The LinkedIn Ads definitive guide 2023

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We’ve run a lot of LinkedIn Ads campaigns down the years at Gotoclient. We’ve worked with many big brands with big budgets, and we’ve also empowered SMEs to fulfil their potential. This is the Gotoclient LinkedIn Ads definitive guide, written by the Gotoclient LinkedIn Ads consultants who have delivered consistent success on LinkedIn.

Building on our previous 2021 version, our LinkedIn Ads 2023 Definite guide is probably the most complete LinkedIn Ads guide out there

This guide is intended for online marketing professionals who are developing LinkedIn campaigns andfor managers who need to measure the value of LinkedIn Ads campaigns. This is not an introductory guide. There are some excellent introduction guides out there, such as the Hootsuite guide, which is a step-by-step LinkedIn Ads guide and the HubSpot guide.

Need outstanding B2B paid media tips? Listen now to our podcast about paid media trends with Gabriel Colombo!

LinkedIn is the biggest B2B lead generation platform. It has over 1 billion registered users from 200 countries and regions worldwide and is growing rapidly. Unlike the other social networks where users spend their time, people invest time on LinkedIn. According to Insider Intelligence, LinkedIn was the most trusted platform in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

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According to LinkedIn, marketing and sales experts say LinkedIn is the number one social network for B2B lead generation. Also, users make business decisions based on LinkedIn interaction.

· Engagement: You can also increase post engagement, such as clicks, recommendations, comments, sharing, or adding new followers to the company LinkedIn page. There are not as many ad types available as there are for brand awareness and website visits, but there are still more than enough to make an impact. We recommend single image ads, video ads, follower ads, conversation ads and event ads. We don’t suggest carousel image ads as they’re typically used to offer a large number of services or to explain a complex product/service in depth.

· Video views: LinkedIn allows you to pay per view of video content. This is a good alternative payment model that hedges the risk of video advertising 

· Job applicants: LinkedIn enables you to publicise job adverts. To build this kind of campaign, use the jobs ads and single job ad options.

· Document Ads:LinkedIn document ads allow you to promote e-books, case studies, white papers, infographics and presentations directly in the LinkedIn feed. Members can read it in the original format and download the document as a PDF without leaving LinkedIn

· Event ads: LinkedIn gives you the option to promote LinkedIn Eventsfrom your Page to a defined audience. These ads are optimized to highlight the essential event info on desktop and mobile

Use this flow diagram to stay on top of your audience needs at each diferent phase of the journey:

3.1. Target audience segmentation tool: Tips and tricks

To impact the right users, it’s essential to understand the target attributes in the LinkedIn Ads segmentation tool. Here are our essential tips & tricks:

• · Add multiple job functions: Similar to Job Title it’s important to keep your options open and not be too narrow.
• · Exclude job titles if you are absolutely sure: Be cautious here, but there may be criteria that you are certain will be unsuitable for what you are promoting. In that case, they should be excluded from your segmentation.
• · Consider targeting individual contributors: If you want to get smart and target the buying decision-makers, choose Senior in the Job Seniority option and combine it with Years of Experience.
• · Choose Entry-level for small business: If the target audience of your campaign is based on smaller businesses, Entry level would be a good choice.
• · Try and use Years of Experience in combination with your other choices: Depending on your target audience and campaign’s goal, you can use the following combinations with Years of Experience:
• • – Years of Experience + Seniority: Seniority option is not the same as years of experience. A user with more than 20 years of experience can belong to an entry-level instead of senior or manager. That’s why it’s recommended adding seniorities from entry to partner and years of experience. As a result, you will reach experienced professionals with influence related to buying decisions.
  • – Years of Experience + Degrees: Some degrees are aimed at professionals with extensive experience. In this case, we recommend combining years of experience with degrees. 
  • – Years of Experience + Functions: Function leaders.
  • – Years of Experience + Skills: Skilled experts.
• · Members skills for the target with specific features: To drill down further into the characteristics of your target, we recommend adding some member skills.

· Choose Skills option with Function or Seniority: By choosing skills with Function of Seniority will help to impact more relevant users.

· Add Skills OR Job Titles: If you prefer to target with job titles instead of functions, it’s recommended choosing skills and job titles with “or” connector to have a broader audience

· Start with Job Functions instead of Job Titles: Sometimes, Job Titles can restrict your audience too much, whereas Functions are broader. So, first, we recommend selecting Functions, and when the campaign is launched, you can optimise your audience with Titles.

· Interests:

· Use Function or Seniority alongside Interests: For the target audience who has specific interests, such as business technology, it is recommended to add functions or seniorities in order to reach relevant users.

· Use Member traits option exclusively: This option usually represents a more limited audience, so it is not necessary to add more targeting criteria.

· Analyse top member groups: In order to reach the more active groups, use the search function on LinkedIn to find them. Most active groups will appear at the top of the list.

Targeting Tips & Tricks:

· Take out audience expansion:

We don’t recommend choosing this optionbecause it expands beyond the desired target, which sometimes leads to a slight loss in control of the campaign. Only use this when the audience size is below 40.000 users.

Invest serious time in profiling and segmenting your audience

· Distinguish AND & OR connectors:

LinkedIn enables you to choose AND or OR connectors for each criteria. An OR connector means a member has to only meet one criteria OR the other. The AND connector means the member has to meet ALL the selected attributes; otherwise they will not be targeted. With the ANDconnector, audience numbers are reduced but are more specific. For an audience that is too small, use the OR function to boost the numbers. Be careful when using the OR function in EXCLUSIONS; it will exclude members matching one OR the other criteria. Finally, you can also use AND / OR together, i.e. when targeting with the Job Title “Information Technology Specialist” OR “skills in information technology” AND “10+ years’ experience.”

· Check your Forecasted results:

When you start adding filters, the audienceresults will appear on the right-hand side of the screen so you can check as you go. The dropdown under Segment breakdownshows attributes as job function, years of experience, company size,industryand interest. These professional attributes are based on the information LinkedIn members provide in their profiles. If your audience is too small, a notification will appear that says “Audience Too Narrow”. Once the campaign is underway, you can check if you are impacting the right audience, and modify your filters accordingly. Finally, we recommend you analyse the forecasted results in 1 dayrather than 7 or 30.

· Targeting the right audience sizes:

Target an audience size between 50k and 400k members, for your audience both to be able to be optimised and be relevant. 

· Use matched audiences:

It’s advisable to use matched audiences with demographic data from LinkedIn, as the CPL increases by 20%. In addition, it’s important to test a different audience for each funnel stage. When launching the campaign, check the demographics to be sure which audience you need to include or exclude.

· Analyse your targeting with Website Demographics

When the LinkedIn Insight Tag is verified on the website and your audience is built, LinkedIn Website Demographics will be available in your campaign manager. You can track which type of professionals are visiting your website.

· Implement ABM targeting:

If your company’s list has more than 200 companies and you cannot add it in the Company Name option, you might need to use Matched Audiencesand upload a list (minimum 300 companies and up to 300.000 companies). When uploading your list, we recommend a list size of more than 1.000 companies.

· Consider contact targeting:

If you have a list of email addresses, LinkedIn allows you to upload a list or implement a data integration with your CRM (Marketo, Eloqua, among others). You can also upload a list of your current customers in order to exclude them from your campaigns. In this scenario, it’s advisable to add more than 10.000 contacts.

· Integrate a pixel:

It’s good practice to integrate a pixel on your page through the LinkedIn Insight Tag or the Event-Specific Image Pixel  with Google Tag Manager to target visitors to your website. This way, your ad will reach users who were previously interested in your company.

· Launch retargeting campaigns:

After launching the campaign, you can use Matched Audiencesto set up a retargeting campaign. For instance, targeting those users who have clicked on the adbut not completed the form, or users who have viewed only a certain percentage of your video.

· Consider Lookalike audience option:

If your audience size is lower than 40.000 members, we recommend Lookalike audience because it can increase your search by 5 or 10 times. This option includes similar members of your target audience.

· A/B testing 100% recommended:

To optimise your audience segmentation, we recommend A/B testing. To track the performance of each audience, set up separate campaigns for different audiences.

· If in doubt:

If you are unsure about who to target, start with a broad audience between 100k – 400k members and then narrow it down once you have seen which performs best. In LinkedIn’s demographic reporting, you can analyse who is clicking and converting on your ads by Job Title, Functions, Company Industries etc.

· Optimise your targeting:

With demographic reporting, you can check the campaign metrics (clicks, impressions, leads, total spend, frequency etc.) then analyse if you’re impacting the right members.

· Target accurately according to your goals:

For awareness campaigns, LinkedIn recommends targeting by Job Function and Seniority, Skills or Job Titles, Interest, and Lookalike audiences. For consideration & engagement campaigns, they suggest Job Title and Member traits, uploaded lists, website retargeting and retargeting by engagement. For conversion, they recommend uploaded lists, website retargeting and retargeting by engagement.

· Avoid hyper-targeting:

According to LinkedIn, broad targeting works better than hyper targeting. B2B buying decisions usually involve more than one department, so it is difficult to know exactly which members make the buying decisions.

· Provide relevant content according to the funnel:

Deliver qualified content based on where your leads are in the journey. You can divide your contacts into personalised audience segments to provide a customised experience.

· Exclude members:

Exclusion is sometimes as important as inclusion. Think about members that could potentially fall within your segmentation definition but are not decision-makers or decision-influencers. Actively exclude the members you don’t need.

Let’s drill down into inclusions and exclusions. Imagine your company wants to create a campaign in the UK. In the image we can see UK there are 29 million members.

Now, let’s say you are interested in impacting users who work in companies of up to 5,000 workers. If you were to specifically include members who work for companies of that size and under, i.e. ‘myself only’ ‘2-10 employees’, 11-50 employees’ etc., the result is an artificially-low 8.6 million members.

The reason for this is that LinkedIn does not map every company with every criteria. Therefore, if you run an inclusion-based segmentation, other members will be excluded. The best option here would be to exclude companies with more than 5,000 members, As shown in the image below, the exclusion way shows 25 million members.

INCLUDING members can sometimes EXCLUDE the ones you want!

Next, you can see a summary with the above explanation.

· Consider using the LinkedIn Audience Network:

The LinkedIn Audience Network is a new option which allows you to expand your campaign’s reach by showing your ads in the LinkedIn feed and third-party publisher apps. LinkedIn respects the targeting parameters, bid & budget, and it makes sure that the ads will be delivered on approved sites. If you want to learn more about this feature, check outour post. We explain all you need to know.

· Exclude your current customers:

Don’t forget to exclude your existing customers from B2B lead generation campaigns.

Single Image Ad

Single Image Ad is a Sponsored Content Ad type known as ‘native advertising ‘. They are called ‘native ads’ because they look like a native post. They appear on unsers’ LinkedIn timelines for both desktop and mobile devices.

Key recommendations:

· Making your audience take action is a difficult task, so it’s essential to create impactful copy with questions, statistics and compelling images.

· If you pick this format for brand awareness or consideration campaigns, it is crucial to explain why your proposition can help and how you will solve a problem for your prospects.

· Create different versions of the copy to cover the main pain points of the audience. Some should have a rational message and some should be more emotional. Experiment with different headlines.

· Use light and dark images with a human meaning. Don’t forget to write keywords in the images.

· For LinkedIn lead generation ads, it’s essential to lead with a strong offer. i.e. a free trial, software or hardware bundles, a specific purchasing model, a limited-time offer with a partner/channel program. Keep in mind that lead gen ads are bottom of the funnel. So be up front with the value the member is getting in return for sharing their information.

· In your copy, we recommend asking questions to engage your audience. Keep the text concise and try to emphasise your target audience’s most significant pain point. Then offer an appropriate solution. It’s also essential to make the members feel like you’re speaking to them individually. Finally, avoid using negative language.

· As Gartner states, pain points are specific problems faced by current or prospective customers in the marketplace. They include any problems the customer may experience along their journey. According to HubSpot, Pain points are persistent problems with a product or service that can inconvenience customers and their business. In simple terms: unsatisfied needs.

· The easiest way to identify your customer points is to ask them yourself with interviews or surveys. You can also gather insights from your sales team and your internal sales/marketing database.

Remember to always have one paint point and one message in your CTA. It’s about helping them. At the end of the day, customers care more about their business than yours.  As Visualize.say, they care about your business (or capabilities) only in the context of whether or not you can help them solve their challenges.

· Select a clear CTA, and if you’re unsure which CTA you should choose, do an A/B test.

· A good way to capture your target audience attention is with an emotive image. Choose a bright, eye-catching and original visual that can explain the content of your ad. You can also make a visual impact with recognisable logos and images of public figures. Another strong look can be achieved by showing your product/service being used by “real” people. Finally, you must make sure your text is readable on mobile and smaller screens.

Advertising specifications:

· First of all, you can include an ad name of up to 255 characters, The ad name is optional.

· Introductory text: LinkedIn allows you to add a maximum of 600 characters, but it’s recommended to write significantly under the limit to make sure the words don’t get cut by LinkedIn. For desktop, LinkedIn will automatically cut copy that’s over 150 characters, and for mobile that figure is approximately 90 (two lines). 

· For headline text, the character limit is 200, but headline text is cut once it gets above 70 characters.

· For the description, it is recommend to use approximately 100 characters to ensure all text appears, but the official maximum is 300 characters. However, it’s important to note that the character limit can vary for ads that appear on third-party apps via the LinkedIn Audience Network.

· The destination URL must contain up to 2000 characters. Be warned that some special characters, such as < > # % { } [ ] cause errors when they’re included. Finally, if you add URLs for third-party tracking, it’s best not to use quotation marks within parameter settings to avoid errors.

· The URL prefix has to be HTTP:// or HTTPS://.

· LinkedIn allows images with a maximum size of 7680 x 4320 pixels. However, it’s recommended to use an image size of 1200 x 627 pixels.

· The file types you can include are JPG or PNG with a maximum size of 5MB. There are also different image ratios to consider:

– 1.91:1: horizontal/landscape version.

– 1:1: square version.

– 1:1.91: vertical version.

· Finally, it must include a clear CTA (call to action). You can choose between Apply, Download, View Quote, Learn More, Sign Up, Subscribe, Register, Join Attend and Request Demo.

Video Ads

Video Ad is also a Sponsored Content Ad type. There are three video formats. First of all, the short one (5-15 sec.), which is a “gif” or a “cliffhanger” to encourage users to want to learn more. The second one is the medium (-30 sec.), where you can include product summaries or interviews. Finally, the longest (+1 min) is used mainly to show client case studies, and deliver more extensive info.

Key recommendations:

· Show your crucial message in the first 10 seconds.

· Try to keep the video shorter than 30 seconds for awareness and consideration campaigns.

· Introduce different images to make the video more dynamic. It’s suggested to provide the information alongside graphics, people and text.

· Ideally, the message should contain a personal greeting and spell out the reason why. 

· Capture and retain your audience’s attention with good storytelling to humanise your brand.

· Take into account that most LinkedIn’s members won’t listen to the audio, so make sure you add subtitles.

· A/ B test as much as possible so you can judge the best-performing videos.

Advertising specifications:

· Introductory texts are optional and have the same rules as image ads. For desktop there is a maximum of 600 characters allowed, but it is recommended to stay under 150 to avoid the text being cut. For mobile, it is recommended to stay under two lines (approximately 90 characters).

· LinkedIn recommends keeping the headline text below 70 characters to avoid truncation on most devices, but you can use a maximum of 200 characters.

· The video format type must be MP4. The audio format is limited toAAC or MPEG4.

· The overall file size can be between 75KB and 200MB. The video sound file can be a maximum of 64KHz, while video captions must be in SRT format.

· The video length can be from 3 seconds to 30 minutes. LinkedIn recommends a frame rate of 30 per second.

· The most successful video ads are shorter than 15 seconds.

Don’t be fooled by video hype.

Video works powerfully at the top and middle of the funnel, but not at the bottom.

Carousel Ads

In June 2018, LinkedIn launched Carousel Ads which display sponsored content within a carousel structure. Companies can include up to a maximum of 10 customisable cards to draw the target audience’s attention.

This ad type is best for companies who offer multiple services or who have a complex service offering.

Key recommendations:

· Start with 3 to 5 cards.

· Tell your story, a customer success story or provide relevant information to your audience.

· Use original images to capture your target audience’s attention. The first card must make the best possible impression to encourage users to keep watching the other images.

· Make sure your Carousel Ads are relevant to your pre-defined goals.

· Depending on your goals, use a lead gen form or landing page. You can also A/B to gauge which ad performs best.

· Test your ads by running several in a different order

Advertising specifications:

· For introductory text, LinkedIn allows a maximum of 255 characters but also offers the same recommendation for the single image ad and video ad, i.e. lower than 150 characters for the desktop version and two lines (90 characters approx) for the mobile version.

· Headline text for each image card should be a maximum of two lines to avoid being cut. For a carousel ad that drives users to a landing page, there’s a 45-character limit. For CTAs on a lead gen form, the text must contain up to 30 characters.

· The destination URL must contain up to 2000 characters. It has to begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS://. The URL prefix has to begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS://. Some special characters, such as < > # % { } [ ] and others cause errors when they’re included. When adding URLs for third-party tracking, it’s best not to use quotation marks within parameter settings.

· The file type must be JPG or PNG with a ratio of 1:1.

· The max image dimensions are 4320 x 4320 px. It’s advisable to add images with 1080 x 1080 px to avoid grey mailboxes around the images, which is a bad look for your target audience.

· LinkedIn allows the inclusion of between 2 and 10 cards with a maximum file size of 10MB. It’s important to note that it’s not possible to add videos to a carousel.

· You can choose one of the following CTAs: Apply, Download, View Quote, Learn More, Sign Up, Subscribe, Register, Join Attend and Request Demo.

· Carousel Ads can be directed to different URLs, but all carousel ads will be linked to the same lead gen form if the lead gen form is chosen.

*Message Ads

Message Ads are one of the most customisable ad types. Because they are sent directly to a user’s LinkedIn mailbox, you have the licence to customise the body text. This LinkedIn ad type is the best one if you want to spend the extra time to give to your target audience a more personalised experience. 

Message ads are currently not available in the European Union due to GDPR compliance and privacy regulations.

Text Ads

Text ads show only on the desktop version located at the top of LinkedIn pages.

Key recommendations:

· As we mentioned before, text ads are only shown on the desktop version of LinkedIn. Use these if you have higher traffic on desktop than mobile.

· It’s essential to create an eye-catching offer to get the attention of the target. Also, it’s advisable to turn off ads that are not performing well.  

· Always add an image. Professional images have a more significant impact when it tells a human story.

· Ads that show a strong CTA (call-to-action), such as “Sign up now!” or “Sign up today!” usually perform better.

· We suggest starting with 2 or 3 active ad variations per campaign.

Advertising specifications:

· According to LinkedIn’s specifications, the logo image dimensions must be 100 x 100 pixels.

· There is a maximum length of 25 characters on the ad’s headline, including spaces.

· The ad description is a maximum of 75 characters.

· The landing page URL must contain up to 500 characters. It has to begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS://. Some special characters, such as < > # % { } [ ] and others may cause errors. It’s best not to use quotation marks within parameter settings to avoid errors.

· Text Ads can appear in one of the following sizes: 300 x 250, 700 x 17, 160 x 600, 728 x 90, and 496 x 80.

· You can choose between these available CTAs: Apply, Download, View Quote, Learn More, Sign Up, Subscribe, Register, Join Attend and Request Demo.

Conversation Ads

A Conversation Ad is based on having a conversation with your target audience. For maximum effect, co-ordinate the CTAs with the different content and offers. This will ensure they maintain and their interest.

Key recommendations:

· If your team decides to launch a consideration campaign, we recommend you link blog posts, pre-recorded webinars or share industry trends and analysis.

· In lead generation campaigns, you should share product demos or tutorials, customer success stores or invite prospects to attend an event.

· Remember to introduce yourself, including your name, title and the company you represent.

· Your conversation should have 2 to 5 layers, and at least 2 CTA buttons.

· We recommend you avoid using negative CTAs such as “Not interested” or “No thanks” CTAs. Also, keep your copy short and simple with an authentic human tone.

Advertising specifications:

· Name your ads by using 255 characters (spaces included).

· Choose one of the available senders or add a new one.

· Include a 300 x 250 px JPG or PNG banner with a maximum file size of 2MB.

· You can upload an image up to 250 x 250 px that is a JPG or PNG and up to 5MB.

· Use an intro message of up to 500 characters (spaces and punctuation included).

· The message subject must be shorter than 60 characters.

· Message text has to include up to 500 characters.

· You can include a custom footer with a maximum of 2,500 characters.

· You can also insert 5 buttons with 20 characters on each.

· The landing page URL must contain up to 2,000 characters. It has to begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS://. Some special characters, such as < > # % { } [ ] and others can cause errors when they’re included. To avoid errors when adding URLs for third-party tracking, don’t use quotation marks within the parameter settings.

This format allows companies to promote and encourage members to follow their LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page.

· The company name can be up to 25 characters.

· The ad description can be up to 70 characters. You can choose from one of the suggested options or write your own text. However, LinkedIn only translates suggested options into a different language.

· Up to 50 characters can be used in the ad headline. Also, you can choose from one of the suggested options or write your own text. The translation criteria is the same as above.

· The minimum ad image size is 100 x 100 px for JPG or PNG. Companies with smaller logos may appear pixelated. Larger logos will be automatically reduced to 100 x 100 px.

· If members don’t have a profile image, the company logo will be centred. Also, if member names are not available, LinkedIn will use “LinkedIn member”.

· The CTA options are: “visit the company” (redirects to the page tab of your LinkedIn Page), visit jobs (redirects to the jobs tab), and visit life (redirects to the life tab).

Spotlight Ads:

Through this format, your company can showcase products, services, events, content, and so on. People who click your ad will be redirected to your website or landing page.

Key recommendations:

· Use this format for brand awareness, consideration (engagement) and conversion (job applicants) campaigns.

Advertising specifications:

· The ad description has to fit within 70 characters, including spaces. LinkedIn won’t translate the text automatically.

· Up to 50 characters should be used in the ad headline. LinkedIn won’t translate the text automatically.

· The CTA can contain a maximum of 18 characters.

· Company’s name should fit within 25 characters.

· The ad size image must be 100 x 100 pixels for JPG or PNG. Companies with smaller logos may appear pixelated. On the other hand, companies with larger logos will be reduced to 100 x 100 px.

· You can introduce an optional background image and 2MB or less. Its size is 300 x 250 pixels. However, note that this format removes the ad description and member profile image.

· The company logo and the background images have to be JPG or PNG with a file size of 2MB.

· You must add a landing page URL with a maximum of 500 characters. It has to begin with HTTP:// or HTTPS://. Some special characters, such as < > # % { } [ ] and others cause errors when they’re included. Finally, if you add URLs for third-party tracking, don’t use quotation mark characters within parameter settings to avoid technical errors.

· If members don’t have a profile image, the company logo will be centred. Also, if member names are not available, LinkedIn will use “LinkedIn member”.

Jobs Ads:

Job Ads allows your company to encourage relevant candidates to apply to roles at your company. You can promote one or more job opportunities to qualified LinkedIn members based on members’ skills and experience.

Key recommendations:

· Job Ads are only used for job applicant campaigns.

· It’s vital to write personalised and attractive copy to attract the best candidates.

Advertising specifications:

· The Ad description can contain a maximum of 70 characters.

· The company name can contain a maximum of 25 characters.

· The company logo must have a minimum ad size of 100 x 100 pixels.

· Choose one of the pre-set CTAs or add your own CTA. For “Picture Yourself” and “Jobs Page” ads, the CTA is automated. You can customise the CTA for the “Jobs of Interest” ad. However, customised CTAs won’t be translated automatically.

Lead Gen Forms

Use lead gen forms to capture qualified leads with data retrieved from their LinkedIn profile. Use these only for conversion goals and Sponsored Content & Message ad formats.

Because Lead Gen forms allow users to stay on the LinkedIn platform, they perform better than a classical landing page. All the user has to do is fill in the contact address fields. The process is easier and faster than using a landing page.  We estimate form completion rates to be between 5% and 10%.

Lead gen forms are the centre of LinkedIn ads lead generation strategies

Key recommendations:

· Make sure you save lead gen forms for conversion goals.

· Don’t use more than 5 pre-filled fields. Users can feel uncomfortable when  there are more than 5 questions. 3-4 questions will increase your form-completion rate. If you have high form opens but a low conversion rate, consider removing some fields.

· The easier the user experience, the more completions you will receive. That’s why we recommend using pre-filled questions where possible.

· In case you need to use custom questions, it’s best to make it easy for respondents by offering them multiple-choice.

· If you want to ask more than 5 questions or include open questions, we recommend testing more than one form to see which works better.

· Make sure your form’s messaging is consistent and relevant to your audience. Your copy, image and CTA must all be in synch. Again, you can A / B test more than one form to see which works best.

· You should check your form’s copy is not cut. Use the preview tool to check this.

· When users click the ad and go to the form, they are at the bottom of the funnel. Be fully transparent with the value the user will get after they submit the form.

· Once submitted, the content form cannot be edited. If you or your team need to make a change, you will have to start over and re-create it.

· It’s recommended to update the lead gen form every two months to prevent  the content from becoming outdated.

· Make sure you develop a qualified follow-up. Include information like how and when you will contact them.

Advertising specifications:

· Form name can be a maximum of 256 characters.

· The form language must be the same as you’ve chosen for your campaign.

· Offers headline cannot be blank and can include up to 60 characters.

· Finally, offers have a 160 character limit, but they will be cut after 70 characters.

· The landing page URL can contain up to 2,000 characters, and it must include HTTP:// or HTTPS://.

· The privacy policy can be a maximum of 2,000 characters.

· The CTA can include up to 20 characters and the confirmation message up to 300 characters.

· LinkedIn allows 12 question fields. The available information to ask in the lead gen form is the following:

– Contact: First name, last name, email address, LinkedIn Profile URL, phone number, city, State/Province, Country/Region, Postal/Zip code, Work email, Work phone number.

– Work: Job title, function and seniority.

– Company: Company name and company size.

– Industry: Education degree, the field of study, university/school, start date, graduation date.

– Demographic: Gender.

· You can include 3 optional custom questions with a maximum of 100 characters in each. Custom questions count towards the 12-question maximum. The custom questions can use multiple choice or a single line of text.

· If you prefer, you can add up to 5 custom checkboxes up to 500 characters to get members to consent to you using their data. Custom checkboxes don’t count towards the 12-question maximum.

Click to Message Ads (Launching in 2023)

This Ad format won’t be available until later in 2023, but we can give you a headsup on what it is and what you can do with it.
Click to Message Ads can be defined as a hybrid between sponsored content campaigns and Conversation Ads. They are designed to stimulate direct interaction with the user and enable them to have a conversation with you should they choose to..
 You can also create a pre-defined stack of automated answers driven by a particular customer action. This should result in a less invasive experience for the user than Conversation Ads or direct Message Ads.

5. Process: how to set up a LinkedIn Ads campaign

Plan your advertising campaign

Have a defined idea of the content. Consider repurposing existing content. A 50/50 mix of brand awareness and conversion campaigns is optimal.

Choose your objective

Think about your business goals. Be as specific as you can with your goals to run an effective campaign. LinkedIn offers solutions for each stage in the customer journey, from brand awareness to conversion.

Choose your format

Choose the right ad format for your campaign goal. Remember our tips and tricks for each ad format!

Set your budget and schedule

Before launching the campaign, estimate the amount you want to invest and create a timeline.

Optimize and measure your campaign

Monitor your campaigns daily and identify any shortcomings. Do A/B testing with your audience and to find out which are the best perfomers.

6. Funnel template

Depending on your company goals, you will need to focus on specific metrics.

Brand awareness and decision metrics for LinkedIn Ads campaigns

Before launching a campaign, build a realistic funnel forecast and track it at least twice a week

6.1. Estimate metrics

We recommend building your funnel so it is easy to analyse the sales pipeline. The following are the averages of LinkedIn Ads campaign metrics, according to LinkedIn (metrics from 2022):

General metric

• · Frequency: 1.8 by a user (max. 4 users), so it’s essential to boost the audience where possible.

Single image ad

• · CTR: 0.46%
• · Engagement rate: 0.75%
• · CPC: 4.51€
• · Lead gen form fill rate: 11.3%
• · CPL: 88.37€

Carousel ad

• · CTR: 0.50%
• · Engagement rate: 0.79%
• · CPC: 4.51€
• · Lead gen form fill rate: 11.3%
• · CPL: 88.37€

Video ad

• · CTR: 0.47%
• · Engagement rate: 0.78%
• · CPC: 4.51€
• · View Through rate (2 seconds or click on the ad): 11%
• · Completion rate (+97.5% of the video): 20.18%
• · Lead gen form fill rate: 11.3%
• · CPL: 88.37€

Message ads

• · Open rate: 30% to 50%
• · Cost per Send: 0.3€ to 0.6€
• · Lead gen form fill rate: 23.20%
• · CPL: : €80 to €120

Conversation ads

• · CTR: 14%
• · Open rate: 50%

Text ads

• · CTR: 0.02%

Dynamic ads

• · CTR: 0.07%

Through a funnel template, your team will be able to keep track of your LinkedIn Ads campaign by monitoring metrics such as the CPC (Cost per Click) and CPL (Cost per Lead). They can use the same metrics to apportion the budget for the next week/month.

6. 2. How to calculate LinkedIn Ads costs?

Calculating the cost of LinkedIn Ads is a difficult task for many people, but we can show you a way to do it in four easy steps.

1. Size your audience:

Firstly, you need to size your audience, which must be between 40.000 and 400.000 members. As we previously explained, lower audiences will typically result in a low impact for campaigns, while higher audiences will tend towards a lower quality of lead.

2. The number of impressions:

LinkedIn will not show members the same ad constantly. Based on our experience, LinkedIn Ads frequency is 1.8. So if you had 100.000 members, the number of monthly impressions for an ad would be 180.000 (100.000 x 1.8).

3. CPC:

On the right-hand side of the campaign manager, you can see the CPC costs, but they’re not always accurate. It’s better to calculate CPC this way:

· Take the average spend and increase by 20% (low average spend number + high average spend number) x 1.2. In the example shown below, that’s €762.mber + high average spend number) x 1.2. In the example shown below, that’s 762 €.

· Then, take the average number of clicks and decrease by 20% (low average spend number + high average spend number) x 0.8. In the example shown below, that would equal €142. decrease by a 20% (low average spend number + high average spend number) x 0.8. In the example shown below, that’s 142.

 · Finally, divide the spend number by the resulting click number. In our example, that’s €762 / €142= €5.37.

4. Investment:

As discussed in the scenario above, you have a maximum number of 180.000 impressions per month and a forecast CPC of €5.37. To set your investment, you need to calculate how much you can spend (Click-through-rate or CTR). The CTR is driven by various factors, i.e. your offer, ad format, ad creative and so on. In this example, if we say you have a 0.20% CTR, the maximum monthly spend capacity will = Impressions x CTR x CPC (180.000 x 0,2 x €5.37 = €1.933).

Calculate your investment precisely.

For more detailed information about how to calculate LinkedIn Ads campaign costs, please read this article.

To help you with this process, use our free funnel template.

A bit about LinkedIn’s frequency

We have already stated that the average frequency on LinkedIn is 1.8, but it’s important to understand that only 9% of users who see an ad twice will take the action to fill out a form.

LinkedIn recommends showing an ad between 4 and 8 times to gain leads. [Source: LinkedIn].

6. 3. Strategically: map your audience Pain Points

Map your audience pain points with messages and solutions:

7. LinkedIn Ads Budget

LinkedIn is an expensive platform, so be aware that your campaigns will need significant investment. During the first 2-4 weeks, be prepared to make a significant investment in testing/trial & error. We suggest a minimum of €50 per day or €3000 per month for the first month. That will give you the data you need to evaluate the effectiveness of the ads and fine-tune them as necessary.

7.1. LinkedIn Ads Budget: aTips and Tricks

Finally, here are some essential budget tips to take into account:

· Mix brand awareness and conversion campaigns:

With mixed goals, the goals at the bottom of the funnel will typically prevail over those at the top. Dedicate at least 70% of the budget to lead generation and a maximum of 30% to brand awareness or consideration campaigns.

· Test your patience:

Get through that pain barrier of losing money and test for at least a week. Losing some money in the testing phase will guard against bigger losses in the long run.

· Adapt your daily spend to the audience size:

Make sure you are investing the necessary budget according to the size of your audience. For every 100k users, we recommend an investment of €150/day.

· Use automatic bid

Choose the automatic bid function if you’re not sure how much to bid. LinkedIn uses historical campaign data and member information to automatically set your bid. Also, you need to take into account that bids will change according to the audience attributes.

· Analyse your CPL (Cost per lead):

Two weeks after the launch of a lead generation campaign, the CPL should decrease. Set the CPC to be automatic when you launch the campaign, and then change it to manual so you can have more control of the CPL.

· Optimise your budget:

If your campaign is spending the budget more quickly than expected, increase the daily spend or lower your bid amount.

· Understand what audience is impacted:

Go to your campaign manager and find the impacted audience metrics. Fine-tune your campaign from there. 

Don’t get cold feet. Cutting daily budgets at the spur of the moment will ruin your campaign.

8. LinkedIn Ads: Additional key information

In this section, we will explain LinkedIn Ads best practices and then go into best practice related to copy and visuals.

· Focus on one campaign and not two:

It’s essential to be focused on one business goal. That’s why we recommend launching one campaign to achieve best results.

· Use the winning combinations:

Once you understand your marketing objectives, use these winning combinations of format:

· Make sure your sales and marketing teams are aligned:

Both teams must be aligned to define a market-qualified lead. Consequently, you’ll be able to develop a qualified lead scoring strategy that will To help your sales team to engage with the most suitable and qualified leads, develop.

· Launch 4 or 5 ads:

LinkedIn will only show an ad once every 48 hours. Increase your frequency by running 4 or 5 ads in parallel. This will also help you measure which visuals and copy get the best results.

· Don’t forget mobile:

Make sure everything you make is optimised for smaller screens.

· Use webinars:

Webinars are a great way to make an impact in professional industries. Since the COVID-19 crisis, webinars have become even more important. According to LinkedIn research, 61% of B2B marketers use webinars as a fundamental part of their marketing strategy, and in the year of 2020, there was a 120% increase in ad content for webinars.

· Boost demand creation campaigns:

If your campaigns have high engagement but low conversion rates, consider launching demand creation campaigns. Offer your audience downloadable content such as eBooks, guides and infographics to increase your visibility.

· Quality Score tip:

Duplicating ads will adversely affect your Quality Score, so make sure you double-check this. If you fall foul of this, your Quality Score will only be restored after a few hundred impressions.

· Exclude your old leads:

When your campaign starts to generate leads, remember to exclude them from future campaigns so you don’t bombard them with unnecessary advertising.

· Help your customer:

Your goal before conversion should be to help your prospects. Once they convert, you should continue to do the same. Your customers mustn’t see you as distant and remote. Work collaboratively with your customer so they feel you are part of their team, fighting their corner.

· Analyse your competitors:

It’s as simple as browsing other company’s LinkedIn pages. Find the tab for advertisements in the menu below About.Bear in mind that many companies have several pages and they might only have campaigns in certain countries, as per MediaMarkt below.

· Consider setting up the LinkedIn Autofill option:

When you are designing and managing your LinkedIn Ad campaigns, you can choose which industries you want to focus your ads on. LinkedIn has a long list of industries that are updated with new additions from time to time. Keep an eye on that list to make sure you are up with which companies you can target with your LinkedIn Ads campaigns.

-Go to the campaign manager.

-Click the account campaign.

-Make sure the LinkedIn Insight Tag is installed on the landing page.

-Send your LinkedIn representative the list of domains you want to Autofill.

-Finally, you will need to introduce a code to the form of your landing page.

The best LinkedIn Ads types of copies

To succeed with a LinkedIn Ads campaign you need to know which copy is the most effective and generates the best results. Write good copy combined with an eye-catching image. A/B test your copyto check which copy is the most effective. First, it’s important to know which type of content you should provide for each stage of the process. These are our recommendations:

Awareness

• · Employee insights: Find members of your organisation who can help your target audience. Increase your credibility and awareness by providing relevant insights from your team.
• · Industry trends: Share industry trends with your target audience to help them with their business strategy. Well-informed predictions of future trends are also very useful.

Consideration

• · Useful templates: Templates are great things to offer your prospects. A template can also be used to explain how your product or service can solve their problem.

Decision

• · Evaluating guides: Save your audience time by evaluating your products and services, so they can gauge which of your offerings will be most useful to them.
• · Case studies: People want to know the experience of real customers. Be sure to provide testimonials from your clients.

Buzz Sumo did some great research and created a list of the best B2B headlines for LinkedIn. This research was based on LinkedIn’s average shares.

9. Lead nurturing

The importance of nurturing your the leads you didn’t convert first-time:

It’s vital to understand the process of lead nurturing, i.e. developing and reinforcing relationships at every stage of the sales funnel. According to Marketing Sherpa, 73% of leads are not ready to buy when they first give their contact details, so make sure you have a strategy for progressing them on the buying journey.

Additional Key information:

Align your sales and marketing departments.

Once the marketing department generates leads, it’s up to the sales department to convert them. Both must be well-aligned and have an understanding of where each fits into the buyer journey.

Create lead groups. Don’t give all of your leads the same message. It’s best to create different lead groups based on industry, location, pain points and the stage of the journey they are on.

Build an automated plan. Create the appropriate content plan according to which stage your leads are at. This is the process we recommend:

• Decide what you want to automate
• Define the workflow process
• Set your touchpoints
• Automate your email marketing
• Carry out retargeting campaigns
  
  

Think about the interests of your targets. Before you provide solutions, you need to understand their problem. Provide pros and cons of each alternative and give an advice on what you would choose.

Consider using video. Nowadays, people prefer to watch videos than to read text.  This could be the difference between a hot lead and a cold lead, or closing a deal and not closing a deal.

Follow-up your leads in a timely fashion. According to HubSpot, companies that develop follow-up plans with their leads have x7 times more meaningful conversations.

· List format

This is the headline type that gets the most shares. The best B2B headlines on LinkedIn were said to be:

–“X ways to”: 270 shares

–“X things you”: 116 shares

–“X reasons why”: 93 shares

–“X tips for”: 83 shares

–“X steps to”: 76 shares

–“X tips to”: 75 shares

· Future

Looking at the results, we can conclude that professionals are attracted by content that predicts future trends and factual research pieces. People really value content that helps them deliver marketing and sales strategies that will work tomorrow.

For this scenario, the best copy was found to be “The future of”, with 145 average shares.

· How to

LinkedIn users also value bite-sized tips. The recommended B2B headlines to use for this are:

–“How to get”: 110 shares

–“How to make”: 96 shares

–“How to use”: 63 shares

–“How to answer”: 61 shares

· Rankings

Rankings also provide interesting content for professionals. Here is some recommended headline copy:

–“The X Best”: 81 shares

–“X Most”: 77 shares

–“The Top X”: 74 shares

· “Why you should…”

Recommendations are a crucial content type for the LinkedIn audience. This headline has an average of 77 shares on LinkedIn.

· “The power of…”

At 74 average shares on LinkedIn, this headline copy is great for shining a light on a specific topic to impact your target audience.

· “These are the… / This is the…”

Finally, this headline is also used to mention a list of a specific topic and has an average of 63-73 shares.

Copies tips and tricks

· Compelling first sentence:

Write a compelling first sentence to encourage the target audience to keep reading the ad.

· Questions and data point:

Combining a question with a data point is a great way to increase engagement and interest.

· Value:

Articulate why they should care about what you’re talking about in your ad as opposed to simply emphasising your offering.

· Brackets:

Set expectations by immediately specifying your offer. It’s important your audience can easily identify your message from the beginning.

· Apply time pressure:

Tell your target audience that your offer/content is new and unique, to prompt them to take action. Make sure there are not too many hurdles in the way of the user that might prevent them taking action.

· Text cropping on mobile:  

LinkedIn crops text when displaying ads on mobile. Always look at the mobile ad to make sure your key copy is displayed.

· A/B testing:

We strongly recommend A/B testing to understand which copy works better and gets better results.

· Be concise:

Be direct when you’re talking about the next action (i.e. ‘learn more’ and ‘apply now’). Make sure this is less than 150 characters.

Rewrite your copy several times / Reread your copy several times / Experiment with many different ads

Try several routes / Follow best practices.

The best LinkedIn Ads Images

It’s also important to make your visual assets impactful.  In any LinkedIn campaign, you should create several versions of an ad, each with a different image, so you can test and compare their effectiveness.

Images: Tips and tricks

Here are some great tips & tricks for you and your team.

· Consistency:

The image must be in synch with the ad copy. When users see the latest posts on LinkedIn, they don’t usually spend much time reading the content of each post.Therefore, you must capture their attention with strong visuals.

· Value:

Make sure you demonstrate the value of your offering before the CTA. The most important content should show above the image. However, be careful not to overwhelm the reader with too much information at the beginning.

· Human images:

Showing “human” content will have more impact than other kinds of visuals.

· Be different:

Try to be creative and different from what users are used to seeing on LinkedIn’s posts. As this guide has outlined, there are many do’s and don’ts, but there is still lots of opportunity to innovate within these parameters.

· Different approaches:

There are always several ways to explain anything. That’s why we recommend you take inspiration from multiple sources in order to get your messaging right.

­

· Storytelling:

Tell your story. People respond much better to stories than functional descriptions.

· A/B testing:

Do A/B testing to understand which visuals get the best results. It’s also worth taking the time to document these results on an ongoing basis, so you can build a bank of intelligence about audience behaviour.

Always think about the image and text combination

10. Key success stories with LinkedIn Ads

Having drilled down into the key aspects of an optimal LinkedIn Ads campaign, let’s take a look at some stories of companies who have used LinkedIn Ads to reach their sales and marketing goals. For more case studies, see this post.

Siemens

• · Problem

Siemens had two main goals. The first one was to promote its professional training product called Sitrain. They also wanted to promote their Siemens Cerca programme.

• Solution

The company chose LinkedIn to develop both campaigns, and they used Dynamic Ads to improve CTR and the Engagement rate.

• · Key results

Thanks to the campaign, they achieved 222k impressions and 800 clicks. In addition, they got 291% growth of Sitrain’s website traffic and 71% growth of landing-page traffic for their Siemens Cerca programme. They also achieved 26% leads for Siemens Cerca.

Sony Channel

• · Problem

The Sony Channel wanted to promote one of its flagship shows, Shark Tank. They needed to find a specific target audience that would be interested in the show.

• · Solution

They decided to launch a campaign on LinkedIn, using sponsored content (the single image ad format) and sponsored InMail.

• · Key results

The sponsored InMail achieved an impressive 77% open rate and an 11.5% CTR. Their sponsored content,gained +55k impressions, 3.47% engagement and 2.56% CTR.

They succeeded for three reasons; they impacted a specific target audience, and they offered relevant content about the programme via both formats. As a result, they achieved greater interaction.

Land Rover Colombia

• · Problem

The company wanted to target managers and senior decision-makers to introduce them to their new models. Consequently, Land Rover needed a platform to target this specific audience with a direct message.

• · Solution

They opted for LinkedIn Ads and used the Sponsored InMail format. The company used the Mass Affluent targeting option to impact managers with more than 15 years of experience.

• · Key results

At the end of the campaign, they achieved a 46% open rate and a 19% CTR. The key factors were the targeting strategy, format, and a clear Call to Action.

Schneider Electric

• · Problem

Schneider Electric wanted to raise awareness about a new product for a specific target audience: senior decision-makers from the Finance, Purchasing, Engineering and IT sectors. They also wanted to focus on small and medium companies.

• · Solution

They launched a campaign on LinkedIn Ads using sponsored content with a lead gen form. In the ads, Schneider showed how much an hour of downtime costs your business.

• · Key results

Thanks to the campaign, the company generated a x10 return on investment by obtaining leads at the decision stage. They also increased awareness for a specific audience.

11. [Checklist] Steps to follow to launch a LinkedIn Ads campaign

As a LinkedIn agency, we want to share what we have learned from many years of experience to help you to build an effective campaign on LinkedIn Ads. Through our experience, we know that LinkedIn is the leading platform for B2B, so it’s essential for any marketing team to know how to use it properly. We hope this information makes your sales rocket!

As essential points, remember the five fundamental rules:

1.- Understand if it’s possible to launch a campaign on LinkedIn

2.- Analyse your business goals.

3.- Choose the right format according to your company goals.

4.- Follow the key recommendations for copy and visuals.

5.- Distribute your budget strategically and optimize your campaign according to metrics.

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