Today, LinkedIn has over 500 million members, 260 million of which are logging in each month.
How many in-person networking events would you need to attend to equal the reach LinkedIn can give you? Too many, we wager.
Which is why a vast number of B2B entrepreneurs, turn to this platform as one of their main sources for securing business.
By leveraging LinkedIn’s sophisticated advertising features, they effectively bolster their brand’s awareness, increase engagement and expand their customer base with quality leads.
Now it’s your turn. We reveal how you can make the most out of this supercharged networking tool.
The Evolution of LinkedIn
LinkedIn was launched in 2003 by co-founder Reid Hoffman alongside his old colleagues from SocialNet and PayPal. Their vision?
“Connecting talent with opportunity on a massive scale.”
Over the years, the social networking platform has been enhanced to make that vision a reality through smart networking tools like public profiles and contact recommendations.
In 2016, Microsoft took over LinkedIn for a whopping £26 billion. Subsequently, the homepage and blogging interface was revamped to be more user-friendly; AI technology enabled calendar chatbots and smart replies while analytics now provides deeper insights into user engagement.
It has to be said, though, that accessing these powerful networking and advertising features comes at a price.
Is LinkedIn Advertising Expensive?
When it comes to advertising on LinkedIn, many of us grumble at the high costs. To illustrate, it usually costs between £1 – £4 per click.
Why is it expensive? Because, for a B2B business, the potential ROI is stratospheric when compared to other social media sites.
As author Guy Kawasaki puts it:
“Facebook is for show, and LinkedIn is for dough.”
The high-value rests within the ability to target specific individuals, aka your potential customers.
Where else can you easily put your content directly in front of key decision makers?
Also, consider how B2B businesses have higher price tags on their offerings compared to B2C companies. LinkedIn knows how much it’s worth and set its prices to reflect this.
The bottomline? Advertising through this social network is worth the outlay BUT only if you have an excellent campaign. Let’s take a look at what you need to achieve this.
Define Your Objective
A successful campaign begins with a measurable objective.
Is it the number of new leads? Brand awareness? Engagement?
Whatever your objective, you need to quantify what success looks like. So you can accurately measure the performance of your campaign and learn valuable lessons.
For example, let’s say you’re going to measure success by the number of leads captured. To work out the magic number, you need to calculate how many leads are needed to make a return on your budget.
You have to understand what your conversion rate is and the return your campaigns will generate to do this. Here’s a simple calculation:
Marketing spend: 10%
Leads required: 10
Conversion rate: 50%
Contract value: £1000
Target: £5000
Total campaign budget: £500
Clients Required: 5 at £1000 each
Understanding the above calculation means you know how many qualified leads you need to reach your target.
You can then determine how many clicks you have to generate using LinkedIn – based on the conversion rates of your ads – to deliver the required number of leads.
This knowledge is vital: it allows you to continually tweak and improve your ads to ensure you are achieving the best results.
But the work doesn’t end there. The following LinkedIn advertising tips and tricks are things we’ve learnt on our mission to nail campaigning.
LinkedIn Lead Generation Value Bombs
Content Done Right
LinkedIn is a goldmine for new leads. But you need the right tools to hit the sweet spot.
One such tool is top quality content. Skimp on this resource and leads won’t give your ads a second glance. Do you engage with pushy sales messages? We’re guessing: no.
Your content offering and the words accompanying your ad should be focused on helping people. Think about your current partners and suppliers – you chose them because you like, know and trust them.
You need a solid content strategy that puts you in the same light. That subtly positions your business as an industry expert so the right customers will be queuing for your services.
Getting Your Content Out There
Lead generation forms provide an effective way to distribute content.
What is a lead gen form? Usually, after a user clicks on an ad, they’ll be taken to a landing page.
That’s where the form is featured; it asks visitors to fill in information in return for a content offer. The quality content up for grabs could be a downloadable guide, eBook, whitepaper, video or webinar.
The beauty of LinkedIn for lead gen is that you don’t have to build an expensive landing page to host your form. Instead, a user can access and fill the lead gen form without ever leaving the platform.
To save even more time, the form autofills key information from a user’s profile helping you quickly and simply capture new leads.
Be Specific About Your Targeting
If your ads are strong and your content is high-end, you will quickly start to capture leads.
However, you need to monitor engagement to ensure they’re the right prospects for your business.
Attracting the wrong people? It’s time to refine your targeting. LinkedIn helps you do this easily. The platform allows you to upload existing audience lists so you can tailor your campaigns and target people who are most likely to buy from you. If you need help creating lists, this blog will help.
Continually Optimise Your Ads
As well as monitoring your leads, you need to regularly check-in on how your ads are performing. Some will elicit more response than others; knowing which ad is best helps you allocate the right budget so you’re not wasting money and can reap the maximum ROI.
Success Doesn’t Come Overnight
The leads you generate from LinkedIn are usually top of the funnel: people at the awareness stage in the sales cycle who aren’t necessarily ready to buy.
You’ve piqued their interest through your content and they now know you as a brand. Keep communicating with these leads and churning out powerful content to help them move along the sales cycle. So, when they are ready to buy, your business will be front-of-mind.
As you can guess, this isn’t a short process. With occasional exceptions, it takes time to see results. So give it a month or more before you decide if LinkedIn is the right advertising channel for you.
Keep The Conversation Going
Don’t let your leads die. Neglect to follow up and they will forget about you!
Ensure they’re in your database and linked to relevant marketing campaigns so they continue to hear from you.
For instance, give them a call at the right time to connect with them personally. Sure, a lot of your marketing is automated to keep the wheel turning. But email blasts aren’t enough.
Utilise your email marketing data to identify your warmest leads – who engages with your marketing collateral the most? View your opens and clicks to find out. Then dial their digits.
Also, your non-openers are worth following up too. They might be high-quality leads but your email got lost in their junk or they inputted the wrong address details. You could resend the email and also use a verification tool like BriteVerify to filter for duds.
Back Up Lead Gen Campaigns With Brand Awareness
Experience has taught us that success on LinkedIn relies on a two-pronged attack.
We utilise ads and sponsored updates to expose brand messages. And we broadcast top of funnel content to an audience to gradually ‘warm them up’.
You might need a bigger budget to do this but it does improve the likelihood of lead capture. Plant the seed with compelling content and get them used to your brand and the value you bring.
Continually use LinkedIn’s analytics to learn what type of content makes your audience tick. Then you can perfect your lead capture campaign. Your reward? A higher conversion rate for your efforts as you simultaneously benefit from wider brand awareness.
Before You Leave
So there you have it: game-changing tips for profitable LinkedIn lead campaigns. Hungry for more? You can find plenty of digital marketing advice to digest on our blog.
