LinkedIn is different from other social media websites because it is geared toward business professionals making important business decisions. Other social media websites have a much broader user base targeting different age groups with diversified interests. However, the main purpose of this social media website is to provide a social media experience solely for business professionals. Businesses maintaining a presence offer employment opportunities, marketing leads and a customer base interested in what the business has to offer. LinkedIn notes that the website is the world's largest professional Internet network with more than 187 million members in over 200 countries and territories.
LinkedIn Ads is the official name for the social network's powerful tool for marketing products, services and brands to business professionals and small businesses. Anyone can create and place an ad using this self-service tool. Ads appear along the sidebar with a photo and text. A business ad's performance will determine if a text-only version will appear at the top of the social media website. Each ad includes a photo placed alongside a headline of no more than 25 characters and a 75-character ad description. Several variations of the ad are permitted to determine which version of it generates the most click-through and leads. These ads target the best prospects for products and services through PPC (pay-per-click) ads.
Before creating an ad, establish a free business account that will tie in advertising campaigns to a specific company. After establishing the account, the next step is to sign in and go the dashboard. If the word "indiv" appears next to the account holder's name, then click the down arrow and select "create business account." Enter company name and the desired business name into the popup form that appears. If the company is not listed, then create a new company page.
Creating and managing an advertising campaign is simple. First, provide the name of the campaign. Next, add the text, title and photographs. The destination URL points to where individuals go after clicking on the ad. It might be a special landing page on the company website or another social media page established to build followers or likes. Choosing the viewing audience is the final step in the ad creation process.
Effective advertising campaigns should target an audience ranging from 150,000 to 400,000 members to ensure that the ad campaign will be successful. Create several campaigns limited to one or two criteria choices to attract the highest possible number of viewers while at the same time maintaining the click rate. Campaigns should be specific to each targeted audience group. Target these selected groups by selecting only one choice option from job title/type, employee size, industry, gender or geography. In each ad campaign, it is important to limit the focus of the ad to the targeted audience to increase the click-through-rate (CTR). For example, offering a free industry white paper to Centreville Engineering, Inc. will attract more views than using free industry white paper.
The CTR and the visit-to-lead conversion rate performance are monitored by establishing goals in Google Analytics or by using marketing analytics software to determine the effectiveness of the ad campaign. Google Analytics establishes a "URL destination" goal that is triggered when the user reaches a specific page. Unique URLs could be created for each ad to track the preferences of the user viewing the ad. For example, the tracking information could reveal that fewer people clicked on the ad because of displayed pricing information or dollar signs. Analytics provides additional information for engagement metrics (time spent reviewing website, page views, bounce rate and other information). If visitors are spending under five seconds on a website, it means the offer isn't attractive, the landing page needs work to generate more leads or the ad copy is unconvincing. Frequently monitoring and measuring the CTR will ensure that the performance quality of the ads remains high. If the CTR falls below 0.025 percent, then new copy or images should be added to the ad to increase the CTR. Reducing the range of the targeted audience is another way to increase the CTR.
