How To Use LinkedIn For Your Business

The world of internet marketing is vast. Like the universe, it seems to only be expanding. You may have just figured out how to advertise on Facebook or Google, and now you have to figure out how to advertise on LinkedIn, too? We understand that keeping up with digital marketing is stressful and overwhelming for many people who are busy running their small businesses.

Unfortunately, it’s imperative that you keep up with changes in the online marketing world because you don’t want to cut yourself off from a potential revenue stream. Just because LinkedIn marketing seems challenging or is one more thing you have to learn, that doesn’t mean you should skip this one. You got this.

We’ve put together a guide to help you get started building a LinkedIn marketing campaign. It’s not as hard as you might think, and it could bring you leads, customers, brand recognition, and revenue, which makes learning how to advertise on LinkedIn well worth the effort.

How Can LinkedIn Advertising Help Your Business Succeed?

If you’re skeptical of the benefits of setting up a LinkedIn advertising campaign, consider this: 706 million people are LinkedIn users. Sure, a lot of those members also use other social media platforms, but what if some people are falling through the cracks? You want to make sure you are reaching as many people as possible through all of the available advertising avenues.

Like most advertising strategies, your goals with LinkedIn marketing are to expand your reach, pull in a new audience, and convert your audience into customers or consumers. LinkedIn can be an additional marketing channel for you, especially if you have been using other social media platform’s advertising and need a new strategy to bring in more business.
LinkedIn advertising can do the following for your business:

  • Expands your reach to a brand new audience who may not use other social media platforms.
  • Gives you another opportunity to market your products and services in a new way. You can reach very different audiences on different platforms.
  • Builds your brand and image in a community of professionals.
  • Could help you generate partnerships that can make your business grow and expand in ways beyond just making an initial sale. Building relationships could move your business to the next level.

Getting Started With LinkedIn Ads

If you have never set up a LinkedIn ad campaign, here are the general steps to help you get your campaign started and connect more people with your business’s products and services.

Set Up Your LinkedIn Campaign

To begin, you need to go to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions platform where you can begin building your first LinkedIn ad campaign. You will need to create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account to manage your campaign and any other campaigns you create.

Once you have an account set up under your company’s brand and profile, start by naming your first campaign (be specific as this will help you find and organize your campaigns later) and selecting the campaign group. A campaign group can be created by you to organize your campaigns. In one campaign group, you can have up to 1000 different campaigns.

Set Your Campaign Objective

This is where you decide what you want the audience to do when they see your ad. You need to determine the purpose of your ad. Do you want the target audience to visit your website or engage with a post? Do you want to generate new leads or are you looking to get views of a video you created? Do you need to increase brand awareness or obtain a higher conversion rate on your website? Figure out what you are trying to accomplish.

Set Your Target Audience

Next, it’s time to target the group of people you believe will be most likely to buy your product or service. You can target only one group or you can create different ads that target different groups of people. Even one product should be marketed differently to different groups of people.

For instance, a puppy brush might be marketed to young adults as a way to be responsible when caring for a new pet. For an older demographic, you may market the brush as a tool to create a relaxing experience for both puppy and pet owner.

Find your target market and set your ads accordingly.

LinkedIn Ad Format and Ad Placement

You will be prompted to choose a format for your ad, such as text ads vs. message ads. You can also choose where you want your ad displayed. Your budget may impact which ad type you can choose and where it is placed.

Set a Budget, Schedule, and Bid Type

Like other ad campaigns on Google and other social media platforms, you will want to set a daily total budget. You need to consider carefully how much you can spend on ad campaigns across platforms.

For instance, balance your LinkedIn advertising costs with your Google advertising costs.

You will also need to set up a schedule and decide which bid type you want to use for each ad: automated bid, maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid, or maximum pay-per-1,000 impressions bid.

You will need to carefully consider which bid option is right for your campaign. There are pros and cons to each, and each ad campaign is different and has different objectives. If you are just trying to get your brand out there, you might want to use CPM. If you aren’t really worried about getting anyone to click on your ad, and just want to increase visibility, CPM could be the bid type for this campaign.

If you really want to drive traffic to your website, you may want to use CPC ads.

Figure out your bid type, and then your campaign can go to work for you.

Tracking

Don’t forget to track your ad’s success and make adjustments to your campaign accordingly. You could be wasting money if you don’t revisit your ads frequently to see how effective they are in achieving whatever objective you set. You may come up with different strategies if one of your ads is not performing well.

Figuring Out Your Audience

One of the most important components of advertising, no matter what platform you are using, is identifying your audience. Each of your ads in your ad campaign should clearly target a specific group of people, such as a certain group of business professionals. For example, if you are selling a product that health professionals may appreciate, you can target a specific type of job experience.

You have options to set targeting parameters to narrow down your audience to suit your specific needs, such as demographics, interests, education, job experience, and more. Make sure you take advantage of these targeting options.

Think very carefully about who your specific audience is. General ads don’t work well. To reach your targeted audience, you need to be on point. Don’t describe the product and its bells and whistles. Tell people how your product or service will improve their lives.

5 Helpful Tips for LinkedIn Advertising Newbies

  1. Be detailed when naming advertising campaigns, so you can find your campaigns easily while using the platform.
  2. Target the right audience with the right ad. This will make people more likely to convert.
  3. Budget considerations are key in all forms of advertising. Everyone knows you have to spend money to make money, but no one wants to waste money. Make sure you are spending your money wisely and creating ads that are going to convert. If you need help setting up a LinkedIn campaign, a digital marketing firm, like Digital Division, can manage a campaign for you.
  4. Don’t be lazy when it comes to creating new ads for different target audiences. It’s tempting to use an ad you made previously and only make minor tweaks to it for a new target group, but make sure you are creating useful ads that are customized to each audience you are targeting.
  5. Don’t forget to include a call to action (CTA). Make sure your ad tells or implies what the audience is supposed to do next. Should they call you? Should they visit your website? Maybe you want them to watch a must-see video. Make sure the action they need to take is clear.

Need Help With Internet Marketing Campaigns?

If you have read this guide and feel like the process is too much for you to deal with right now, you are not alone. Many small business owners are stretched thin, and they just don’t have the time to handle their own digital marketing. No worries. You can get help from experts in online marketing campaigns by teaming up with Digital Division, a full-service digital marketing company in Kansas City. Although headquartered in Kansas City, we help small businesses across the country. We can help you with your advertising needs.

We can set up campaigns for you, manage them, and handle reporting. You will be able to see where your advertising dollars are going and how effective your marketing campaigns have been at helping you reach your goals. Digital Division handles campaigns across social network platforms, so you can take advantage of Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads and more. Now is the best time to raise your business to new heights.