6 LinkedIn Ad Features We Are Thankful For In 2020

It’s that time of year again! This rollercoaster ride of a year has had so many ups and downs, it hard to believe that we are already in the season where thankfulness reigns supreme.

COVID-19 has forced advertisers to quickly adapt to new marketing strategies as customers adjust to their new social distancing life style. Whether it’s completely changing the messaging of a campaign, or simply figuring out how to work from home, the challenges have been real.

In a year where some ad platforms have made life harder (I’m looking at you Google), I’d like to send a big thank you to the company that has been making strides to improve advertising in 2020: LinkedIn. In this post, let’s dive into 6 new LinkedIn Ad features that advertisers around the world are thankful for.

Conversation Ads

I wrote a blog post on LinkedIn Conversation Ads earlier in the year, and would love to reiterate how great these are. Conversation Ads are the natural evolution of Sponsored InMail ads, where users are sent direct messages to their LinkedIn inbox.

Unlike their predecessor, these ads go beyond a simple message and a call to action. Now, multiple CTAs (one utilizing a Lead Gen form) can be used depending on what the user might be interested in. Each button click allows a follow up message to be displayed, giving the option to thank the user and potentially provide another offer.

Even better, LinkedIn only sends the ad to users who are active, allowing advertisers to avoid wasted spend on messages that will never be read.

Bulk Uploads (Sort Of)

LinkedIn may not be the easiest platform to use, especially when others, such as Google and Facebook, offer robust tools that allow users to easily bulk upload ads. This leaves LinkedIn feeling like a manual process when creating new campaigns.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn isn’t quite there yet in 2020. That said, I am thankful that they seem to be starting the process. This year, they added a “Bulk Actions” button to the interface. Currently, this only can be used for a small number of changes, including:

• Pausing active campaigns
• Archiving completed campaigns
• Activating or archiving paused campaigns
• Pausing archived campaigns

While this is pretty useless now, I’d like to be on the glass half full side and say this is a sign of brighter things to come.

Optional URL Scraping

Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the most joy. For example, previously, if a user made any change to an ad’s destination URL, the image and headline would automatically be replaced with what could be scraped off the final URL. Thankfully, this little annoyance is an issue of the past.

Now, when users update an ads URL, they have the option to scrape the site for a potential image, saving advertisers the pain of having to re-upload ads due to a slight URL change.

Competitor Transparency

Currently, LinkedIn offers all users the ability to view a company’s ads if it has been seen by at least one member in the past six months. We consider the advertising transparency a double-edged sword for companies (while a win for the consumers). On one hand, advertisers now have even more visibility into what their competitor’s ads look like. This is perfect for crafting a strategy to combat a competitor and beat them at their own game.

On the other hand, competitor’s can see your ad to get ideas on optimizing their own campaign. It’s all in the spirit of fairness at the end of the day, which I can be thankful for.

Company Engagement Report

Who isn’t thankful for more data? LinkedIn is now allowing advertisers the ability to look at engagement at the company level. With their new “Company Engagement Report”, users can now find the following information about individual companies:

• Impressions
• Ad Engagements
• Website Visits

In order to utilize this feature, you will need to run a campaign that targets a company target list. Advertisers will now be able to discover what ads resonate the best with each individual company. With this data, new strategies can be created that are tailored perfectly to the company’s needs.

Company Growth Bidding

Lastly, LinkedIn launched a new targeting feature that is sure to make growing companies thankful. Advertisers can now show ads to companies based on their rate of growth. LinkedIn bases their growth rate on the following:

• Growth in employee totals
• Inferred data from other similar companies

LinkedIn already has some of the most sophisticated targeting options out there, so it’s exciting that they continue to find ways to utilize their data and further innovate.

Final Thought

2020 hasn’t been the easiest year. We have all needed to make changes one way or another, whether it’s professionally or personally. That is why I’m taking Thanksgiving to reflect on the areas of my life I can be thankful for. From a professional side, where I know the world of marketing never sleeps, LinkedIn has given me and other advertisers many reasons to be thankful in 2020.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving this year!