The complete guide to LinkedIn Ad Management
Why we wrote this Linkedin Ad Management Guide
Win At LinkedIn is a full service Linkedin agency that has driven over 30,000 leads for our clients. Alongside coaching, in-house training, and ‘done for you’ lead generation, we also have a LinkedIn ad management service.
This three part guide, so that:
- You understand LinkedIn advertising and why it is so effective
- You can do LinkedIn advertising yourself without outsourcing it to us
- If you do choose to work with us, you understand exactly what we’re doing
Whether you decide to use us for your Linkedin advertising needs or go it alone – it’s important to us that you are empowered to get maximum ROI from your Linkedin endeavours!
Part One: Setting up your LinkedIn Ad campaign
Your LinkedIn advertising campaigns will live on a platform separate from the LinkedIn you see every day — the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions platform. Visit this page to get started with your campaign, and select “Create Ad.”
From there, you’ll be prompted to create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account (if you haven’t yet). Make sure you enter your associated LinkedIn Company Page if you have one.
Next, you’ll be taken to your member dashboard. If you haven’t entered your billing information, you’ll need to do so to unlock your account. (Don’t worry — you won’t be charged until your campaign is live, and from there, you’ll be charged periodically for ad clicks and other engagements.)
On your dashboard — or “Campaign Manager,” as it’s formally called — you’ll see a call-to-action (CTA) to “Create campaign.” Click that button, and you’ll be redirected to a page where you can start setting up your campaign.
Note: As of February 2019, LinkedIn introduced a “new objective-based campaign creation experience”.
First, indicate a Campaign Group and name your campaign. Campaign Groups help you organise your campaign. You can leave the Default Campaign Group as-is, or create a new Group.
As for the campaign name, these are only visible internally, so we recommend you choose a highly informative name — especially if you have a few different folks working on the campaign.
For example, if I was doing a test to determine the best type of demographic targeting, I might use the title, “Unicorn Food Ad Test — North America, 18 to 24, Female.” That name describes exactly who I’m targeting, without having to view its details. Compare this to something like “Unicorn Food Test 1,” which doesn’t indicate anything about who the ad is targeting.
Once you choose your Campaign Group and name, you can start setting up your campaign.
1. Objective Selection
First, choose your campaign objective. Your objective is what you want people to do when they see your ads. According to LinkedIn, choosing an objective helps them “customise your campaign creation, deliver the best ROI for your stated goal, and show you relevant reporting.”
There are three overarching campaign themes: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions. Under those themes, the available campaign objectives are:
Website visits will drive traffic to your website and landing pages. According to LinkedIn, this type of campaign will also boost brand awareness (at least while that objective option remains unavailable).
Engagement will increase engagement on your content and boost followers on your LinkedIn Company Page.
Video views will increase exposure of your videos to people who are likely to engage with them.
Lead generation will show a LinkedIn lead generation form with pre-filled LinkedIn profile data to those LinkedIn users most likely to engage with the form.
Note: LinkedIn is still releasing a handful of features as part of their new campaign creation experience, including a handful of objective options. Check back for some exciting updates!
2. Audience
Next, choose the parameters of your target audience. Targeting who sees your ad can help it fulfill its campaign objective — the more specific and relevant it is to your audience, the better it’ll perform. LinkedIn allows you to target according to a few different categories, which we’ve outlined below.
You don’t have to use all of these options, but the more specific your targeting criteria, the more relevant it’s likely to be to the audience you select — and, therefore, the more likely you are to have a better ROI.
First, answer a few basic questions, like the language in which you’d like your ad to appear. It can be written in any of the 20 languages LinkedIn supports, including Spanish, French, and German.
You must also select at least one location for your ads. Depending on your business, more specific targeting may be helpful. You can select a location as broad as North America, or as specific as the San Francisco Bay Area. Consider excluding any nearby locations from your campaign so your budget isn’t wasted on locations where your ad isn’t relevant.
Next, click “+ Add new targeting criteria.”
Company
If your target audience has a certain employer, you can target it directly — even by name. You don’t need to have specific names in mind, though; LinkedIn allows you to also target companies based on the industry (like Legal, Non-Profit, or Finance) and company size.
Demographics
If your audience is heavily skewed toward one gender and/or age group, target your ad toward them.
Education
If you are looking to target people who have a particular educational background, you can target your ads based on schools. For example, perhaps you’re trying to target a certain alumni association — you can reach out to it through a LinkedIn ad. You can also customise the targeting according to the field of study and degree.
Job Experience
If your product or service is best for CFOs, targeting only people with “CFO” in their titles will increase your conversions, and, ultimately, save you money. You can choose specific job titles or choose from job functions, seniority, and years of experience. From the CEO of manufacturing companies to the entry-level associates at an accounting firm, you can target a specific group of people for your ads.
Your target audience may also have a certain skill set, such as email marketing, financial planning, or risk management. Think about what your target audience does well or where it aspires to excel. Then, use the ad to target people with similar capabilities.
Interests
One of LinkedIn’s best attributes is the ability to join groups with like-minded professionals in which you can discuss industry trends and topics. If your audience is very vocal on a topic, or you’re trying to gain thought leadership in a certain area, this type of targeting might be a good option for you.
Once you establish your ad targeting criteria, you can save it as a template for future campaigns. You can also enable LinkedIn to expand your audience to include people similar to your target audience.
3. Ad Format
Next, choose your ad format. There eight different types of LinkedIn ads you can create as part of your campaign.
- Text ads show up on the right column or top of the page on LinkedIn. They feature text only.
- Single image ads feature one image and show up on the LinkedIn newsfeed along organic content.
- Carousel ads feature two or more images and show up on the LinkedIn newsfeed along organic content.
- Video ads feature one video and show up on the LinkedIn newsfeed along organic content.
- Follower ads promote your LinkedIn Company Page and use LinkedIn profile data to personalize each ad. They’re only visible on the LinkedIn desktop platform.
- Spotlight ads promote a special offering and use LinkedIn profile data to personalize each ad. They’re only visible on the LinkedIn desktop platform.
- Job ads promote open jobs and use LinkedIn profile data to personalize each ad. They’re only visible on the LinkedIn desktop platform.
- Message ads are delivered to your target audience’s LinkedIn inbox.
When you toggle between the ad types, you’ll see that the Forecasted Results box on the right-hand side will change. This feature analyzes your campaign parameters (bid, budget, targeting, start/end dates, etc.) and takes into account similar campaigns and advertisers. It also simulates the ad auction to generate the numbers displayed.
Keep an eye on this box as you choose your LinkedIn ad type. If you’re first starting out, deciding what ad type to choose might come down to your budget. Outline your priorities, and then you can decide which type works best for you.
Additionally, some ad types require you to link your LinkedIn Company Page, and some tap into LinkedIn translation services.
4. Placement
Next, decide whether you want your ad to be displayed on the LinkedIn Audience Network, which gives your campaign more reach and exposure among LinkedIn’s third-party platforms and sites. Note: This option isn’t available for every ad type.
You can also choose to exclude or block certain categories, applications, and sites in the Network if you so choose.
5. Budget & Schedule
Next, set up the budget, scheduling, and bidding options that work best for you.
Budget
Set a daily budget for what works best for your company’s marketing spending. Before investing a lot into one campaign, test and measure the success of each campaign and ad variation. You don’t want to put thousands of dollars, for example, into an ad that doesn’t resonate with your target audience.
Let’s say you’re the VP of Marketing at a high-end floral company. You assume that most of your target market is made up of soon-to-be brides, so you direct your LinkedIn ads to bridal groups. But after spending thousands of dollars, you only generate 10% of the leads you were hoping for. Your subsequent research shows this was the wrong move, and you later learn that people near your store who are on LinkedIn are actually looking for flowers for corporate events. It would have been nice to know that before spending a large amount of your budget on LinkedIn ads, right?
That said, because of its extensive targeting opportunities, LinkedIn ads can successfully target niche markets. But the cautionary experimentation is crucial to do early on — if you observe a campaign performing well, then you can put a larger budget toward it.
Schedule
Choose a date for your campaign to start. You can indicate for your campaign to be shown continuously or ‘til an end date.
Bid Type
In this section, the three options you have are:
Automated bid, which allows LinkedIn to determine what amount will maximize your campaign objective and whatever option you choose (Clicks, Impressions, or Conversions).
Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid, where you’ll be charged each time someone clicks on your ad. LinkedIn will suggest a bid range depending on your budget and the competition for your ads — the more advertisers bidding on a similar campaign, the higher your bid will need to be. This bid is the maximum you will be charged. If the current rate is lower than your max bid, you will only be charged the current rate.
Maximum pay-per-1,000 Impressions (CPM) bid, where you’ll be charged a certain amount each time your ad is viewed by every 1,000 people on LinkedIn. This option is unavailable if you’re using the LinkedIn Audience Network option.
Deciding on the best maximum bid can be tricky. When deciding between CPC and CPM, think about your end goal. Are you trying to get as many people as possible to see your ad to help with something like a branding campaign? If so, CPM might be your best option.
On the other hand, if you want more people to click on your ads to drive traffic to your website or generate new leads, CPC might be better for you.
As for your optimal maximum bid, some trial and error might be necessary. LinkedIn will give you a suggested bid, which is a good place to start. Then, think about when your audience is most likely online. You’ll want to bid higher during that particular time to be sure that your ads are the ones being seen. And make sure LinkedIn is actually the best place to reach them, too — different populations use different types of social media. Play around with your bids and see when you get the most return for your dollars spent.
6. Conversion Tracking
Lastly, you have the option to set up conversion tracking for your LinkedIn campaign, which will track and measure the actions people take after clicking on your ads.
Conversion tracking is an optional part of setting up your LinkedIn advertising campaign but is highly valuable for your business.
If you choose to set up conversion tracking, click “+ Add conversions.” A new window will pop up, where you’ll name your conversion, choose your conversion settings, and decide how you’ll track the conversions. Note: The information on the right-hand side of the window is super helpful — it’ll answer any questions you have and walk you through the process.
For more help on implementing and managing your LinkedIn Conversions, visit our LinkedIn Ad Management page.
Bravo! You’ll officially set up your LinkedIn advertising campaign … but you’re not done yet. When you’re ready to move on, click “Save.” Beware: Your objective and ad format cannot be changed once you save, so be sure about your choices before moving forward.
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