In this lesson, you’ll learn about LinkedIn advertising programs. You’ll also learn how to create and manage a DirectAds campaign on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn offers two advertising programs that focus on reaching the site’s highly targeted demographics with ads placed on the home page and member profiles. The LinkedIn audience is comprised of more than 40 million members around the world with an average household income of $109,000 per year. LinkedIn receives more than 450 million page views per month and more than 560,000 professionals visit the LinkedIn home page on an average day.
LinkedIn advertising options include
• LinkedIn Advertising Sales. This option is for companies with advertising budgets of $25,000 or more to place rich display advertising on LinkedIn. Ad products include a wide skyscraper, leaderboard, medium rectangle, and text link, all targeted to the exact demographic audience you want to reach. Figure W3.1 shows a sample ad.
• LinkedIn DirectAds. This option is for small businesses with advertising budgets as small as $50 to display low-cost text ads on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn DirectAds program is a self-service advertising option, similar to Google AdWords. You don’t need to work with a sales representative to develop your advertising campaign. Instead, you enter your ad online and pay for it with a credit card. Figure W3.2 shows a sample text ad.
This lesson focuses on the self-service advertising with LinkedIn DirectAds. To learn more about LinkedIn advertising options for larger companies, click the Advertising link on the bottom navigation menu.
It takes only a few minutes to set up a DirectAd, but it’s a good idea to spend a bit more time analyzing your approach, content, and goals if you want to succeed. Here are some tips for creating DirectAds that generate results:
• Because a text ad contains so few words, make every word count. Your first effort will most likely contain too many words. Keep revising until you can communicate your message effectively within the ad length limitations.
• Focus on a call to action. You need to pique the interest of your target audience and encourage them to click your ad for more information.
• Check your grammar and spelling. Errors make your ad look unprofessional and reduce your click-through rate.
• Verify that your URL works. Even worse than grammar and spelling errors is a URL that doesn’t work or leads to the wrong place.
• Avoid using all capitalization in your ad. Use title case for your headline and sentence case for your remaining ad.
• Avoid ad content and topics that violate LinkedIn DirectAds Guidelines. This includes ads for alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, firearms, adult products, dating services, or multi-level marketing programs. Click the Advertising Guidelines link at the bottom of any LinkedIn DirectAds page to view the complete guidelines.
To place a LinkedIn DirectAd, follow these steps:
- Click the Advertising link on the bottom navigation menu.
- Click the Start Advertising Now link in the LinkedIn DirectAds box. The Step 1 – Write Your Ad page opens, shown in Figure W3.3.
- In the Ad Name box, enter a descriptive name for your ad. This doesn’t appear on your ad; it’s for your reference only.
- Enter a Headline of up to 25 characters. Your headline is what draws members to your ad. Make it memorable and clear.
- Enter up to 35 characters of text in Ad Line 1.
- Enter up to 35 characters of text in Ad Line 2.
- In the URL We Show field, enter the URL to display on your ad.
- In the URL We Go To field, enter the landing page URL.
Note: You Can Shorten a Landing Page URL
The two URL fields enable you to direct members who click your ad to a specific landing page on your site while displaying the URL of your site’s home page on your actual ad. For example, your ad could display www.patricerutledge.com as the URL We Show, but lead visitors to www.patricerutledge.com/store/product234.htm as the URL We Go To. Note that the domain URL (www.patricerutledge.com) must be the same for both the display URL and the landing page URL.
- Select your Profile Link from the drop-down list. You can display either your personal LinkedIn profile or a company profile (if you created one).
- Click the Next button to open the Step 2 – Target Your Audience page (see Figure W3.4).
- If you don’t want to target your ad, select the Show Ad to All LinkedIn Members option button. All 40 million LinkedIn members could potentially view your ad.
- If you want to target your audience, select the Target Audience by Category option button. LinkedIn targets members based on their profile data, but their personal details are never available directly to advertisers. You can choose up to three categories. These include
• Company Size. Select from nine options, ranging from self-employed members to members who work for companies with more than 10,000 employees.
• Job Function. Select up to 10 job functions. Options include Accounting, Creative, Human Resources, and Legal, and many others.
• Industry. Select up to 10 industries. These match the industry that appears on a LinkedIn member’s profile.
• Seniority. Select the career levels of your target prospects. Options include Individual Contributor, Manager, Director, Vice President, Chief X Officer, or Owner.
• Gender. Select a gender (if your ad targets either a male or female audience).
• Age. Select the age ranges you want to target.
• Geography. Select a target geography. Options include the United States, Canada, India, Australia, Netherlands, or the United Kingdom. Within the United States, you can narrow your target audience to a specific metro area.
- View the Targeting Summary box. You can modify your criteria if the summary results don’t match the audience size you want to reach. Figure W3.5 shows a sample Targeting Summary.
Tip: Analyze Your Targeting Summary Carefully
Before continuing to the next page, review your target summary carefully. Consider who you want to reach and why. Is your estimated target audience too big or too small? Sometimes a small target audience can yield better results, but other times it just doesn’t give you enough reach.
- Click the Next Step button to open the Step 3 – Set Your Ad Budget page, shown in Figure W3.6.
- Enter the amount of money you’re willing to spend each day in the Daily Budget field. LinkedIn continues to display your ad until you reach this limit. The minimum you can enter is $10.
- Select the Pay per Click (CPC) option button if you want to pay based on the number of times a LinkedIn member clicks your ad. Enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each click. You might pay less per click depending on demand, but you won’t pay more than this amount. LinkedIn displays a suggested range based on the current bids of other advertisers, but you can enter any amount you want over the minimum of $2.
- Select the Pay for 1000 Impression (CPM) option button if you want to pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives. Enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each of the 1,000 impressions. You might pay less depending on demand, but you won’t pay more than this amount. LinkedIn displays a suggested range based on the current bids of other advertisers, but you can enter any amount you want over the minimum of $3.
- Click the Next Step button to open the Billing Details page.
- On this page, enter your personal and credit card information in the specified fields.
- Click the Submit button to place your ad. LinkedIn charges your credit card $50 and credits this amount to your DirectAds account.
LinkedIn reviews your ad to verify that it meets its advertising guidelines. Until your ad is approved, its status is “Under Review.”
After receiving approval from LinkedIn, your ad will begin to appear on the LinkedIn site based on the targeted criteria you specify.
To manage your ads and view reports of your results, go to https://www.linkedin.com/directads/home to open the Manage Ads page.
This page has two tabs:
• Summary. This tab displays a summary of your results for each ad, such as your current budget, ad clicks, impressions shown, total CTR (click-through rate), average CPC (cost-per-click), and total spent. You can also turn your ads on and off the LinkedIn network, hide them from the Summary tab, and copy them to create a similar ad.
• Reporting. This tab, shown in Figure W3.7, provides reports that detail your impressions and clicks over specific time periods. You can download the reports in a CSV (comma separated values) format to import into applications such as Microsoft Excel.
