing purposes, small offers like tip sheets, checklists and infographics are not good choices for LinkedIn advertising purposes. What performs best are lengthier, larger pieces like eBooks and whitepapers. Would you want to give up your contact info to read a brief article? Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes to determine how valuable your content really is.
- Make it engaging, unique and share-worthy. As a marketer myself, the offers that have held my attention included engaging visuals, clean formatting, surprising stats and thoughtful discussion that I felt like I couldn’t find anywhere else. Produce something that is chock-full of information, supplying an enlightening overview of a topic to encourage readers to share the wealth – by sharing your content. This could mean the offer is timely and discusses new industry trends, but it could also mean it’s a simple, timeless guide that readers can consult over and over again.
2. The Landing Page & Thank You Page
Once LinkedIn users click through your ad or click the link supplied in your InMail, they should be taken to a landing page that clearly explains what they’re getting, why they need it and how it will be delivered to them. If you don’t provide each of these elements, you risk losing out on obtaining contact information from leads who could be ideal buyers. According to HubSpot’s landing page best practices, make sure your landing page includes:
- The title of the offer, which matches the title on the offer, referenced in your InMail campaign and featured anywhere else – be consistent to avoid confusing leads
- A brief paragraph that gives a quick overview of what’s inside and how leads can make use of the content they’ll download
- A few bullet points that outline the piece or the benefits of reading and using it
- A thumbnail that shows what the offer (or its cover page) looks like
- A simple form positioned above the page fold with that includes only the fields needed for your team to follow up (name, email and company name, for example)
The thank you page should provide the option for users to immediately access or download the offer and should also include a few links to other articles or pages on your website that might interest them. If you need a better idea of what your landing page should look like, take a look at the magic formula for increasing landing page conversions.
3. The Ad or InMail Copy
Basic advertising and emailing best practices will apply to your LinkedIn campaign, but you should also be aware of the copy recommendations shared by the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions team to boost copy effectiveness. Your marketing agency’s copywriters will follow LinkedIn’s guidelines for ads and InMail messages, including:
Ad copy:
- Capping the intro copy at 140 characters to avoid burying the link
- Using a clear, simple CTA that encourages a single action
- Addressing buyers’ pain points and using “you” and “your” language
InMail copy:
- Avoiding overuse of bold, italicized or distracting formatting
- Writing in a conversational and professional tone
- Giving the message context through buyer research
4. The Target & Budget
To refine your campaign focus, your agency’s digital marketing manager will need specific info about your target to finish the campaign setup. They will look to your internal team to provide:
- Budget
- Payment option (pay per click, pay per impression)
- Location
- Industry
- Company size
- Company name(s) (if targeting specific businesses)
- Job title, function and seniority
- Age and gender
These are the four biggest elements that make up LinkedIn advertising campaigns, but there are still more items to include and more tips that can drive success for your business. Give our eBook, LinkedIn for Leads: Quick-Start Guide for Busy B2B Professionals, a quick read-through to start implementing one (or all!) of LinkedIn’s three major advertising offerings: Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail and Matched Audiences. It’s a short and sweet eBook that contains only the need-to-know info, best practices and tips for creating outstanding LinkedIn advertising campaigns.
Are you interested in B2B marketing services? Contact Sagefrog Marketing Group today.
