

By Sarah Stashuk / November 02, 2020
Whether you sell homemade
candles or life insurance, there are countless ways to grow a business. But
just as your product or service is unique and has its own audience, many
business growth tools are best-suited to certain types of companies. If you're
a B2B company that sells your products or services to other companies, you’re
probably using LinkedIn to stay informed about your industry and to stay in
touch or network with clients, but did you know that LinkedIn can be a fruitful
advertising platform as well? From sponsored content to text ads, there are
plenty of ways to get in front of your target audience on LinkedIn. But one of
the most powerful methods is LinkedIn Lead Generation Ads, because it gathers
sales data from potential customers in a professional online ecosystem where
they’re only thinking about business and networking. In this piece, we’ll
provide some helpful tips on how to use LinkedIn Lead Generation Ads to grow your
business.
LinkedIn’s Lead
Generation Ads direct users to fill out a form that you’ve created. The fields
in this form can be simple (Name, Email Address, Phone Number—LinkedIn will
autofill these fields using info from the user’s profile) or a bit more
involved (“What are you looking for in a project management software?” “How
much are you willing to spend on such a piece of software?”). LinkedIn collects
these responses and allows you to download them for an easy list of leads.
But achieving the perfect
balance of quantity and quality leads is a bit more complicated. Here are some
things to keep in mind as you plan and execute your LinkedIn Lead Generation Ad
campaign. Here are 5 easy ways to use LinkedIn lead generation ads for business
growth:
1. Targeting by Niche - LinkedIn offers a huge
number of targeting options for your lead generation ads. It might be tempting
to cast a wide net with a broad targeting by industry or location, but keep in
mind that messaging is not one-size-fits-all. If you try to appeal to a wide
range of people, you might find that your messaging resonates less or that you
have to water down your message for more mass appeal. The solution to this is
micro-targeting or creating different campaigns with different messaging for
specific job roles, companies, or groups on LinkedIn. This is certainly more
work, but the results will be worth it.
2. Choosing the Right Message - As mentioned above, the
more niche you can get with your audience and messaging, the better the chances
are that it will resonate with them. As you develop each campaign, think about
who you’re speaking to. What role do they occupy in the company? What pressures
does that role come with? Where are they in the sales funnel and how can you help
them in that step? Think back to conversations you’ve had with customers (and
especially those who chose not to partner with your company) about what they
liked about your offering or where it fell short. Addressing all of these in
one simple, concise sales message can be difficult, but keep in mind that your
messaging can evolve over time. Try A/B testing in your campaign or reach out
to peers for their opinions.
3. Providing Great Incentives - Most users won’t spend
their time filling out a form just because—you’ll see much better results if
you incentivize their participation. Consider what a potential lead in your
industry might find useful; think about where they are in their sales journey
when they might be considering your product or service, and what role the
person making those decisions might occupy. Many ads incentivize with a
downloadable infographic, whitepaper, or other asset. The benefit here is
twofold, as you are simultaneously incentivizing leads and getting
your sales tools in front of more prospective customers.
4. Setting Your Budgets and Bids – As with many forms of
online advertising, LinkedIn’s Lead Generation Ads allow you to run a campaign
with as little as $10/day investment, but that’s not advised. For best results,
plan to spend at least $45/day per campaign, because LinkedIn has a relatively
high CPM rate (cost-per-thousand ad impressions) as compared to other ad
networks. That means you’ll have to spend more per day to get enough volume to
generate the clicks and leads you need to see results. LinkedIn will suggest a
bid for your ad (how much you are willing to pay per click), which is a nice
starting point, and you can adjust from there based on results.
5. Monitoring, Optimizing, and Adjusting
- These
online ads aren’t set-it-and-forget-it. You’ll want to closely monitor your
campaign results in LinkedIn’s ad manager tool to identify stumbling blocks and
opportunities. Over time, you’ll hone in on the targeting, messaging, and
budget that delivers the best results.
Now that you know how to
use LinkedIn Lead Generation
Ads to
grow your business, it’s time to build your campaign, create your first ad,
adjust the targeting, and watch the leads roll in!