5 Reasons B2B Marketers Should Use LinkedIn Conversation Ads
Last year, it was reported that 2.5 billion users worldwide use mobile messaging apps, with many checking them over 3 times a day. B2B marketers should see this as a huge social media advertising opportunity. It is now time to look beyond traditional paid ad formats and start taking the conversation directly to the user.
Over the last few years, LinkedIn has been developing ads that directly talk with users within their messaging platform, InMail. “Message Ads” (formally Sponsored InMail) was their first ad type that accomplished this. In March 2020, LinkedIn launched a pubic beta for “Conversation Ads”, which further expanded and improved upon how advertisers can talk to users in InMail.
In this post, we will discuss the 5 ways Conversation Ads will allow B2B marketers to further drive quality engagements with their target audience.
Engage with Customized Messaging
Where Conversation Ads differ the most from Message Ads is the specific way the messages are laid out. With Message Ads, marketers can only send one message, from a specific employee within a company, with a single CTA button.
Conversation Ads expand upon this in a few areas:
- Multiple CTA Actions – When a user sees the message, they will have multiple responses to choose from. Up to 5 actions can be added per message.
- Additional Messages – Instead of just one message, a new message is sent to the user based on the response button they select.
Below is an example of how a Conversation Ad flows:
These two additions provide marketers the ability to further give their messaging the personalized touch that can help improve engagement.
Target LinkedIn Matched Audiences
Conversation Ads are only as powerful as the audience marketers are targeting. Thankfully, LinkedIn has some of the best targeting features, with the ability to create user lists based on industry, job title, company size and more. For Conversation Ads, however, we recommend drilling down even further and targeting based on an email list of desired customers (called Matched Audiences).
By pairing Conversation Ads with specific user’s emails, marketers now have another avenue to directly speak to their target audience. For example, Conversation Ads can run along with an email blast campaign, using the same email list and messaging. This strategy will help increase the overall open rate, along with improving conversion rates.
Utilize Lead Gen Forms
I discussed in a previous post about the power of Lead Gen forms within LinkedIn. By adding Lead Gen forms to an ad, marketers will see an improvement in their conversion totals due to:
- Users not having to leave LinkedIn to fill out the form
- LinkedIn information auto-populating in the form
- Users being given a direct link to the piece of content (if offered)
Conversation Ads, like other ads on the platform, can utilize Lead Gen forms to improve lead totals. For each button option created in the ad, a lead gen form can be tied to it. This will allow for users to submit their information right within the conversation.
Only Target Active Users
The biggest issue with sending email blasts to targeted users is that the message might be sent to old/outdated users. This can result in a poor open rate, lower conversion totals, and unnecessary spend.
With Conversations Ads on LinkedIn, the ads are only delivered to users who are active on the platform. This is thanks to the “Active Status” feature that shows when a user is available.
By only sending ads to users who are active, LinkedIn makes sure that:
- There is no wasted spend on users who would never see the message.
- Users get the message right when they are most likely to engage.
Optimize Based on Reporting
Giving users multiple options to choose from does not only benefit the user receiving the message. Marketers can be thankful for the fact that LinkedIn will provide them with reporting to make actionable decisions on. This can include:
- What assets are being downloaded the most
- What messages are leading to the most site traffic
- What messages cause users to abandon the conversation
By better understanding how users respond to messages, marketers can make changes and provide the highest quality ad content in the future.
Final Thoughts
One-on-one conversations with customers have become more important than ever, especially for B2B companies with long sales processes. Thankfully, LinkedIn has continued to find ways, through ads, to make the process of talking directly to a target audience as seamless as possible.
Conversation Ads give marketers the perfect opportunity to add a personal touch to their ad messages on the platform. Now is the time to go beyond traditional online advertising and start talking to customers directly.