How LinkedIn advertising can complement a B2B campaign
When it comes to advertising your business, the choice is no longer a simple decision between whether you go for print, TV, radio or online. Now, there are so many additional options available including social media, out of home, experiential and even advertising over electronic assistance devices such as the Google Home Hub or Amazon Echo, that we’re spoilt for choice.
This multitude of options is great when you know what works best for you, but clients often turn to us for advice because they find that choosing the most suitable advertising platform for their business can become confusing.
We’re not saying that having much more choice is a negative thing though. Advertising has become so dynamic and much smarter in recent years, especially when it comes to digital marketing, that when used correctly, it can make a hugely positive difference to your business. It’s become so smart in fact, that reaching a specific audience is now easier than ever before as your ads can be more targeted and streamlined to ensure you’re getting the best return on investment.
Social media, for example, goes so far and wide that it isn’t just for consumer-facing businesses, as some would assume. There is a lot of opportunity for B2B companies to make the most of advertising on social media networks, and LinkedIn in particular is proving to be a great platform to work with.
One of the most beneficial things about choosing LinkedIn advertising over other options is its precise targeting capabilities. LinkedIn ads can be set to reach specific audiences based on your objective and narrowed down by location, job function, seniority, industry, job title, company size, skills and experience.
Building product manufacturers aiming to raise awareness of their business amongst decision makers, buyer and specifiers in the UK construction industry for example, can set their audience so that this is exactly who they reach. You can even exclude specific job titles or sectors and go as far as requesting that your ads are hidden from people linked with specific companies, such as anyone working at a competitor business.
When set up in this way, any ads that go out will only be visible to people that fit with your required target audience and those that are more likely to engage with your ads or find them useful. This also means your budget isn’t wasted by pushing the advert out to anyone and everyone and you are more likely to secure more warm leads as a result.
LinkedIn is also extremely budget-friendly in that you can set your total cost to only go as high as you can afford. You can do this by setting a daily limit and once this is reached your ads will pause until the following day. You can set a maximum timeframe on how long your adverts run for too. If you only have enough in your budget to run the advert for one week at £30 per day for example, you can set it so that you don’t go over this amount. Meaning you have total control over what you spend and there’s no hidden charges when the campaign ends.
There are also a number of different advert formats to choose from. This includes sponsored content, which sits on a user’s newsfeed and looks just like a normal update, sponsored messaging (InMail ads) which is sent to a user’s inbox as a direct message, text ads that show on a desktop feed and standout more as an advert, or dynamic ads, which include personal information such as a profile picture of the targeted user. We often find out of these different options, sponsored content or messaging are the best performing for our clients as feedback often shows they come across as more organic and engaging.
There are also other benefits to advertising on LinkedIn, such as the ability to download performance reports within hours of the advert going live to track if it is working as you had hoped. If it isn’t or after it has gone live you think of something else to add or want to make an amend, you can edit the advert at any time. You can also pause and restart an advert or extend it to run for a longer period of time if your budget allows too.
It’s worth noting though that a LinkedIn ad is only as successful as its content is creative. So, it’s important to ensure that the messaging is drafted with your target audience in mind, has a clear call to action, is suitable for your brand and includes eye-catching imagery or videos.
Here at Dragonfly PR, our social media team has years of experience in delivering successful, strategic advertising campaigns that are engaging, creative and on-brand. All content that we create is developed bespoke to suit our client’s requirements, products, audience, budget and has been proved to increase awareness, boost reputations and often results in securing sales.
So, if you want to get started with advertising on LinkedIn and need some support, speak to a member of our team by calling 01143 495345 or email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.
Dragonfly PR is a Sheffield-based PR and digital marketing agency that specialises in media relations, content marketing and organic SEO for construction and manufacturing companies.