LinkedIn’s precise targeting capabilities make it a frontrunner for generating leads and increasing conversions in the B2B space. With the ability to narrow in on specific audiences in various industries, you’re able to drive better quality traffic, higher engagement, and ultimately bring in MQL’s and SQL’s to your sales team.

It’s time to elevate your digital marketing strategy using LinkedIn advertising. In this blog, you’ll get to know the ad types available within the platform, A/B testing options, and how you can launch a dynamic campaign that will help grow your business!

LinkedIn Ad Types

There are two main ad types that can be used to bring in leads and conversions on LinkedIn, Conversion Ads and Lead Gen Ads.

Conversion Ads
Conversion ads are traditional sponsored content posts that are labeled “promoted” in the newsfeed of users you’re targeting. The ads contain a clear call to action with a direct click-through to a landing page. Once the ad is clicked, users will be directed to a landing page with a form on your website where they can enter their information in exchange for an offer. Conversions are tracked with a LinkedIn Insight Tag which you will need to add to your website’s code.

Pros: With Conversion ads, traffic is directed directly to your website and increases the chances of users exploring further into your site. Website traffic is particularly beneficial if you are running any type of remarketing campaign, which we’ll cover later in this blog.

Cons: Conversion ads can result in high bounce rates if you aren’t clear about the click leading to a gated page or if the page they land on doesn’t have a similar look and feel as the ad. You will want to make it known that a form is required to avoid users from leaving too soon. For best practice, make your forms as short as possible! Using 4 to 7 fields will increase the chances of users filling it out.

Lead Gen Ads
Lead gen ads and conversion ads are similar in the sense that they both require a clear CTA and form fillThe difference is that lead gen ads do not direct traffic to your website. When clicked on, these ads generate a form directly on LinkedIn, keeping users on the platform. The form automatically generates information based on what LinkedIn gathers from user profiles, eliminating the time-consuming step users manually typing in their info.

Pros: Due to the ease and convenience, lead gen ads often lead to a higher conversion rate. If you’re just looking for quick downloads or information, this might be the easiest route to go. The forms often integrate with CRMs, like Hubspot and Marketo, or the leads can be manually downloaded to an Excel file.

Cons: Since the ads don’t point directly to your page, you may experience less traffic to your site than you could get with sponsored content. It’s also important to consider that many LinkedIn users don’t always associate their work email addresses with their profile so when LinkedIn pulls in their email info, many times it’s a gmail, Hotmail, or other personal email address that B2B companies do not find useful

Increasing Conversion Rates

Once you’ve decided which ad type is most appropriate for your advertising initiatives, you’ll need to consider all opportunities to optimize your campaign and drive conversions. A/B testing and remarketing are two powerful tools that will provide audience insight and help to generate stronger leads.

A/B Testing

When initially launching your campaign, it’s important to do some testing to ensure that your ad creative, placement and style is actively engaging the right people. Digital marketing and advertising professionals rely on A/B testing methods to ensure they’re reaching their target audience in a meaningful way.

To perform an A/B test, run a campaign that differs by one or more variables. This includes any of the following:

• Ad Creative
• Targeting Demographic
• Ad Style or Placement
• Bidding Strategy.

Keep in mind that to run an A/B test successfully, it’s important to clearly define target audiences for each ad. If the reach is too broad, your ad will be susceptible to faulty clicks and impressions which will not only eat away at your campaign’s budget but skew your performance metrics. This is especially critical when it comes time to compare and evaluate the ad sets.

Once your campaign is launched, monitor it closely and take note of the engagement metrics to determine which ads are performing best. With this information, you’ll be able to optimize your current campaign by shutting off low performing ad sets and allocate more funds to the stronger ones. These insights will also help you make smarter decisions to launch high-performing campaigns in the future.

Remarketing

Are you seeing high landing page visits with low conversion rates from your campaign? Try remarketing!

Retargeting website visitors is an effective way to build off a prospects initial interest. For instance, perhaps a user saw your ad, clicked-through, but was too busy at the time to further engage or fill out the form. You can create a custom audience in LinkedIn to remarket to those who previously engaged with your ad or visited your website, in hopes of having them convert the second time around. Remarketing capabilities go beyond those who just did not convert from a paid advertisement – you can set up additional campaigns to target external website visitors that landed or browsed specific pages on your website as well.

Need help developing a strong social media marketing strategy to grow your business? At Nowspeed, we are committed to improving your numbers and delivering results. Contact us today to get a free consultation from our marketing team.