Many marketers are using LinkedIn ads and making the most of the platform. LinkedIn has no shortage of targeting options. And LinkedIn is the largest stage for B2B marketers.
Maybe you have lots of questions about LinkedIn ads and how they work. Is there a secret to LinkedIn ads? Do you need to know how to optimize your targeting? Maybe you wonder why they cost so much.
Here’s what you need to know about LinkedIn ads. Let’s get some of those questions answered!
Audience Size And Budget Matters!
Let’s say you have a large audience size and a large budget. Because you have such a large budget you will saturate that audience in about 2 to 4 weeks. That’s way too fast.
But, with a smaller budget, like $50 a day, it will be harder to saturate a larger audience of 30,000 to 100,000 in a few weeks. It will take much longer. And you want it to take longer. You don’t want to saturate your audience so quickly.
Your campaign success depends on how fast you’re reaching the full size of your audience. Run your ad for two months or longer with a smaller budget and watch the performance.
Keep an eye on your CTR to see how it’s doing over time. Watch the graph and when it takes a sharp turn downward ? you will need to freshen up your campaigns. Start rewriting and making the ad even more relevant.
What Is The Minimum Audience Size Recommended?
LinkedIn’s minimum audience size is 1,000.
But there is a slight problem with targeting such small audiences.
It may not be worth your time ⌛ Did you know it will take the same amount of time to target 30,000 users as it is target 5,000 users? So it only makes sense to go for a larger audience.
Also, let’s say you did target your 5,000 audience size. And if you’re watching your CTR you may discover that you got only 6 or 7 clicks per month. It may not be worth your time to create campaigns for a small audience, especially with such a low CTR. Those clicks would have to be worth lots and lots of money ? to be worth the time.
Overlap Targeting Can Lead To Competition On Your Own Campaigns
Here’s something you want to be aware of with your LinkedIn ads. Overlapping campaigns means you’re competing against yourself. LinkedIn won’t allow that to happen.
If this does happen, LinkedIn will make a choice between both campaigns. It will take the relevancy score in a pre-auction phase and chose one based on the auction at hand.
So don’t try to run two campaigns with overlapping audiences. This happens when you have two accounts. You don’t need to compete with yourself! You have enough competition out there without competing against yourself!
Keep your ads in the same ad account and you will avoid competing against yourself.
The Ad Descriptions Don’t Show Up On Mobile
This is important to know because we all think everything will show up on mobile. But not ad descriptions. Description text only shows up on desktop ? Two fields will consistently show up on all devices. They are the intro and the headline.
So what’s more important for CTR and conversion rate? The intro text or the description text? The answer lies in the testing!
Do some testing and use variations of the intro text or the description text to see which is more impactful for your own LinkedIn ads. A/B test those two fields and you will find out which one will affect your conversion rate better.
Testing is the key! You may see the most variance in performance with different test versions while testing the description text. Then the description text wins and is the most important for your situation.
But if when you test the intro text and see it has the most impact, then you will want to put more emphasis on the intro text.
Can You Edit An Existing Ad?
Not for Sponsored Content! You can’t edit launched Sponsored Content. You have to recreate the ad.
But for text ads, you can change anything you want. Change the title, description or image ? and LinkedIn will reset the relevancy score and let it keep on going.
Switching to CPM Bidding Can Push Your Ad Lower In The Feed
If you start out with CPC bidding and get high CTR rates, maybe you think if you switch to CPM bidding you’ll get the same click-through rates.
However, this doesn’t happen. Especially if you’re not bidding high enough. Your ad won’t be in the first Sponsored Content slot in LinkedIn’s feed. It could’ve been pushed down as far as 10th or so in the feed.
But your CTRs will be normalized. The algorithm makes the adjustment to keep your relevancy score the same even if your CTR dropped. LinkedIn’s algorithm will consider that your ad dropped to 2nd position.
You may not like that your CTR dropped though. So perhaps it’s time to make some changes again and get it up again! Try bidding higher!
But if you’re worried about spending too much money, LinkedIn makes it easy to set budgets, bid types and end dates.
Follow these guidelines for your LinkedIn ads to get more leads. LinkedIn ads are especially important for B2B advertisers. Most companies on LinkedIn will stop and look at your ads because they are in a business mindset using that platform.
Testing is what will help to determine your success on this platform. Figure out how to connect with your target audience on LinkedIn with ads and don’t give up!
Remember to test everything in your ads including the images, content, headlines, etc. If you’re a B2B marketer, you know how valuable LinkedIn ads are for prospecting new leads, nurturing those you already have, and converting who’s ready to take the next step.