It’s no question that businesses need to have an online presence today but with so many different types of social media, are you targeting exactly who you should be? In the B2B world, LinkedIn is the leading social media advertising channel. Because of its professional nature, users aren’t logging on to LinkedIn just for kicks – they have professional goals in mind and are often there to do business. So how are you taking advantage of that database (which contains over 610 million profiles, by the way)? Well, if you know what it is that you’re trying to achieve as well as who you need to reach in order to reach those company goals, LinkedIn Targeted Ads are a great option for you.
The saturated world of digital and social media advertising is tough to navigate and requires a bit of know-how. But it’s really not that difficult once you’ve set realistic and achievable objectives. With LinkedIn, your advertising can reach the eyes that matter most for your business. So once you’ve chosen whose eyes those are exactly, and have designed an ad that’s relevant to them, it’s time to display it where it counts. But how do you make that happen?
Digital Shift, a digital marketing company has provided a simplified way to guide users through the process in the infographic below. LinkedIn Targeted Ads are quite specific in who you can target. While deciding on your audience you should have picked a “persona” – a half-fictional individual type that would be your ideal customer.
LinkedIn Targeted Ads can cater to exactly the persona of your choice. What are the benefits of that? Well, your message will be reaching people who won’t roll their eyes at your ad. It will be relevant to them. You don’t have to worry about “spill”, a term used in advertising to describe an ad that’s reaching more people than it’s relevant to.
The infographic below takes you through all the steps from beginning to end. You’ll have to choose things like general demographics – where does your target audience live? What language do they speak? What’s their age range? Once you’ve chosen the basics you can move on to selecting their position in their career, the industry they work in, even what school they graduated from if you want to get that specific.
Because LinkedIn is all about networking and connections, there’s even an option to select companies with whom you have a first-degree mutual connection. Imagine how much that can refine your targeting and ensure individuals actually interested in what you are offering see your ads.
The super power that LinkedIn has over other social media platforms is that it contains validation data, hot off the press, given freely and regularly by its users.
Professionals on LinkedIn actually want to provide up to date information on their profile because it benefits them too. So you’ll know that the specific criteria that you’ve chosen as part of your target audience will be hit with an incredible degree of accuracy. And really, in the end, that’s more bang for your buck.
[Images – Main: Pixabay, Piro4D; Infographic: Digital Shift]
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Kris Olin, MSc (Econ.) * Editor in Chief at Social Media Revolver * Web Designer * SEO Specialist * Author of the Facebook Advertising Guide. Follow Kris on Twitter and LinkedIn. See his photos at Flickr.