LinkedIn Ads are one of the best tools to reach new customers online, especially for B2B businesses. Why? LinkedIn’s filters and targeting capability means that you are far more likely to reach the right demographics than you might on Facebook and Twitter. Let’s take a look at ways to improve the Click-through-rate of your LinkedIn Ads through targeting.
LinkedIn filters are the traditional targeting method for LinkedIn Ads, as they are very effective when you pick the right targets. We have found, depending on the Ad and client, that the most useful filters are Industry and Job Title. These two filters together can really help you target the people you are looking for, who are more likely to spend time on your website and generate leads.
An example of this strategy is from one of our clients who were looking at sharing their safety solutions with businesses who have warehouses. We used the traditional filters to target warehouse managers, health and safety managers and salespeople within industries such as retail, packaging and warehousing. Our Ads were shown to potential customers in these industries and achieved almost double the industry average CTR of 0.3%.
Downside? The only downside to using this method is that you are leaving it up to LinkedIn’s algorithm to target companies. However, you can check on this using LinkedIn’s demographic reports. As explained later in this article there are other ways to ensure you are targeting exact companies.
LinkedIn has the option for you to upload lists of contacts to target or re-target them through Ads on LinkedIn. This is a great way to remind your contacts of your products and services. This method can also be particularly useful when you are promoting a specific deal and you want to reach customers who might have bought from you previously or already know your brand.
I think that the best use for this strategy is to use this list to promote deals around holidays or sales. You know that this list consists of people who you have made contact with before and are therefore likely to click through when they see your brand again. Building your ad around a particular deal can therefore be very effective.
The only challenge to this strategy is that these lists can sometimes be too small to target. LinkedIn’s rule is that it has to find 300 or more people on LinkedIn from your email list for you to use it. So, make sure that the email database you want to use has enough emails on the list that LinkedIn can find. You can upload up to 30,000 emails in on one contact list!
LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to upload a list of company names and domains as an excel spreadsheet. LinkedIn then scans their database to find every employee that works for these companies. Once this process is complete (usually takes 24 to 48 hours) you have a list of people who work at your target companies. You can then use the traditional targeting methods to filter this list down to specific people or decision makers.
For one of our clients, we were looking to target their top “wish list” companies with a “sign up” message. We uploaded their list of companies, which LinkedIn matched by over 90%. Then we filtered this audience down through job title and function, so that we were only targeting decision makers. Using a carousel Ad we were able to achieve over a 1.3% click through rate. This high click through rate is an indicator that your LinkedIn Ads are targeting the right demographic for your message.
LinkedIn’s targeting options can help you target the right people with your products and services. Despite it being the more expensive option, the ads often result in people spending more time on your website and ultimately creating conversions or leads.
Are you looking to use LinkedIn to generate new leads? Contact our digital team today to talk about how we can help!