LinkedIn for Business: 5 Ways B2B Marketers Can Optimize LinkedIn Advertising

LinkedIn is a prime platform for B2B companies looking to gain relevant web traffic, social media engagement, and high-quality leads through paid social media advertising. This is due to the optimal targeting features and user-base on LinkedIn, as it is the professional platform used by 600+ million executives and professionals from a variety of industries.

As B2B marketers and companies look to LinkedIn to reach decision-makers and key executives at target companies, there are a few key strategies that should not be ignored.

Let’s take a look at 5 ways B2Bs can and should optimize their LinkedIn advertising strategy.

Perfect the Copy

B2B companies often use longer copy in their social media updates in order to explain their product or service thoroughly. However, with LinkedIn advertising, marketers should strive to keep their copy short, clear, and concise. In fact, keeping ad copy under 150 characters is recommended, with ads using a smaller character count seeing an 18% increase in engagement rate. 

On top of considering the length in ad copy, we have seen success with using statistic-driven copy. Using messaging that gives the target audience a quick, data-driven fact that matters to their business is not only eye-catching, but will encourage them to click your ad — increasing the click-through rate (CTR) and ultimately, increasing web traffic or conversions. In fact, ads including interesting stats in ad copy are proven to earn a 37% higher CTR than ads without.

Another simple and effective tactic to consider when writing ad copy, is writing to the different target audiences. For example, if a campaign is being delivered to different industries or different levels of employees within an organization, it is important to craft the ad copy to speak directly to the different segments of the target audience.

Which brings us to our next point…

Targeting, Targeting, Targeting

One of the best things about LinkedIn is it’s targeting capabilities. B2B marketers are able to target by job title, industry, member skill, seniority, and more. With these targeting capabilities, B2Bs are able to deliver ads to their target audience in a variety of ways, including targeting by: 

• Job Titles & Industry
• Job Function & Seniority
• Skills & Seniority 

This allows marketers to target the same executives or professionals they are trying to reach in different ways. LinkedIn also allows marketers to target matched audiences or actual target accounts including the LinkedIn profiles of companies and individuals. Testing these audiences against each other allows marketers to optimize their spending to ensure their campaigns are reaching their audience in the most efficient way. 

One last tip to consider for targeting on LinkedIn is to exclude competitors, as this will allow marketers to save their budget for viable prospects or existing customers, and make it a bit more difficult for the competition to view LinkedIn advertising activity.

Focus on Creative for LinkedIn Advertising

Creative continues to be an important piece of the puzzle across social media platforms in order to increase results. It is no longer enough to use stock imagery alone in order to draw in the target audience. Using strong graphics such as custom images with text as well as short, intriguing videos helps to further tell a B2Bs story and encourages the audience to complete the ads’ call to action.

A/B testing video, custom images, and other relevant graphics when delivering campaigns will help B2Bs to better know their audience, optimize their current efforts, and plan for future goals and campaigns.

Image from Sprout Social.

Monitor Who Is Interacting With Ads

There’s no denying that LinkedIn is one of the more expensive options in terms of social media advertising. That’s why it’s important to be diligent in advertising efforts to ensure campaigns are reaching the target audience. While LinkedIn can be less affordable than other platforms, the targeting and insights offered make it stand out, and, for many B2B marketers and companies… make it well worth it.

With LinkedIn advertising, marketers are able to see the demographics of the users that are seeing and interacting with their campaigns. This is a feature within LinkedIn called Website Demographics, where marketers can monitor the job titles, employers or companies, and industries of those interacting with their ads.

Keeping a close eye on who is interacting with campaigns is a critical way to adjust as needed and optimize for results.

Image from AdEspresso.

Consider Lead Generation Campaigns

Many B2B marketers and companies focus on Sponsored Content campaigns on LinkedIn in order to increase web traffic and on-platform engagement. While Sponsored Content focused on these objectives is a great way to reach these specific goals, B2B companies looking to maximize their time, effort, and budget on LinkedIn should consider taking this a step further, with lead generation campaigns using the Lead Gen Forms on the platform. When the audience clicks on the ad or call-to-action, they will be prompted to fill out a form which consists of the information the B2B would like to collect (think: name, email, phone number).

Because marketers can direct their campaigns on LinkedIn to specific companies, job titles, industries, and profiles, it is an ideal platform for gaining relevant and qualified leads through these types of campaigns.

In terms of other types of campaigns, there are a number of different options that will lead marketers to different goals, including Text Ads, InMails, and of course, Sponsored Content. Looking into what competitors are doing with their paid advertising on LinkedIn is an additional step to take when determining what types of campaigns to deploy. LinkedIn now shows marketers what ads companies are running, making it easy to make decisions based on competitive activity. 

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn is one of the most important social media platforms to utilize for social media advertising for B2Bs. While many B2B marketers and companies use the platform wisely, these tactics and strategies will further marketing efforts and bring B2B companies the quality leads or web traffic they are seeking.