LinkedIn Ads are the go-to digital marketing channel for most B2B marketers, especially those making an educational sale with a cycle stretching anywhere from nine months to two years.
However, marketers can become frustrated with the platform because they do not see the expected ROI. Having managed hundreds of LinkedIn Ads campaigns totaling more than $1M in advertising spend, I’ve compiled a short LinkedIn ads playbook that addresses three areas where marketers go wrong.
Best practices to increase ROI using LinkedIn Ads
If you only have the time to do three things to improve your B2B LinkedIn Ads campaigns, here’s where our B2B healthcare marketing agency recommends you focus your efforts:
1. Identify where you’re sending your target audience and why.
Use your marketing goals to determine the best place to send your target audience. If your goal is to generate top-of-funnel leads, then you should use LinkedIn lead gen forms (LGFs)—full stop. We tested LinkedIn LGFs against traditional landing pages and found they increased leads by 1,250%! However, if your goal is to increase brand awareness and website traffic, driving individuals to your website with an ungated asset is ideal.
2. Spend time and resources planning the creative in your ad campaigns.
Your ad image creative shouldn’t be an afterthought. Whatever your marketing goals are, the creative has to catch the attention of your target audience as they’re scrolling through their feeds. The best way to do this is to test different images. You should consider A/B testing the following elements: stock photos vs. illustrations, branded vs. unbranded, and different colored backgrounds. Additionally, more than 57% of LinkedIn visitors use the app, so having creative sized for both desktop and mobile devices is a must. Plus, one survey found that more than 82% of users prefer dark mode, meaning you should also evaluate creative with a dark background, not just the default white one.
