How and When to Use LinkedIn Ads to Reach Your B2B Prospects

All B2B marketing and sales professionals try to find the best ways to entice prospects. And advertising is one of the best B2B marketing strategies. Since social media is the place to be, many marketers are optimizing their advertising campaigns for social media. But which social media platforms should you use?

With over 706 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the largest professional social marketplace in the world. By optimizing your posts for the LinkedIn Audience Network, you’re increasing your reach outside of your immediate connections.

This is why LinkedIn is a useful advertising tool if you’re trying to attract B2B prospects. You’ll not only find more B2B sales prospects, but LinkedIn offers many tools to further engage potential buyers.

Are you unsure how and when to use LinkedIn advertising to attract B2B prospects? Continue reading for some more insights and tips.

How to Use LinkedIn Ads and the LinkedIn Audience Network

Marketers can optimize any LinkedIn media post (such as an image or video) for ads. First, create your post and launch a Sponsored Content campaign.

To further increase your reach, it’s recommended you optimize your ads for LinkedIn Audience Network. LinkedIn automatically serves your ad across engaging websites and apps.

All you have to do is open up the Campaign Manager and select the option that says “Enable the LinkedIn Audience Network.”

Can you customize your ad deliverability? You can by going to “options” under the Audience Network advanced options. Here, you can block your ad from appearing in certain places and feeds.

After you post your ad, you can view the performance and track metrics such as impressions, clicks, and cost-per-result.

LinkedIn Ad Strategies That Can Enhance Your Growth

Optimizing your ads for the LinkedIn audience network isn’t the only way to expand your success. Here are a few other LinkedIn marketing and advertising strategies you should use.

Test Your Ad Performance

While your performance metrics will inevitably improve over time, knowing what works now will save a lot of time and money in the long run. This is why running LinkedIn ad A/B testing is recommended.

How do you conduct LinkedIn ad A/B testing? Start by creating two LinkedIn ads. They can both be similar except for one variable or they can both be completely different, depending on your goals and what you’re measuring.

Measure the ad results for two weeks. LinkedIn recommends calling off the test after two weeks to ensure your ads attract attention and action from prospects. After two weeks, report the results. Identify the ad that generated the most success and model your future ads on the leading one.

Create Valuable Content

Even with A/B testing, your LinkedIn ads won’t generate any results if the content isn’t high-quality or valuable.

Your audience is the secret behind valuable content. Identify their wants and needs and convey that in your message. Suggest a solution (i.e. your products/services) in the copy and write a CTA convincing your audience to click the ad.

What’s you’re advertising also plays a part in your advertising success.

While you may be tempted to link to a product or service page, try linking to a downloadable whitepaper instead. This will provide insight and education, helping your customers make an informed decision while keeping them in the sales funnel.

Use the LinkedIn Audience Network, But Leverage Your Ads to Your Audience

LinkedIn Audience Network is a great tool to increase your audience. But you shouldn’t forget about your existing audience.

They already showed interest in your company and likely already bought a product, so there’s a better chance they will click your ads. This way, you can still gain quality leads all while saving money on your cost per click.

Should you avoid optimizing your campaign for the LinkedIn Audience Network? No, but you should run campaigns that are targeted to customer retainment.

Identify consumer demographics and other buying statistics. Optimize your ads with this data and promote the ads to your existing customers.

When to Use LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn ads can help you reach a wider audience and strengthen your relationship with current clients. But a LinkedIn ad strategy won’t work for all marketers. Here’s how to know you will profit from this strategy.

Your Prospects Are on LinkedIn

There are many social media platforms out there and all marketers should invest in advertising across all channels. LinkedIn is just another one to add to your strategy.

LinkedIn attracts a niche market and you’ll especially benefit from this if you’re a B2B marketer. Advertising on LinkedIn ensures you reach the right audience. When you do use the LinkedIn Audience Network, you can advertise your brand across multiple channels and target more prospects.

Increase the Frequency and Reach of Your Message

LinkedIn advertising shouldn’t be a one-time strategy. The best way to reach your target audience is by advertising your message continuously.

If your goal is to increase your reach, you’ll want to utilize the LinkedIn Audience Network. You’ll hit significantly more prospects this way than if you were to only advertise to your connections.

You Want to Improve Your Campaign Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

LinkedIn offers multiple tools to make your advertising campaign more efficient, increasing your ROAS. Whether or not you invest in the LinkedIn Audience Network, you’ll receive more engagements while saving money.

Attract B2B Prospects With LinkedIn Ads

If your target audience is in a B2B market, there’s no better way to draw in sales and improve lead generation than with LinkedIn ads. But targeting B2B prospects is more challenging than you think. Follow this advice to create the most powerful LinkedIn advertising strategy.

Your advertising campaign will also be more effective if you have a B2B sales database. Take a look at our services to see how we can help you.