4 Tips for Getting Started with LinkedIn Advertising

If you’re interested in improving your brand’s public relations strategy, you might not know that a stellar social media plan can be a crucial component of PR success. Caster has a long history of integrating earned, shared, and paid social campaigns into our clients’ PR and marketing programs. Our deep knowledge of client industries gives us a leg up in crafting the perfect message and targeting just the right audience. LinkedIn advertising in particular has proven to be an ideal companion to our core PR strategies. With millions of businesses and decision-makers on LinkedIn it can be difficult to stand out, but worthwhile nonetheless.

Whether you currently incorporate digital advertising strategies into your PR plan or are looking to make the leap, you should consider implementing LinkedIn advertising to further increase brand awareness.

Here are 4 ways four ways to ramp up your LinkedIn campaigns:

Audience Bullseye: Hitting the Target Market

Much like in PR, the foundation of any successful social campaign lies in understanding your target audience. Before jumping into copy or graphics, take some time to understand your detailed buyer persona, identifying their demographics, interests, and pain points. This knowledge will enable you to tailor your ads with laser-like precision, ensuring they resonate with your desired audience and generate higher engagement and conversions.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager makes it simple to select specific audiences based on factors like occupation and location. The tool allows you to share ads only with individuals that have the attributes of your ideal customer (i.e. industry, job title, skills). At Caster, we often create lookalike audiences based on a client’s list of current leads, target their company page followers, and/or curate a list informed by members of relevant LinkedIn Groups like this one for IoT professionals. We can then choose to separate the audience into groups to further target our message to the right recipients.

If your advertising budget allows for it, plan a separate campaign for each market segment. That way you can get very specific with each ad and have a better chance of earning conversions.

Messaging is Key: Keep it Clear and Concise

Ad copy is a key element that determines whether users click on your ads or scroll past them. The most important thing to remember is that less is often more. Make sure your ad’s message is clear and concise and avoid cluttering it with too much information. Focus on writing compelling headlines that highlight the benefits and value of your product or service rather than listing product features. LinkedIn Campaign Manager will offer recommendations from platforms like SproutSocial and Hubspot that are in the range of the recommended character count.

Our short checklist for strongly written copy includes:

1. Ad headlines under 150 characters
2. Descriptive copy under 70 characters
3. Text that is in line with your company’s key messaging
4. A concept that is niche, versus broad
5. A direct call-to-action (CTA)
6. 2-5 relevant hashtags

While solid ad copy is important, it likely won’t be the part that stops a viewer mid-scroll.

Vibrant Visuals Get Clicks

Whether it’s a static image or a video, your ad needs to catch the viewer’s eye and hold their attention. Picture what will stop someone from scrolling past your ad on their feed and make that vision come to life. Use vibrant colors, high-quality images, and engaging designs that stand out from the competition.

Don’t forget to include your logo in each ad graphic or video. This will help establish brand awareness regardless of clicks or conversions. You don’t want viewers to remember your eye-catching ad and not your brand! Lastly, ensure your images meet sponsored content specs so they always look their best.

Video advertising is highly recommended, as consumers are 184% more likely to make an online purchase after watching a video. Don’t be intimidated if it sounds difficult – the most successful video ads are only 6-10 seconds long and Canva has a variety of video templates for each platform that are easy to customize and free to download.

With a targeted audience, compelling copy, and vibrant visuals, your ad can have high potential – but you’re not done yet.

Unlock Your Ad Potential

Social media is constantly evolving and what works today may not work tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to test and optimize your ads on an ongoing basis. Implement A/B testing by creating multiple variations of your ads and testing them against each other in the same campaign. Make at least two different versions of the ad by tweaking the headline, visuals, CTAs, and landing pages.

Regular monitoring and analysis of your LinkedIn campaigns are crucial in identifying areas of improvement and making data-driven decisions. Track important metrics like Click-Through Rate (CTR) to indicate the effectiveness of your ad copy, conversion rate to see how many viewers completed the desired action in your CTA, and Cost per Click (CPC) to determine the overall cost-effectiveness of your campaigns. This will help you to understand what’s working and what isn’t and make necessary adjustments to your ads to optimize their performance continuously.

Seeing Success in LinkedIn Campaigns

Incorporating LinkedIn ads into your company’s PR strategy has the potential to be incredibly effective in reaching and engaging with your target audience. By implementing the above tactics, you can significantly improve the performance of your campaigns, drive higher click-through rates, and conversions, and ultimately support your PR and marketing objectives. Continuous testing, creativity, and a deep understanding of the audience are key to ensuring you make your efforts worthwhile.

Not sure where to start? Reach out to see how LinkedIn ads can be incorporated into your PR goals.