For advertisers with well-defined persona profiles, LinkedIn Advertising presents a great opportunity to reach your target audience. However, the LinkedIn platform is still fairly “young” by PPC standards and some advertisers will struggle. To help you out, here are three tips for success with LinkedIn PPC:
1. Use Dedicated Landing Pages
I won’t rant about the lack of conversion tracking, so I’ll just focus on the solution: dedicated landing pages. Basically, create clones of your PPC landing pages so you have dedicated landing pages just for LinkedIn traffic. Then set up your analytics and track LinkedIn conversions (whether that’s a lead, sale, signup, etc.) through your analytics software. Then you’re just an Excel spreadsheet away from knowing CPA on your LinkedIn advertising.
2. Layer Targeting for Precision
LinkedIn has lots of different targeting options. Here’s the high-level summary:
- Location
- Company
- Job Title
- School
- Skills
- Group
- Gender
- Age
You’re required to select a location, but as you dig into each of these main areas you’ll find several levels inside each. For example, inside of Job Title you can target by job title specifically or you can target by job function/seniority (options below)
So instead of putting in 50 individual job titles, you could target the Marketing job function and then choose Director, VP & Manager to get individuals higher in the marketing organization. Add in locations & age targets for additional precision.
3. Make A Good First Impression
The current LinkedIn system is very harsh on new ads. Therefore it’s very important you get started on the right foot.
First, you’ve got to have a good image. I recommend something that contrasts with the predominantly blue & black layout of LinkedIn. Orange, red & bright green are good places to start.
Next, the ad copy has to be interesting. Mention a direct benefit they’ll get from clicking the ad. Ask a poignant question that might resonate with your target persona. You need to get a good CTR or you’ll be banished to oblivion (and charged crazy high CPCs).
Lastly, bid aggressively. Yes, the minimum bid is $2.00, but my experience is that you’ll need to bid significantly higher to get shown in the higher ad slots. These higher ad slots get more visibility and a higher CTR so that LinkedIn will allow your ad into its good graces. You can test lower bids later, but start aggressive.
Conclusion
As you venture into the world of LinkedIn PPC these tips will help you get started right and build an additional online channel for your business.
