Breaking through the noise in today’s ‘always on’ culture is tough. Firms can no longer rely on organic (or free) social media to get their message out there.
With 94% of B2B marketers using LinkedIn to distribute content (Source: LinkedIn), and LinkedIn Ads having a much higher conversion rate than other platforms (6.1% vs. 2.58% for a Google search, for example) knowing how to set up LinkedIn sponsored content is a must for firms wanting to get their content seen (Source: Hubspot).
Our 5 step guide walks you through the set up process, with hints, tricks and best practice tips along the way to help you get the most out of your budget.
Setting up LinkedIn sponsored content:
First things first, you’ll need a personal account with granted access to post sponsored content from your firm’s profile.
You can grant yourself access by going onto the ‘Manage company page’ section of the profile, clicking onto ‘Admin Tools’ and then ‘Manage Admins’ on the drop-down list.
1. Creating the ad
Start by navigating to LinkedIn’s campaign manager. Click ‘create campaign’ and follow the steps to set up the parameters of the ad (for LinkedIn sponsored content make sure you select ‘sponsored content’ and not ‘text ads’).
Once you’ve set the parameters, LinkedIn will give you two content options:
- Available content — you can sponsor content that already exists on your firms’s profile.
- New sponsored content — allows you to create bespoke posts specifically for the campaign.
2. Writing the copy
Besides punchy copy that’ll catch your target audiences attention, there’s a few things to consider when writing copy for your ad:
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- Copy Length: To avoid your readers having to click a ‘see more’ button, keep your copy to a maximum of 209 characters with spaces (about 33 words).
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- Copy Variations: Write a few versions of the copy, using different angles and targeting slightly different audiences. Use each variation as a separate LinkedIn sponsored content ad, within the same campaign.
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- Call To Action: Consider what action you want your target audience to take and make sure it’s clear in your copy.
Most importantly, think about what messages will speak to the audience, not what you are trying to sell them.
3. Choosing an image
Sponsored Content with images tend to perform better. (Source: LinkedIn)
Images are incredibly important when it comes to LinkedIn sponsored content, so don’t rush it.
- Dimensions: The optimum size for a LinkedIn sponsored content image is 1200x 627px.
- Picture-text overlay: LinkedIn allows images with overlaid text, so use this to your advantage by adding text which will catch the browsers’ eye as they scroll past.
- Image choices: Choose an image that ties with your message / resonates with the audience you’re targeting.
4. Targeting
Targeting your ads allows you to reach a select group of people. A well targeted ad means less spent on time-wasters and a higher ROI.
Selecting which target criteria best represents your ideal audience requires deeper thought than ‘senior executives’. Consider the background, skills and industry of the people you’d like to reach.
However, be cautious of getting over zealous with the options, you don’t want to narrow your audience too much. After all, accurate targeting is crucial to getting the most bang for your buck.
5. Budget
If your goal is to encourage clicks through to your website, we recommend cost per click (CPC) bid types.
When it comes to setting the budget, you have 2 choices:
- Daily budget: how much you are willing to spend per day. It’s important to remember that because LinkedIn can show your ad for a short period after your budget is reached, you can end up spending up to 20% more than your specified budget. We advise you monitor the campaign daily to avoid overspending. This option gives you more control over what you spend (which is why we recommend it) but is fairly time consuming.
- Total budget: If you don’t have the time to check your campaign daily, and have a larger budget, total budgets allow you to set a maximum spend over a specified time-period.
Once you’ve set your bid budget, your campaign is ready to launch.
Best practice tips:
- Run multiple ads within the campaign — use the same ad, but vary the copy and/or images. After a few days one of the ads will have performed better than the others, or one won’t be performing as well. You can then focus your efforts where you know they are working.
- Choosing what to present in the ad versus what can wait for after the user interaction will greatly impact the performance of the ad. Keep in mind that if someone likes, comments or shares your content you will pay for the click.
- Headlines should be kept under 60 characters, and using ‘you’ rather than ‘we’ will engage the reader by addressing them directly.
LinkedIn sponsored content is one of the most effective ways to advertise. However, all of the monitoring and tweaking can be time consuming, and it takes skill and experience to get it right.
If you don’t feel that you have the skills to ensure you get the most from your budget or aren’t seeing the results you want, get in touch. We’ll devise a road map that breaks through the noise and get’s your firm noticed.
