LinkedIn is the largest business network on the internet worldwide and has over 900 million members as of 2024. Since many LinkedIn members willingly share extensive data about their job, career, and interests, the network provides a unique and valuable data set for B2B advertising that is rarely found in this form. This immense amount of information allows companies to run targeted and personalized advertising campaigns that directly reach their audiences, significantly facilitating customer acquisition.
In the following article, we will explore how LinkedIn Ads can be specifically used for customer acquisition and which strategies are particularly effective.
What Advantages Does LinkedIn Offer for B2B Advertising?
- Largest Business Network Worldwide: With 900 million users, LinkedIn is by far the largest and most popular business network worldwide. This allows for building reach within the target audience and offers the possibility to run both national and international campaigns.
- Very Accurate Targeting: LinkedIn provides very precise targeting methods for advertising products, based among other things on users’ profile data. This allows the platform to offer one of the most accurate targeting options in the B2B sector, including exotic targeting methods (e.g., people working in the PR department of medical device manufacturers in the USA — the target audience includes 940 users).
- Diverse Booking Methods: On LinkedIn, you can book ads such that you only pay when a click occurs and can assume that the user has a certain interest in the offer. This booking option is important for digital customer acquisition.
- Directly Bookable & Quick Start: Advertising on LinkedIn can be set up and booked directly through a campaign management tool. This avoids the need for an advertising intermediary, makes advertising costs transparent, and allows for a quick campaign start.
- Diverse Advertising Products: LinkedIn offers a variety of advertising options. These include classic sponsored posts that appear in users’ news feeds and can link to the company’s website. There are also Message Ads, which are displayed in the LinkedIn inbox and allow users to contact the advertiser directly.
Defining the Target Audience on LinkedIn
One of the most interesting features of LinkedIn advertising is the ability to define business advertising target audiences very precisely. No other high-reach online medium currently offers such precise targeting in the business segment. Below is a selection of various targeting options that can be combined as needed:
- Company Names
- Number of Employees in the Company
- Age & Gender
- Education & Fields of Study
- Job Titles
- Work Experience
- Special Characteristics (e.g., living abroad, recently promoted, frequent travelers)
- Interests (e.g., Real Estate Services, Legal Services, etc.)
- Industry
- Geographic Location
- Person’s Skills
- Area of Activity
It is very practical that when setting up the campaign, you can immediately see how large the selected target audience is and how expensive the advertising placement will be. If the target audience is too small for a campaign, a corresponding warning appears directly.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn offers a variety of advertising options. Here’s a concise overview of the main formats available:
- Sponsored Content: These ads appear directly in the LinkedIn feed and are therefore particularly attention-grabbing. They also offer the greatest flexibility in terms of design and come in various forms:
- Single Image Ads: Individual images
- Video Ads: Videos with visuals & audio
- Carousel Ads: A series of images
- Event Ads: Used to promote events
- Document Ads: Allows for promoting documents like eBooks, case studies, infographics, etc.
- Thought Leader Ads: This format allows for actively promoting LinkedIn posts from employees within the company
- All these formats, except Thought Leader Ads, can be accompanied by additional text.
Two examples of feed ads on LinkedIn - Sponsored Messaging: These ads appear directly in the LinkedIn inbox of the target audience. Unfortunately, since 2022, it is no longer possible to target users in the European Union (EU) with these ads. However, this format can still be used for other markets (e.g., Switzerland, the United Kingdom, etc.).
- Dynamic Ads: These personalized text/image ads can be used to generate website traffic and followers. The ads are well-suited for individual targeting.
Example of a Dynamic Ad on LinkedIn - Text Ads: These very compact, text-heavy ads with a small image are quick to create and are generally cheaper than other LinkedIn ad formats.
When Are LinkedIn Ads Recommended and When Not?
LinkedIn Ads can showcase their strengths in the following cases:
- LinkedIn is highly suitable for campaigns targeting specific B2B audiences. Due to its highly specialized business-focused targeting, these ads can achieve good conversion rates in the B2B sector.
- LinkedIn Ads can also be appealing when aiming to reach higher-income audiences. Targeting job titles such as owners, executives, and department heads offers interesting targeting possibilities.
In the following cases, LinkedIn may be less suitable:
- For broad consumer campaigns with high reach, LinkedIn is not the ideal channel due to its above-average advertising costs. There are other digital advertising channels that perform better in this regard.
- LinkedIn is relatively expensive compared to many other digital advertising platforms. Those looking for many clicks for little money may find LinkedIn less effective.
How LinkedIn Ads Work for Customer Acquisition:
To ensure a LinkedIn ad campaign yields results and generates new business, consider the following advice:
- Precise Target Audience Definition: LinkedIn advertising is not cheap. To make a campaign economically viable, it is crucial to reach the target audience with minimal wastage. Answer the question of who finds your offer particularly relevant as precisely as possible. As a reference, you can also review your existing customer list and try to identify common parameters.
- Cost-per-Click Billing: When setting up the campaign, configure it under the “Bidding” section so that costs are incurred only when a click is made by an interested user.
- Disable Ad Network & Audience Expansion: To maintain click quality and avoid wastage, disable ad placements in the “LinkedIn Audience Network” (under Placement settings) and audience expansion (under Audience settings).
- Ensure Only Interested People Click: Click-through rates are less important than many think. What matters is that not many people click on your ads, but the right ones. To avoid motivating the wrong people to click, clearly communicate what users can expect after clicking the ad. (For example, if you offer a high-priced product, it’s sensible to mention the price in the ad to deter penny-pinchers from clicking.)
- Professional Landing Page: A good click is worthless if you cannot convince the prospect after the click. Use modern, sales-oriented, and distraction-free landing pages that build trust, persuade, and lead to the desired action. Ensure the website looks good on all devices.
- Conversion Tracking: As with any digital advertising measure, the success of LinkedIn Ads should be measured. Only this way can you assess whether the campaign is economically viable. Integrating LinkedIn’s conversion tracking allows you to train LinkedIn’s algorithm to achieve the best possible number of conversions for the available budget. A key requirement for successful optimization is having sufficient data.
- Conduct Tests: A different ad or landing page variant can significantly affect a campaign’s performance. Always include tests in every campaign to find out what works best.
- Seek Professional Help: To maximize the potential of LinkedIn Ads, it may be beneficial to outsource the planning, setup, and management of the campaign to a performance agency. These agencies have extensive experience with result-oriented campaigns and proven strategies, helping to avoid mistakes and use the advertising budget efficiently. This also increases the likelihood of achieving the set goals.
Summary: Key Takeaways
- Largest Business Network: LinkedIn reaches an enormous audience with over 900 million members worldwide.
- Precise B2B Targeting: Thanks to extensive business profile data, very specific B2B target audiences can be addressed. Particularly the targeted approach to decision-makers in companies is highly interesting.
- Versatile Advertising Formats: From Sponsored Content to Dynamic Ads – LinkedIn offers numerous advertising options.
- Higher Advertising Costs: Although LinkedIn is more expensive than other platforms, it provides highly precise targeting in the B2B sector.
- Click-Based Booking: Campaigns can be booked so that costs are incurred only when an interested party clicks.
- Direct Booking: Campaigns can be booked directly through the Campaign Manager tool on LinkedIn without an advertising intermediary. Setup is quick and straightforward.
- Insights During Campaign Creation: During campaign setup, you can already see the size of the defined target audience and the expected costs.
- Conversion Tracking: Essential for campaign success is the precise targeting of the audience, effective communication of the right advertising message, strategically convincing prospects on landing pages, and measuring conversions.
- Professional Support: Agencies can help leverage the full potential of LinkedIn Ads, often achieving better results from campaigns.