LinkedIn Ads: how to create a successful campaign

Advertising on LinkedIn is pretty easy. But achieving effective results is less so. In this guide, we'll show you step-by-step how to create an effective LinkedIn Ads campaign.

LinkedIn Ads is an effective acquisition channel but difficult to master. Few companies manage to take advantage of it: too high acquisition cost, huge CPC... Launching advertising campaigns on the professional network can be a risky bet.

At Growth Room, we have supported many companies on this lever, and have learned a lot of lessons.

In this article, we are going to share them with you and explain to you, step by step, how to create a (really) effective LinkedIn Ads campaign.

On the program:

• How to install LinkedIn Insight Tag
• The different possibilities on LinkedIn Ads
• The creation of a campaign from A to Z.

LinkedIn Ads, a B2B or B2C channel? Both my captain! Some companies — especially luxury companies — have made it a powerful lever. Their strategy: to broadcast ads to people who have been promoted. Not stupid!

Advertising on LinkedIn Ads: parameters and requirements

To create and launch a LinkedIn Ads campaign, you need to:

• Have a business page
• Create an account Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's ad management tool.
• Have the LinkedIn Insight Tag installed

These requirements are the same as for Facebook. Moreover, do not hesitate to read our article on How to create an effective Facebook Ads campaign

What is Linkedin Insight Tag?

This is a line of code (a small bug) that you will install on the source code of your site. It's just like the Facebook Pixel.

This tag will allow you to track the actions and conversions of your visitors. The objective is to be able to use the information collected to launch ultra-targeted campaigns, retargeting, etc.

How do I install my LinkedIn Insight Tag?

In your ad account, click on the “Account Resources” tab and then click on “Insight Tag.”

Then click on “Install my Insight Tag”, and select the method you want to use to integrate your tag.

It's up to you to choose. If you are installing the tag yourself, copy the complete code to add it to your website. Note that you must use straight quotes and not bracketed quotes when you embed your tag.

The code snippet to install looks like this:

Creating a LinkedIn Ads campaign: good preparation above all

Before getting to the heart of the matter — creating your campaign on LinkedIn — you should definitely define:

Your objective. What is the aim of your campaign? What are you waiting for?

ATTENTION. On LinkedIn, Internet users want above all to have content that brings value to them. They are not there to buy your product/service. If your aim is to convert directly, you will be going straight into the wall! In addition, the acquisition cost being very high, it may cost you very very much. For example, offer a white paper, free training, or any other lead magnet that users might like.

Your target. Who are the people you want to reach? Be specific! This must correspond to one of your personas.

Your budget. Up to how much are you ready to spend on a lead? So define the acquisition cost well.

Also, think about the creative elements (visuals and text) that you will put into your ads.

Once you have everything well defined, you can now move on to developing your campaign.

LinkedIn Ads: the structure of the Campaign Manager

Marketing is structured “in a funnel”; from the broadest level the campaign, to the finest level the advertisements.

Here is a diagram:

How to create a LinkedIn Ads campaign: the steps

In your Campaign Manager, click on “Create” and name your “campaign group”. Then create your campaign.

1. Define your objective

LinkedIn will offer you several goals.

Just like on Facebook Ads, the platform classifies them into 3 categories: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion. That is the classic structure of a sales funnel.

Let's break down these goals:

Notoriety. These campaigns are based on impressions. They are particularly suitable for promoting your brand, product or service.

Website visits allow you to get traffic

The commitment aims to get its targets to click, comment and/or share your advertising.

Video views. No need to specify what this objective is 😉 Note, however, that video views allow you to bid on the basis of cost per view.

Lead generation. Here, you can show form ads that are native to Linkedin. When a person clicks on the ad, they will see a pre-filled form with this contact information, which they have agreed to share with LinkedIn (first name, last name, email address). It does not leave the LinkedIn interface.

Conversions on the website. This lens is the most commonly used. The prospect is redirected to the URL of your choice (landing page). For these conversion campaigns, don't forget to set up conversion tracking on your site in order to track your leads.

Candidates : to broadcast your ads to people looking for a job.

Among all these goals, Focus on “Lead Generations” and “Website Conversions”. We are not hiding from you that the others are quite useless. Why? Because the other goals can be achieved organically, via personal and professional posts (company page).

2. Define your audience

Now that you've defined your objective, you need to specify your target audience.

In this window (below), you will be able to fill in as much information as possible (demographics, company, professional experience, interests, etc.).

Pay attention to the size of your audience!

Do not refine it too much because LinkedIn will not be able to “print” your advertising enormously. You won't get the results you were looking for.

We recommend that you get an audience of at least 10,000 people.

In terms of professional experience, you can target by position or by function.

Let's say we want to target community managers.

Here, we have started to refine the positions.

It is also possible to target according to the size of the company, and even according to its growth.

It's up to you to set up your audience according to your business objective.

But don't forget: don't restrict it too much!

For the “audience expansion” option, uncheck it. Why? Because we don't know what's behind it. LinkedIn activates this feature by default to make you spend as much as possible. We are not fools, and neither are you 😉

3. Choosing your advertising format

Once your audience is well defined, you need to select your advertising format.

What are the advertising formats on LinkedIn?

Here are the 3 most used:

• Single Image Ad

This ad is composed of a static visual, a text, a headline (in bold under the image) and a call-to-action (optional). This format is the most used on the platform.

• Carousel Image Ad: several photos are integrated

• Video Ads

The video is very popular on LinkedIn, and has high engagement and conversion rates. It is automatically read in the feed if it lasts less than 30 seconds.

Warning: Linkedin does not (yet) allow CRMs to track conversions on video ads.

The other formats:

• Text Ad (a simple written post)
• Spotlight Ad
• Event Ad

Note: Message Ad (InMail) and Conversation Ad no longer exist. Since January 10, 2022, existing sponsored message campaigns that target EU members have been suspended by LinkedIn.

The location

A little further down, the “LinkedIn Network” option appears.

What is LinkedIn Audience Network?

This feature allows you to extend the reach of your sponsored content, beyond the LinkedIn feed, on third-party applications and sites. When this option is activated, “the same targeting settings, auction type, and budget created for your campaign apply,” LinkedIn explains.

Should you activate LinkedIn Audience Network?

We do not recommend it, because you will not have any control over the sites where you will be displayed.

4. Budget and auctions

Then comes the budget part.

You can set a budget:

• Everyday
• Daily and maximum
• Maximal

What budget should you define for your LinkedIn Ads campaign?

We recommend that you set a maximum budget or a maximum daily budget to let LinkedIn optimize without ever going over your budget. The danger, if you choose a daily budget, is that you don't have total control over it. You may have unpleasant surprises at the end of your campaign. That is not the point.

If you are just starting out, you can start small (10 euros per day) and then increase gradually if you have a return on investment.

What bidding strategy should you choose?

As for the bidding strategy, choose “Maximum Distribution (Automated).”

However, beware of automatic bidding on small audiences; your costs can soar!

5. Conversion tracking

When setting up your campaign, you will need to specify how to track your conversions. The aim here is to measure the actions taken by users on your website after clicking on your ad, at which point a click is transformed. Example: submitting a form.

Here, you are going to have to create a new conversion.

Click on “Create a new conversion” and then fill in all the required fields.

• The name of your conversion
• The target action
• The ROI (optional)
• The amount of time that elapsed after a click on or a view of your ad for a conversion to be counted. For example, if they fill out the form after 15 days, the lead will not be considered a conversion from your LinkedIn Ads campaign.
• The attribution model. We advise you to choose “Last Touch — Last Campaign”
• The conversion tracking tool (Insight Tag)
• The URL of your landing page

6. Set up ads

Now it's time to create ads. It is on these that you have to put the big deal.

Two things to remember:

• LinkedIn is a network that is mostly accessed on mobile. So think “mobile first”!
• 80% of clicks are made on the third impression. Use multiple visuals within the same campaign. Create repeat advertising to maximize your chances of clicks and, In fine, of conversions. Here we advise you to do 4 or 6, with a very specific argument for each of them.

The visual

Like on Facebook, you only have 2 seconds to captivate and attract the attention of Internet users (yes, it's very short). Your visuals must therefore be attractive and above all meaningful. Users need to quickly understand what you're offering.

Here too, integrate text into your visuals. They convert better, trust us.

Tip: for the visual, put yourself in the shoes of your target, and ask yourself this question: Is my ad attractive enough to encourage Michel to stop scrolling?

Note that the format on LinkedIn is 1200 x 628.

The text

Choose a short text where most of the text appears in first two lines, or about 80 characters (spaces included). As an organic post, it is advisable to make a nice hook to encourage Internet users to click on the famous “see more”. Here, it's the opposite: you have to get to the point!

Of course, talk to your target audience. Do not write a boorish text, which is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. everyone. Focus on your persona, your target audience.

Are you unfamiliar with the concept of persona? Read our article on Persona: what is it and how to define it.

The title

This will be in bold and will therefore be even more visible than your text. Feel free to add a super catchy emoji like a star ⭐️ This emoji refers to something positive.

Please avoid the emoji 🔥. Overly seen and a bit cheesy. Whoops...

The CTA

Be aware that you cannot customize the call to action button. LinkedIn will offer you its own CTAs. They cannot be changed.

CTAs for a campaign with a conversion objective on the site:

If none matches your content, don't put any. There's nothing worse than putting a CTA that doesn't make sense with your message.

As for the URL, do not refer to your website, but to a landing page specific to your offer!

Once you've set up your ads, you can now launch them.

How to optimize your LinkedIn Ads campaign?

Before you start optimizing, let your campaign run for at least 1 week to 10 days for it to be meaningful.

Several cases:

A high impression rate but a CTR that is too low. Now, you're burning up a lot of budget. The solution: modify your ads. This could be a visual or copywriting problem. Note that the average CTR on LinkedIn is 0.25%. If you reach 0.5%, that's already good!

Low conversion rate. Improve your landing page here. Again, it may be a copywriting problem (not clear enough value proposition, lack of clarity about your benefits, etc.). Find all our advice in our guide create a landing page that converts.

Budget spent too quickly. Change your daily budget or reduce it. You also have the option of changing budget allocation (example: from CPM to CPC).

Now you know how to create an effective LinkedIn Ads campaign. The process is quite simple, but the challenge will be to generate good results. As with everything, feel free to test, test and analyze what works and what doesn't.

If you wish, we can also assist you on the subject. Our Linkedin Ads experts can build a strategy and then launch and manage your campaigns.

Otherwise, if you want to do it yourself, you can always sign up for our Linkedin Ads training, it's free!

3 rules to remember for an effective Linkedin Ads campaign

• Offer content that is valuable for users. Don't try to convert them directly!
• Define a well-targeted audience. Don't restrict it too much: 10,000 people minimum.
• Create attractive and engaging ads. Focus mainly on the visual (exactly like on Facebook Ads).

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