How to test B2B advertising on LinkedIn

Getting your marketing message in front of your target market to generate leads, sales, and loyal customers is the lifeblood of every business. Though there are many ways to get your marketing message in front of your target audience, LinkedIn.com provides one of the best advertising channels.

Whether you are a small start-up business or a large corporation, LinkedIn allows you to tell your company's story, giving exposure to your products and services, and establishing your company as a proven expert in your industry to over 332 million active LinkedIn users [1].

Not only can LinkedIn help you bring online visibility to your company, it gives you the ability to find and recruit new employees as well as helping you maintain contact with your current customers. From social media exposure, to its astounding user count (with 2 new users registering every second), LinkedIn is a powerful business tool that will give you the edge in the world of competitive marketing. It also features a very quick and extremely simple way to efficiently set-up and start your very own advertising campaign to LinkedIni users with its streamlined registration procedure.

Setting up an advertising account on LinkedIn 

Before setting up your account, it is important that you decide whether your account will be a “personal account” or a “business account”. Using a personal account will prevent you from easily sharing click-through data, billing, and management tools with your colleagues. On the other hand, creating a business account for the purpose of advertisement allows you to tie your advertising campaigns to a specific company, as well as giving you the ability to share the account with other associates by separating ad management data from your personal account.

To start a business account, first sign in to LinkedIn and go to the “Dashboard”. On the upper right corner of the window, there should be your name as well as “indiv” beside it. This means that your current account that you are signed into is a personal account. Click the arrow beside your name and select “Create business account.”

Next, a form will appear asking for the company name that will be associated with your business account. Your company should be listed in the database as you type. You will have to create a new company page on LinkedIn if it is not listed at this point. Upon selecting your company name, you may click “create” which confirms that you are allowed to conduct business on behalf of the company.

Once you have finished creating your business account, you will be able to assign your associates to various roles, allowing them to obtain full administrative commands, or giving them a “standard” role, which allows them to only create and edit advertising campaigns. Other roles may include “viewers” who may view the advertising campaigns, but may not edit or create them, as well as “billing contacts” that may change the billing information for the account.

Note: You are allowed to create more than one business account on your personal log in dedicated to advertisement. This allows you to easily manage many advertisement campaigns on behalf of many other companies.

Should you choose “Pay-Per-Click” or “Cost-Per-Impression”?

Before you start your advertisement campaign, you must know the difference between “PPC” (pay-per-click) and “CPM” (Cost-Per-Impression), as well as both of their cost and fees. A PPC style ad campaign charges you every time your ad is clicked on, whereas a CPM style ad campaign charges you a set amount every time your ad is displayed 1,000 times.

Many business owners prefer PPC ad campaigns because it is completely based on performance. Every time a user clicks on your ad and is sent your website, you pay LinkedIn. On the other hand, if no one clicks on your ad, you don’t have to pay a cent. This allows you to know the cost of every click that sends traffic to your website, and allows you to work through your “conversion funnel” to ensure that your ad campaign is profitable.

Where in a PPC you will be billed every time your ad is clicked on, in a CPM style advertising campaign, you are billed every time your ad is shown 1,000 times.  CPM tends to be fairly inexpensive, allowing your ad to be shown 1,000 times for as little as $2.00 USD. This also allows you to monitor your advertising campaign’s “CTR” or click-through-rate and make changes to your budget before committing a massive amount of money to a campaign.

Though both have their advantages, they also have disadvantages, and it is up to you to model your advertising campaigns style to your product, brand, and marketing audience. If your target audience is small, than try a PPC style campaign to prevent the cost of your advertising expenditures from exceeding your profit. However, if you are tackling a wider, broader audience; using a CPM style advertising campaign allows for more exposure from the audience as well as maintaining a relatively low expense rate.

Managing your ad campaign’s cost and fees

While both plans have their distinct advantages and disadvantages, they also come with cost and fees that vary, depending on your marketing style. LinkedIn charges a minimum of $2 both per click and per thousand impressions (with a minimum amount of $10 as a maximum budget). There is also a minimum start up fee of $5 charged once after your ad gets listed; the prices will also vary depending on competition, and how many companies are vying for the advertising spots available.

Making your ad campaign effective and efficient

LinkedIn runs its ads differently compared to AdWords do to the fact that they allow you to post a small thumbnail along with your ad. There are four different elements to a LinkedIn ad including:

1. A headline, which should be short but catchy enough to draw the attention of potential consumers.
2. A destination URL: A landing page for your consumers to visit once they have clicked on the ad. It is recommended that the landing page is tailored to users in the LinkedIn community allowing your product and brand name to be spread.
3. A Photo: Again, something that catches the eye of your audience, whether it be photos of your product or of people. It is recommended that you do not use your business logo, unless you are attempting to increase your brand awareness.
4. An Ad Copy: Text or print, whatever that captures the attention of your targeted audience.

Whether you are trying to increase your brand awareness or generate quality leads for your sales force, advertising is an essential tool to bring in new customers. By using the correct techniques, you are giving yourself more lead, and turning those leads into profitable customers. LinkedIn is a popular and powerful advertising channel that will help you get your marketing message in front of business decision makers.

References:

[1] https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-few-important-linkedin-stats/