For many people LinkedIn is little more than a site for displaying a curriculum vitae. For others, it is a professional social network that allows them to forge business connections. However, it’s easy to forget that it also provides the opportunity to run an advertising campaign targeted at professionals.
LinkedIn differs from many other social networks in that it’s a social network for professionals. This focus means that adverts on the site will tend to be seen by a very specific audience. This offers all businesses, but especially those focused on B2B sales, a chance to run a targeted advertising campaign. This post will explore how to take the first steps toward running such a campaign.
CPC vs. CPM
Like many advertising platforms, LinkedIn allows payment in one of two ways. The first of these is Cost Per Click, or CPC. In this case, you pay every time someone clicks on your advert. As such, this is an ideal approach if you’re hoping to encourage people to buy your product. The other option is CPM, or cost per 1000 impressions. An impression refers to a person who has seen, though not necessarily clicked on, one of your adverts. This approach might be suitable if you’re trying to improve brand recognition.
In either case, you get to set a budget in two ways. The first thing you do is set a daily budget – this is the maximum amount you can end up spending each day. You also set a bid, which is basically the cost you’re willing to pay per click or per 1000 impressions. The higher your bid, the more likely your ad is to be displayed.
Targeted advertising
While most advertising gives you some capacity to target your advertising to certain users, LinkedIn gives you a unique opportunity to target professionals. For a start, it is a social network for professionals so, to some extent, your ads are targeted simply in virtue of being placed on the site. On top of this, however their advertising system also allows you to target your campaign by company, job title and LinkedIn Group, as well as more standard criteria like age, location and gender.
Don’t like their native advertising? Then there are alternatives to that, too.
Testing your Campaign
Finally, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to run multiple ads simultaneously so that you can compare their effectiveness. This allows you to test different images, headlines and different body text. By monitoring these campaigns you can then determine which are most effective and focus your funds on these.
Have you used LinkedIn advertisements to promote your business?
