3 Big Reasons to Advertise on LinkedIn.
As we discussed in our last blog post about why B2B companies need to have a presence on LinkedIn, they have the most affluent and educated users of all the social media sites and the opportunity to influence LinkedIn users is great. So, here are our 3 big reasons why a B2B company should consider advertising on LinkedIn.
1) The Targeting Capabilities
What makes targeting so powerful on LinkedIn is that you can count on its accuracy because its all based on first-party data, otherwise known as self-reporting. Although it is true that people could misrepresent themselves, it’s highly unlikely because of the connection to a network and their company, so it would be hard to get away with saying you’re a Vice President of Marketing when really, you’re the Marketing Coordinator (unless you’re not connected to any colleagues, I suppose then it would be less risky).
LinkedIn’s targeting is quite precise and it lets marketers target people through demographic data such as job function, seniority, company name, geography and industry; and through interest-based targeting such as group membership, skills and field of study; and finally, through your own audience data (i.e. your own account/contact lists). When we advertise on LinkedIn, we have always had great confidence that we’re actually reaching the audience we’ve specified, we find there’s less social activity from people we’re not sure why they saw our ad.
2) LinkedIn Users Want Thought Leadership and Product Knowledge
According to LinkedIn, there are currently 9 billion content impressions a week, which means people are going to LinkedIn for many different reasons, not necessarily because they are looking for a job. Many people are regularly going to LinkedIn to keep up with professional networks, to read relevant content, to keep up with companies they care about, and to connect with contacts. One study by LinkedIn and Millard Brown found that 71% of professionals view LinkedIn as a trusted resource1.
So why advertise? Why not just maintain a presence? A good rule of thumb is that it can be better to advertise to people where they want and are expecting to be advertised to, for example, people who read fashion magazines read for the advertising as much as for the editorial. People who go to LinkedIn are looking for industry thought leadership and product knowledge.
Although there are several different types of ads on LinkedIn, one of the ways you can advertise is to sponsor a post, which can extend the reach of your thought leadership within your industry. And if you target it right, you can get it before the eyes of the exact people that are looking for your thought leadership. The other interesting aspect about the LinkedIn audience is that if you compare trending topics to that of Facebook, they are extremely different, with trending topics such as integrated marketing, social media and marketing automation, while Facebook or Twitter they are often entertainment focused as opposed to informational focused. People who visit LinkedIn go there for information.
3) Because Other B2B Marketers are Successful with LinkedIn
A few weeks back we published a blog post whereby we detailed stats from a recent survey of Marketers by DemandWave. What we didn’t tell everyone then, but we’re going to tell everyone now, is that within social media, most Marketers in this study identified LinkedIn as a lead generating site for their companies (62%) while the other social media sites aren’t nearly identified as much2.
Marketers tend to love LinkedIn for its success as a lead generation outlet. Not to say that the other sites don’t generate leads but clearly LinkedIn works for more marketers and more companies.
The only drawback to LinkedIn advertising is that you do need to have a large target audience and the reason for this is that unlike other social media sites, people don’t, at least today, check their LinkedIn account as often, so ads need a large audience to get enough views. This might change as Microsoft has now purchased LinkedIn, and Lynda.com (a website that offers educational online courses) is now a prominent part of the LinkedIn landscape. LinkedIn advertising can also be expensive in comparison to the other social media sites. But if your products and services are high-value, and you target correctly, then LinkedIn can generate cost-effective leads.
So, there you have it, our top 3 reasons for advertising on LinkedIn. Now that you’ve heard our thoughts, we want to hear yours. Contact us and tell us about your marketing needs.
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1. Source: LinkedIn/Millward Brown Mindset Divide Study, 2014↩
2. Nanji, Ayaz. The Top Digital Channels for Generating B2B Leads https://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2017/31690/the-top-digital-channels-for-generating-b2b-leads?adref=nlt030717 MarketingProfs. March 7, 2017. ↩