LinkedIn is one of the most effective social media platforms to advertise on if you are looking to generate quality leads for your business. With over 690 million total users, LinkedIn’s audience includes about 60 million decision-makers, 90 million senior-level influencers, and nearly 10 million members of the c-suite. With numbers like these, it’s no wonder that it’s been rated the top social network for lead generation.
As a B2B digital marketer, the opportunity for growth through LinkedIn cannot be ignored. The platforms precise targeting capabilities and various ad formats allow you to place your message in front of the right people. It’s important to note that the strategy behind LinkedIn ads goes beyond deciphering your offer, audience and budget. To execute a successful campaign, you’ll want to nail down a solid bidding strategy to maximize ad performance.
So what exactly goes into bidding on LinkedIn? In this blog, we’ll take a deeper dive into the various bid types, different strategies, and tips you should know before you launch your next campaign!
So What is Bidding?
In simple terms, LinkedIn advertising works similarly to an online auction. When a member visits LinkedIn while signed into their account, the platform automatically runs an auction. If your campaign wins the bid, your creative or message ad will be delivered if the user falls within your target audience. This process happens each time a member logs on, so there are multiple opportunities throughout the day to compete and serve impressions.
Essentially, your goal is to place a competitive bid to win ad placement because space is limited. When you launch your campaign, you begin competing against companies or advertisers who are targeting a similar audience as you. If your ad serves an impression, then you have technically “won” that bid to appear over your competitors.
Bid Types
Before selecting your bid type, you’ll want to determine how you want to be billed. Based on your campaign objectives, you’ll need to decide whether it makes sense to bid CPC (per click basis) or CPM (per thousand impressions). This will help you establish a bid strategy that is right for your advertising goals.
There are four main bid types to choose from within the LinkedIn Ads platform. Bidding options for your campaign will rely on your selected objective and ad format and are either automatic or manual. The available bid types include:
Automated
Automated bids are just that – automatic! Through machine learning, automated bids do the work for you and will deliver your entire budget. Automated bids are great for a “set it and forget it” mentality. Without needing to manually adjust your bid, the campaign will deliver the most results based on your ad objective.
If you’re looking to have more control over your campaign and results, we wouldn’t recommend this bid type for you. But, if you’re warming up a new target audience or launching your initial campaign, selecting an automated bid is a great place to start! Based on the first few days or weeks of results, you’ll be able to get a feel for your campaign’s engagement level and be able to make bid adjustments from the initial data.
Target Cost Bids
With this strategy, you’ll set a target cost bid within your campaign and LinkedIn will automatically bid and optimize your campaign to deliver key results, staying within range of your specified cost. It’s important to note that the daily average cost will often be slightly higher or slightly lower than your target cost, but it will never exceed any more than 30%. This bidding type helps you maintain a consistent cost per key result throughout the campaign duration. In turn, you’ll have more control over how quickly your budget is spending. Bid types within Target Cost Bids include:
- Target CPC (cost per click)
- Target CPM (cost per thousand impressions)
- Target CPV (cost per video view)
Maximum Cost Bids
Another kind of manual cost bid, maximum cost bids allow you to specify the maximum amount you’re willing to bid in order to achieve a key result. Note that the the minimum bid will be higher than a targeted cost bid. This includes:
- Maximum CPC: allows you to specify the max amount you’re willing to bid per click
- Maximum CPM: allows you to specify the max amount you’re willing to bid per 1,000 impressions
- Maximum CPV: allows you to specify the max amount you’re willing to bid per video view
- Maximum CPS (cost per send): Available for Messaging Ad formats only, Maximum PC allows you to specify the max amount you’re willing to bid per send
Maximum cost bids give advertisers the most control over their bid. When selecting this bid type, you’ll need to be cautious of your bid amount. If it’s too low, your campaign risks being less competitive which will result less opportunities to win impressions with your audience. We recommend keeping an eye on Maximum Cost campaigns and adjusting bid amount accordingly throughout the campaign to ensure optimal results.
Enhanced CPC Bids
Looking for conversions? Selecting an enhanced CPC bid for your campaign might be the best option! Enhanced CPC optimizes your bid to reach people who are likely click and convert. Because of this, you’ll only be charged on a cost per click basis. Here, it’s important to note that enhanced CPC bids are not available for brand awareness, video views, or job application campaign objectives.
Why Bidding Matters
So, why does bidding matter? Truth be told, it will make or break your campaign’s performance! If you bid too high, you might burn through your budget too quickly. If you bid too low, you might miss out on opportunities to reach key audience members. Evaluating campaign performance and adjusting as you go is the best strategy to make sure you’re optimizing your ads. That’s why, understanding bidding types and strategies is crucial to optimize your LinkedIn campaign.
Are you struggling to see results with your LinkedIn campaigns? Talk to Nowspeed! Our team of digital marketing experts will help your business generate more leads through social media advertising. Learn more about our Social Media Marketing services.
