Power of LinkedIn Ads: A Comprehensive Guide for B2B and B2C Marketing

Learning a new advertising platform can be intimidating, which is why we often stick to the ones we know and don't try anything new.

Today, I will be introducing you to the perks of LinkedIn ads. If you intend to work with other businesses, captivate professionals, or drive more leads, LinkedIn ads is arguably your best option.

LinkedIn ranks at the top for B2B marketing, but it is also heavily exploited for B2C marketing. The reason being, LinkedIn users, on average, have double the purchasing power of users on other platforms. They are ready to spend, making them your potential consumers.

In this article, I will guide you on how to set up your first ad campaign, tips to make your ad stand out, and everything you need to know about audience expansion and setting up your audience size.

LinkedIn Advertising Dashboard

To access the LinkedIn ads platform, just click on advertise. This leads you to the LinkedIn advertising dashboard.

To commence, you'll need to create a new campaign by clicking on 'create' and then on 'campaign' or 'campaign group.' Specializing in ad creation and overcoming associated hurdles related to audience size and campaign objective, I hope to make your ad creation journey plain sailing.

A campaign group can contain several different ads, and you can test them all concurrently within one group, especially useful if you're promoting a specific product or service.

When setting your ad's objective, you can choose between brand awareness, driving website visits, engagement, and conversions.

Personally, I opt for website conversion or lead generation because they provide more value, leading to purchases on your website or generating potential leads.

LinkedIn Ad Formats

Moving on to ad formats. LinkedIn offers several unique ad formats not found on other platforms.

Besides the regular single ad, carousel ad, video ads, they offer message ads and spotlight ads.

Message ads are directly delivered to your target's inbox, and spotlight ads are personalized based on the individual's profile data.

LinkedIn Single Ads

The LinkedIn regular single ad, also known as a Single Image Ad, is a Sponsored Content ad format that includes one image and is displayed directly in the target audience's LinkedIn feed.

These ads have specific advertising specifications to ensure they meet guidelines and display effectively.

The image specifications include file types like JPG, PNG, or GIF, with a maximum file size of 5 MB. The image size should be 7680 x 4320 pixels, with different aspect ratios recommended for horizontal (1.91:1), square (1:1), and vertical (4:5) images.

Additionally, the ad allows for up to five ads with multiple images, and it includes fields for headline, introductory text, description, call-to-action, and optional image alt text for accessibility purposes

LinkedIn Carousel Ads

LinkedIn Carousel Ads are a form of Sponsored Content on LinkedIn that allow advertisers to showcase up to 10 images with individual links in a single ad. These ads provide more creative space to engage the audience effectively.

With Carousel Ads, advertisers can highlight different services, products, offers, or tell a brand story that evolves as viewers swipe through each image.

The success stories of Carousel Ads demonstrate their effectiveness in reaching decision-makers and driving engagement.

Advertisers can customize Carousel Ads based on their objectives, such as building brand awareness, consideration, driving traffic to landing pages, or generating high-quality leads.

It is recommended to be descriptive in the main ad headline and text, feature a clear call-to-action, and target the audience effectively while creating Carousel Ads.

Advertisers can measure the impact of Carousel Ads by tracking engagement metrics like click-through rates and impressions for each individual card, allowing for optimization based on performance.

Carousel Ads on LinkedIn offer a unique opportunity to create interactive and engaging ad campaigns that resonate with the target audience and drive desired actions

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LinkedIn Video Ads

LinkedIn video ads are a type of Sponsored Content ad format that appears in the LinkedIn feed, allowing brands to engage with a professional target audience effectively.

These video ads offer the same targeting options as other LinkedIn advertising formats and can help achieve various marketing objectives throughout the entire sales funnel.

They are instrumental in building brand awareness, driving qualified traffic to websites or landing pages, and collecting leads through call-to-action buttons or Lead Gen Forms.

LinkedIn video ads can be part of a Sponsored Content campaign to promote video content on a Company page or a Direct Sponsored Content campaign to personalize video ads for specific audiences without publishing them to the page.

The specifications for LinkedIn video ads include length ranging from 3 seconds to 30 minutes, horizontal or vertical layout, file size between 75 KB and 200 MB, MP4 format, frame rate less than 30 FPS, specific pixel and aspect ratio requirements, AAC or MPEG4 audio format, and other technical details.

Best practices for LinkedIn video ads include creating engaging visual stories, humanizing content, adding captions for muted autoplay videos, measuring success based on objectives like brand awareness or demand generation, and conducting A/B testing to optimize ad performance

Set up LinkedIn Company Page

Next, you should set up a LinkedIn company page.

This is relatively simple, just a few clicks away. Make sure you have your payment details ready to avoid hiccups later.

Once you're done setting up, group your ads under 'campaign groups' for easy budget and date management for that specific group.

Set up Audience for LinkedIn Ads

When you set up your audience, be careful with the audience size. If it's too broad, you may end up wasting your budget. Consider who typically buys from you, who follows you on social media and target those demographics.

Over time, as you gain more experience, you can fine-tune your audience to improve results.

Alongside targeting, also consider using exclusions to filter out irrelevant viewers.

The LinkedIn dashboard offers a wide range of audience attributes you can choose from, such as company, demographics, education, job experience, interest, and traits.

These are fairly straightforward, and all you need to do is to spend some time exploring these options. As you're selecting attributes, always pay attention to your audience size.

A larger audience is cheaper in terms of ad costs and is more likely to generate relevant leads. But be wary of LinkedIn's recommendations, as their interests might not align with yours.

Lastly, one other important option is audience expansion.

LinkedIn uses AI and algorithmic magic to find other people you should be advertising to based on your target audience details.

I would advise you to test it out by creating two identical ads, one with audience expansion and the other without, to compare their performance.

In conclusion, LinkedIn advertising can be a powerful tool for both B2B and B2C marketing.

By carefully selecting your target audience and ad formats, you can tap into LinkedIn's pool of professionals who are ready and willing to spend.

But remember to treat this as an ongoing learning process, keep testing, learning, and optimizing your ad campaigns for the best results.