Learn How To Run A Successful LinkedIn Business Campaign

LinkedIn is perhaps the largest social media platform for businesses and business professionals. In fact, about 40 percent of business owners have a presence on LinkedIn and use it to communicate regularly. And yet, despite this level of popularity, this gigantic social network often gets lost in the shuffle whenever there's a discussion about marketing on social media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram seem to get most of the attention, but a savvy marketer can find some great leads through LinkedIn, especially when it comes to business-to-business marketing.

Why You Should Advertise on LinkedIn

The best reason to advertise on LinkedIn is because of all the business professionals who use it, but it also has a slick user interface that arguably makes advertising easier than on Facebook or Twitter. It has a great and intuitive desktop and mobile apps, there is less spam than on other platforms, and it is frequented by influential business professionals who are actively looking for opportunities to get involved with other businesses. In short, you could have better luck with a LinkedIn marketing campaign than with a similar campaign on Facebook or Twitter.Much like putting together a marketing campaign on any other social media platform, you still need to know how to create a LinkedIn campaign that is effective enough to be worth your time and money. Yes, there are similarities to marketing on other platforms, but LinkedIn is just different enough from Facebook to require some different marketing strategies.

Types of LinkedIn Ads

There are several different types of ads that can be posted on LinkedIn, but most can be categorized as either self-service ads or LinkedIn Advertising Partner Solutions. As you could probably guess, self-service ads are advertisements that you can create on your own. This does take some time, but LinkedIn has made it surprisingly easy thanks to its Campaign Manager tool. This allows you to schedule your marketing campaign, target a particular audience, and find out who is responding to your ads.LinkedIn Advertising Partner Solutions refers to sponsored ads that are already on a LinkedIn page. You can still share these ads with a target audience or schedule them to work within your campaign, but they are existing ads that for the most part only need to be promoted. The only issue here is that you have less control over what goes out on your business's page.Aside from those two categories, LinkedIn ads can be placed into the following smaller categories:

• Text Ads - These are the most basic and most common advertisements you will find on LinkedIn, and probably throughout the Internet. They mostly consist of a short bit of text, but they might also include a small image. You can see these ads on the top or right side of the screen.
• Display Ads - These are standard visual ads that you will see on the right side of the main content.
• Dynamic Ads - Dynamic ads show up in the same place as display ads, but they are personalized based on a user's profile. For example, they might let users know when a connection of theirs has started to follow a company or joined a group.
• Sponsored Content - This is content that shows up organically on a person's feed. They aren't personalized like many other types of ads are, but as we said before, they can be included in a business's marketing campaign.
• Sponsored InMail - InMail allows marketers to send personalized messages directly to certain users. They will receive these messages the next time they log onto their LinkedIn account.

Now that we've gone over what kinds of ads you can have on LinkedIn, let's go over some basic strategies when developing your marketing campaign.

Strong Copy Is Everything

Strong copy is the most important part of any advertising campaign. This is true no matter how many tools you have at your disposal or how many trends you feel you need to follow. If you don't have a strong message in your advertisements, your campaign won't go anywhere. Spend some time coming up with clever text ads and logos, and don't be afraid to drop those that aren't getting the results that you want.

Target Your Ads

Since 71 percent of marketers prefer to use LinkedIn for their business, you will face a lot of competition. This is why you should just focus on one or two demographics with your campaign. LinkedIn allows you to target people based on industry, job type, location, groups they belong to, gender, and age. Narrowing your target audience down to a few specific groups will take some time and experimentation, but it will make your marketing campaign much more successful.

Add an Image

The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words is never more true than on the Internet. A good image can increase engagement of a social media post by 150 percent, so take full advantage of any photos that might work with your text or display ads. Any image you choose should fit the brand you're advertising, and it should work well with LinkedIn's background and pixel parameters.

Never Stop Monitoring Your Campaign

Finally, you should never assume that your LinkedIn advertising campaign will keep working for you. Things move quickly in the world of social media, even on a business-oriented site such as LinkedIn. Keep checking on your ads to see which ones are the most effective, and don't be afraid to look to other business' pages to find out what works for them. Tweak your campaign every once in a while, dropping ads that aren't getting results and adding new targeted ads that might work a little better. You need to evolve to stay relevant on any social media platform, and that includes LinkedIn.As you can tell, there aren't a lot of differences between advertising on LinkedIn and advertising on other platforms. The biggest is that LinkedIn focuses on marketers and business professionals who are always on the lookout for new marketing opportunities. That may help your cause in the long run, but your campaign will require a lot of time and effort. Keep monitoring your advertisements and targeting the right audience, and your marketing campaign should be successful.