Navigating LinkedIn advertising can be challenging, especially with the rapid changes and evolving trends in B2B social media marketing. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just getting started, staying ahead requires understanding the latest updates and strategies. Let’s dive into the newest trends, tools, and best practices in LinkedIn ads for 2024, specifically tailored for B2B marketers.
The Importance of Paid Social Media in B2B Demand Generation
B2B marketers often miss the mark when running social media ads by focusing on immediate results like leads and webinar sign-ups. The magic happens when you leverage channels like LinkedIn to meet prospects where they are in their buying journey, offering valuable info that builds trust and keeps your brand top-of-mind. It’s not just about quick conversions—it’s about winning mindshare. Research shows B2B buyers usually consider 3-5 vendors before making a decision. Social media ads can help ensure you get your content in front of your target audience, so you’re one of the shortlisted options.
Is LinkedIn Good for B2B Advertising?
LinkedIn is an excellent B2B advertising and marketing platform due to its precise targeting capabilities and variety of ad formats. Whether your goal is brand awareness or lead generation, LinkedIn delivers. Generate high-quality leads directly from your target audience and boost your brand presence. Promote your experts with thought leader ads to position your company as a top resource in your industry.
The Strategic Purpose of LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn ads can be pivotal in brand awareness and winning mindshare when leveraged effectively. Why? Unlike any other social platform, LinkedIn’s powerful targeting capabilities and varying ad types allow you to focus the delivery of your best information to your ideal prospects. A full-funnel approach ensures that your brand remains relevant and top-of-mind when buyers are ready to purchase.
Running Full-Funnel, Always-On Campaigns
To maximize LinkedIn’s potential, your campaigns should be comprehensive and cover the entire buyer journey. Always-on campaigns consistently engage valuable audiences, building demand over time. Unlike ad hoc campaigns that chase short-term results, these always-on strategies keep your brand consistently in front of your audience, reinforcing your message and presence.
Think of it as a steady drip, not a one-time splash. You’re nurturing relationships and staying relevant, ensuring your brand is top-of-mind.
Creativity in B2B Advertising
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity recently introduced the Creative B2B Lions Award, highlighting the need for creativity and emotional connection in B2B marketing.
This new recognition signals a shift in B2B marketing. To stand out, B2B marketers need to embrace creativity and connect with their audience on a human level. In an age where information is plentiful and attention is scarce, capturing hearts and minds requires compelling stories, visual storytelling, and content that addresses the emotions and unique challenges of the target audience.
Exploring New LinkedIn Ad Types for 2024
LinkedIn has introduced new ad formats in 2024 that can enhance your campaign effectiveness. These new ad types provide unique opportunities to engage with your audience differently and fit into various marketing funnel stages. Here are several of the new ad types in 2024:
Connected TV (CTV) Ads
LinkedIn’s Connected TV (CTV) Ads allow marketers to reach their LinkedIn audience on streaming platforms beyond the LinkedIn feed. These video ads, ranging from 15 to 30 seconds, can be placed as pre-, mid-, or post-roll and function similarly to short commercials. By leveraging LinkedIn’s highly targeted audience capabilities for placements on streaming platforms, marketers can expand their reach while maintaining the precision of their campaigns.
LinkedIn Live Event Ads
With the growing popularity of virtual events, LinkedIn has introduced Live Event Ads to help marketers promote their LinkedIn Live events. This unique ad experience consists of three phases: pre-event promotion, live event promotion, and post-event on-demand promotion. By utilizing this ad format, marketers can drive registrations and attendance for their LinkedIn Live events more effectively, ensuring their target audience gets all the valuable content.
Conversation Ads
Conversation Ads are an evolution of LinkedIn’s message ads, delivered directly to LinkedIn members’ inboxes. These ads include prompts and call-to-actions (CTAs) that create an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure experience for the user. By leveraging Conversation Ads, marketers can foster more personalized and engaging interactions with their target audience, leading to higher conversion rates and more meaningful connections.
Click to Message Ads
Click-to-message ads combine the best of both worlds: the reach and frequency of single-image ads with the engagement of conversation ads. When a user clicks on a Click-to-Message ad, it opens a conversational ad workflow directly in their LinkedIn inbox, allowing for one-on-one messaging. This ad format enables marketers to initiate personalized conversations with prospects at scale, making it an attractive option for lead-generation campaigns.
Article/Newsletter Ads
While not fully rolled out yet, LinkedIn’s Article/Newsletter Ads are generating buzz among B2B marketers. This ad format will allow brands to promote their long-form LinkedIn article or newsletter content directly on the platform. By capitalizing on the growing popularity of LinkedIn’s newsletter feature, marketers can distribute their thought leadership and long-form content to their target audience more efficiently, establishing their brand as an industry authority.
LinkedIn’s new ad formats are here to revolutionize how brands connect with their audience. Think interactive, engaging, and targeted – all designed to boost brand awareness and drive lead generation.
Aligning Ad Types with Campaign Objectives
Different ad types serve different objectives, and selecting the right mix is key to success. If brand awareness is your goal, video ads and thought leader ads are your best friends. But message ads and gated document ads are your go-to tools if you’re after lead generation. Understanding each ad type’s strengths and matching them to your objectives will maximize your campaign’s impact.
You must choose the right campaign objective to get the most out of your LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn offers a range of objectives tailored to specific marketing goals, such as:
- Website Visits: Want to drive traffic to your website? The “Website Visits” objective is your best bet. This setting optimizes your ads for clicks, ensuring your target audience lands on your desired page.
- Video Views: Are you looking to tell your brand’s story or showcase thought leadership via video? The “Video Views” objective encourages users to watch your videos and helps build retargeting audiences based on viewership. This means you can nurture leads further down the funnel.
- Lead Generation: Do you need to capture user info and generate leads? The “Lead Generation” objective is a game-changer. Use LinkedIn’s native lead generation forms to seamlessly collect valuable data from interested prospects without sending them off-platform.
Increasing Engagement with Zero-Click Content
Creating ad content that captures attention without requiring clicks can significantly improve user engagement. Zero-click content retains users on the platform, reducing friction and enhancing the overall experience.
Implementing zero-click content involves creating compelling information that delivers value directly within the ad. This approach increases user engagement and keeps your audience interested without needing to click through to external sites. Some of the unique LinkedIn ad types that promote 0-click content include:
- Document Ads: This ad type allows you to upload a PDF document as your ad creative, giving your audience the opportunity to consume your document in the feed and even download it to their device for later reference. You can even choose to gate this ad type with a native lead gen form to collect contact info in exchange for the document itself; no landing page is necessary.
- Video Ads: Uploading short video clips as the creative allows your audience to watch your video in the feed without going off the platform. Based on the views of these ads, you can retarget them based on the percentage of video they watched in future campaigns.
- Article Ads: This newer ad allows you to promote articles you have shared organically as posts through LinkedIn newsletters. The benefit is that when you upload long-form content, like a blog, as a newsletter article post, your audience doesn’t need to leave the platform to read it, and you can target your audience with your blog content, unlike posting on your site.
The Power of Targeting and Retargeting
Retargeting is a powerful tool in LinkedIn advertising that allows you to re-engage with prospects who have already shown interest in your brand. By targeting website visitors, company page engagers, LinkedIn event attendees, ad engagers, and company or contact lists, you can maintain a connection with your prospects and guide them further along the buyer’s journey.
Effective retargeting ensures that your brand remains top-of-mind, increasing the chances of conversion. It’s an essential component of a comprehensive LinkedIn ad strategy.
Understanding Demographic Insights for Better Targeting
LinkedIn provides detailed demographic information on ad engagement, allowing you to fine-tune your targeting strategies. By understanding the demographics of your engaged audience, you can create more personalized and effective ad campaigns.
Demographic insights help you identify the characteristics of your ideal prospects, enabling you to tailor your messaging and creative elements to resonate with them better. This targeted approach leads to higher engagement and better campaign performance.
Balancing Ad Frequency and Asset Variety
Maintaining the right balance between ad frequency and asset variety is crucial to avoid spamming or underexposure. Too many ads can lead to ad fatigue, while too few can result in missed opportunities.
By carefully managing ad frequency and using a variety of assets, you can keep your audience engaged without overwhelming them. Regularly refreshing your ad creatives ensures that your campaigns remain effective and engaging over time.
Tools for Mastering LinkedIn Advertising in 2024
LinkedIn advertising in 2024 offers exciting opportunities for B2B marketers to enhance their brand presence and effectively engage with their target audience. By understanding the latest trends, leveraging new ad formats, and implementing comprehensive strategies, you can achieve your marketing goals and stay ahead of the competition.
Remember, the key to successful LinkedIn advertising is building solid relationships with your audience and maintaining consistent engagement. Apply these insights to your LinkedIn campaigns, and you’ll see significant improvements in your reach, engagement, and overall success.
LinkedIn Ads Clinic Replay and Playbook
If you missed it, we highly recommend you watch our LinkedIn Ads Clinic on-demand to get more hot tips and tricks to implement into your LinkedIn ads campaigns.
We even have a B2B Social Media Playbook to help you navigate the ever-changing landscape of B2B social media marketing.
Leverage LinkedIn’s Ad Library for Market Insights
LinkedIn’s ad library is a valuable resource for conducting market and competitor research. It provides insights into the ad strategies employed by other brands, allowing you to learn from their successes and avoid their pitfalls.
Using the ad library, you can gain a competitive edge by understanding what works in your industry and tailoring your campaigns accordingly. This knowledge helps you stay ahead of the curve and continuously improve your LinkedIn advertising efforts.
Key Takeaways
- Use zero-click content like document ads and thought leadership posts to capture attention directly on LinkedIn.
- Manage ad frequency and rotate assets to avoid ad fatigue while staying visible.
- Leverage retargeting on LinkedIn with audiences like website visitors, company page engagers, and video viewers.
- Experiment with new LinkedIn ad types like CTV ads, LinkedIn Live Event ads, Conversation ads, and Click to Message ads to diversify and engage audiences innovatively.
- Match ad types with campaign objectives to maximize impact and achieve marketing goals.
- Use LinkedIn’s targeting to reach your ideal buyer persona based on job title, function, industry, company size, etc.
- Analyze LinkedIn campaign performance and audience data to refine your targeting and content strategies.
