LinkedIn Advertising: How to Set Up a Sponsored Ad to Reach Potential Clients

Are you a B2B company? If so, you probably already know that LinkedIn advertising can be a great way to reach your potential customers. After all, roughly 57% of companies have a LinkedIn Company Page, and a higher number have personal member profiles.

Because LinkedIn is a professional network, chances are that many businesses you are targeting are LinkedIn members, and you should be too! If you don’t have a personal profile or company page set up yet, this is a great time to do it! Click here for setup instructions.

In 2018, roughly 65% of B2B marketers reported acquiring customers via LinkedIn. (Source: Blue Corona) Since LinkedIn is a professional network, you can reach your target audience differently than you would with other social media or PPC (pay-per-click) ads.

Types of LinkedIn Advertising

LinkedIn offers three self-service advertising options: sponsored content, sponsored InMail, and text-based sidebar ads.

Sidebar Ads

These are small snippits of text that appear in the sidebar with an optional 50 x 50 pixel square image. Text for these ads should get straight to the point as there is limited space. Images of a person (or your logo if going for brand awareness) work best for these ad types.

Sponsored Content

Sponsored content ads look similar to what you would see in your Facebook news feed. Your target audience would see these in their LinkedIn feed. They appear as natural content posts except you will see the word “promoted’ beneath the business name at the top.

These ads offer you more flexibility, as you can create a headline, text, an click-through URL, and larger, eye-catching image (up to 1200 x 627 pixels) to compliment your offer.

Sponsored InMail

This is basically where you pay for private messaging that you can use to target a specific audience. You would craft these as somwhat informal, friendly emails. Be sure to personalize them as much as possible to your target recipients.

Today we are going focus on how to set up a sponsored content ad.

Sponsored content ads are great because they appear in the main content feed and are a more natural way to draw attention than sidebar ads or InMail (although those options also work well when crafted properly).

The directions below will help you set up your ad from start to finish assuming this is your first time setting up a LinkedIn ad. Instructions would vary if you already have an account/campaign set up in Campaign Manager.

Setting Up Your LinkedIn Sponsored Content Ad

1. Log into LinkedIn and go to your company page.

2. Click on Admin Tools in the top right. Then click on Sponsor Your Updates from the drop-down list. This will take you to a Campaign Manager screen where you will set up your ad account.

3. Once on the Campaign Manager page, you will need to add an account. Click the blue “Add Account” button in the top left and proceed through the process.

4. On the next screen you will be asked to enter an account name (ex. My September Campaign) and your currency. You can associate your LinkedIn Page with the account by typing in your company name and choosing your page from the drop-down list. Save when finished.

5. Click on the blue Create Campaign button below your account campaign.

You will be prompted to choose the following:

Objective: Select brand awareness, website visits, engagement, video views, lead generation, website conversions, or job applicants.

Audience: Choose location(s), profile language, and target audience (company, demographics, education, job experience, interests).

Ad format and placement: See options below.

Budget & schedule: Set a daily budget or daily/total budget for your campaign (minimum daily budget is $10), set start date/end date, and choose bid type.

Conversion tracking: Measure members’ actions taken on your website (optional).

As you make your choices, you will see Forecasted Results appear in the right sidebar area. This will give you an idea on how many members you can expect to reach based on your selections.

6. Once finished with your selections, click the Next button at the bottom of the page.

7. You will be prompted to Create a New Ad or Browse Existing Content. If you choose existing content, you will go to a page where you can choose from posts you have already created. You will have the opportunity to edit your existing post as needed to fit your target audience. If you want to create a new ad, you will be taken to as screen as seen below. Fill out the information and click Create.

Finally you will be given the option to Save and Exit or Launch Campaign. If you are ready, you can go ahead and launch it! Your campaign will begin on the date that you have chosen. You can modify your ad, audience, bid and budget at any time.

Now you know how to get started with your own LinkedIn Sponsored Ad campaign. Do you need help creating compelling calls-to-action for your content? Maybe you are looking for a unified content marketing strategy. We can help! Contact us today to learn more about any of our content and internet marketing services or GET A FREE QUOTE.