- Linkedin Ad Formats With Examples
- How Do You Know Which Ad Works Best?
- How Linkedin Ads Are Configured And How to Show Them to the Target Audience
- Summary - Linked Ads Best Practices
LinkedIn Ad Formats With Examples
I won't go into detail about the requirements for each ad format here because they're already mentioned in the LinkedIn specifications. Before preparing texts and creatives for ads, keep in mind that there are restrictions to:- the number of characters in the title, post text, and description;
- the number of characters for the text on the buttons;
- format, size, and proportions of photos and videos;
- video duration;
- the number of cards — if we are talking about a carousel.
Single Image Ad
These ads are based on a single image. It appears directly in the news feed of those users who are defined as your target audience. We will discuss how to target a certain audience later. You can show this ad to users no matter what device they use: desktop, tablet, or mobile. The user understands that this is an advertisement, as it is marked as "Promoted". You can see below an example of such an ad:Carousel Image Ad
A carousel is an ad format that includes multiple images that a user can scroll. You can use each illustration to lead users to different pages of your site. Or, if you wish, you can drive potential customers to the same page. For example, to the home page. It is important that the images in the carousel aren't the same. So, for example, you can take a picture of your product from different angles.Video Ad
As you can understand from the title, this is a video that is shown to users in the feed. The video can last from 3 seconds to half an hour. However, experts believe that 15-second ads bring the most results. Here you can see an example of a video from a promo course on copywriting:Text Ads
A text ad includes a title, short text, and an image. Despite such a laconic format, they are rather catchy. This is achieved by displaying ads at the very top or on a separate block on the right of the screen. [caption id="attachment_53130" align="aligncenter" width="600"]Spotlight Ad
These ads contain a call to action. And they are also called "dynamic" because their content can change. Spotlight ad contains a specific call to action: download a price list, sign up for a free lesson, register, etc. This format is the best for driving users to a company website or landing page. These ads are personalized for each LinkedIn user based on profile data:- job position;
- business type;
- interests;
- profile photo.
Message Ads
This is a type of ad that is sent directly in private messages to the target audience. At the same time, the message is displayed at the top of the mailbox so the user knows that it is “Sponsored”.
Note: This type of ad is not intended for spam. For example, LinkedIn does not allow you to send a second sponsored message just after sending the first one. Also, a message can not contain more than 3 links.
You can also choose the sender — for example, send on behalf of yourself or on behalf of the company if you are a page administrator. You can also add a call-to-action button there:
Jobs Ads
As I said, LinkedIn has been used literally from the very beginning to search for jobs and candidates for vacancies. Therefore, this social network has advanced opportunities for this. You can launch ads for different jobs that meet people who are very suitable for the given requirements. This is a dynamic ad format that allows you to personalize job ads. The profile data of the user that matches the target audience determines the version that it will be shown.Follower Ad
These ads are similar to the Spotlight Ad format described above but they are used for a different purpose. This type of advertising is designed to increase the number of subscribers to your page. Like Spotlight, the ads are dynamically customized for each user, showing their photo next to the company logo. It also includes a button that invites them to follow your LinkedIn page:How Do You Know Which Ad Works Best?
Whatever ad format you choose, it's very important to know how your ad performed. Otherwise, you will spend money on promotions, and they will not pay off. There are several ways to track the effectiveness of ads and we will describe them below.Built-In LinkedIn Analytics
This social network has its own set of reporting tools that allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of a launched advertising campaign. You can find a full description in LinkedIn Help, however, we will describe the main points of its analytics. LinkedIn has a campaign management page with a comprehensive reporting dashboard. There you can analyze the following performance data:- accounts,
- campaign groups,
- campaigns,
- ads.
Google Analytics Reports
You can also analyze the effectiveness of ads in the most popular web analytics system - Google Analytics. And it's pretty easy to do so: 1. Create a custom LinkedIn Ads URL using the Campaign URL Builder. To do so, fill out the fields, for example, in the following way:Special Services
There are numerous services that allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of social networks, including LinkedIn. For example, trendHERO, Iconosquare, Quintly. The functions of such platforms are in many ways similar, so we will analyze their capabilities using the latter as an example. They have features that are useful for impact analytics on both ads and regular posts:- collecting and storing data from all social media accounts,
- uploading link clicks — data of clicks on the advertising links to the social network,
- assessment of the involvement and activity of the target audience on the promoted page,
- creating your own dashboards with collected analytics data.
Сall Tracking
The methods described above are suitable for companies applying only online. But there are many types of business, among partners, clients, and candidates for vacancies who mostly call. Therefore, the effectiveness of advertising must be evaluated, including the data on calls. Call tracking will help with this.How Call Tracking Works With LinkedIn:
- Connect call tracking,
- Chose a separate phone number that will appear in LinkedIn ads,
- If you have two or more ads running, it is better to indicate a separate phone number for each — so you will understand which one works better,
- You can place the phone number directly in the post or even on the image,
- The number can also be placed in the company profile,
- When a client is calling, call tracking records in its reports that the call was made from a LinkedIn ad,
- You just have to analyze how often you get calls from launched ads,
- Based on this, you can make conclusions about how to allocate the advertising budget in the future.
How LinkedIn Ads Are Configured and How to Show Them to the Target Audience
Let's take a quick look at how to set up ads on LinkedIn and take a closer look at how to target your audience. To launch paid content on LinkedIn, open the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions platform and click "Create Ad".Summary - Linked Ads Best Practices
To sum up, I can say that LinkedIn is a great way to promote in the B2B segment and find partners, as well as employees. But it’s not enough to just set up ads and wait for results. To be effective, follow these tips.- Analyze your target audience and the ads that your competitors or companies from related fields are already showing. Thus, you can create relevant images and attractive ad texts.
- Make sure you analyze the cost recovery of ads, otherwise, you will spend part of the budget for nothing. To do so, you can use analytic tools, or call tracking if at least some of your clients and partners call you.
- Test different approaches. For example, try different types of ads and see what works best.