There are many naysayers out there and before they come to attack me, I do agree that some of their points are valid.
However, I remain on the dark side as a huge proponent of social ads. I believe that paid social ads are easy to use, test, and scale (with the right formula). I also think that when you have the right targets, audience/personas you are reaching, your social ads have to potential of getting you qualified leads.
And I’ve stuck a gold mine with one set of social ads — LinkedIn Sponsored Updates.
To be honest I wasn’t a huge fan of the actual LinkedIn Ads, but the Sponsored Updates are a different story. They have a “native-ness” feel to them, they appear directly on a user’s LinkedIn feed, and I can pick exactly what piece of content I want to sponsor.
Like any social ad platform, LinkedIn Sponsored Updates have certain things that work well and some elements that just don’t. Breaking down the platform more, we’ve been able to see the true power that they hold.
7 Winning Strategies for LinkedIn Sponsored Updates
1. Updates
In order to create your first sponsored update, you must first either create a new update on your company page or use a previous update that you have created. The only unfortunate part that I’ve found with the LinkedIn Sponsored Updates is that I can’t add a new update while I’m setting up a campaign. But the following strategy is the upside to this…
2. Compare the Interaction Data on Previous Updates
The upside of having to use updates already created is that, unless you just created the update, you can see how that update performed. The impressions, clicks, interactions, and engagement are all things you can see when from an update posted on your company page. Which updates had higher clicks, interactions or levels of engagement. Was there a stand out update? If there was why not add some money behind it to promote it? Or create a similar update to duplicate and amplify the success.
LinkedIn also has an insight session for further breakdown on what’s working on your page, how many followers you’re gaining, a comparison of commonly searched companies next to yours in terms of followers, and the most successful updates.
3. Name the Campaign After Your Update
This is more of an organizational strategy, but something to always keep in mind. As a marketer you are probably running multiple ad campaigns and if you don’t have a specific set of guidelines to label your campaigns, it can turn into a confusing mess. Don’t make the unfortunate mistake like I did at first and identify how you want to identify your campaigns. Name the campaign after the name of the update to keep things simple and insert the date you started the campaign. Avoid generic names because let’s say your CEO asks what is working and you are scrambling to figure out which of the campaigns is working because of kooky names would be a silly misstep that could be easily avoided.
4. Content Optimization
One of my favorite components of Sponsored Updates is that I can see how the content looks on a desktop, tablet, and on mobile. After choosing the update that I want to sponsor, I can see a preview of those things at the bottom of the selection. Typically, I choose updates that I’ve uploaded corresponding images to the updates and the previews for all work well. Uploading a piece of content and having LinkedIn pull an image from the content doesn’t work that well with mobile or on tablets; however, the preview allows for you to view what it would look like!
5. Targeting
What is your lead qualification process like? What are your buyer personas? Who are your customers? Who do you want your customers to be? By now you should have answers to those questions and you have a great foundation to set up some high converting targets. This is the powerhouse of the Sponsored Updates. Targeting by job title, company size, specific company, college attended, age, seniority etc. Think of every type of targeting you could ever want and LinkedIn ads have them.
For all of the targets LinkedIn also provides similar suggestions to job titles and companies to target, so if you forget about one or it becomes a pain to type them all in you’ll have the suggestions in there.
6. Spending
Like any form of paid ads, you will be forking out some money in order to get the ads going; however, you should always try to figure out your own bidding structure, the cost effective CPC and CPM before blindly submitting your company’s credit card information. Even though Linkedin Sponsored Updates have the capability of producing qualified and higher conversion rates, they come at a cost and they aren’t cheap.
My recommendation, and frankly this goes for any ad platform for when you’re first trying it out, would be to start off bidding for impressions. Then set a daily budget and then a budget for the entire campaign. Believe me, you will spend through the budget and limiting it ensures the accountability that you need to check in on the ad as well. You can always go back to edit the budget once the ad is running to0!
7. Track the Progress
This should go without saying, but extra reinforcement on strategies that sometimes get skimmed over on because they are so expected deserve to be repeated. As you start your LinkedIn Sponsored Update, you should always have a plan to check the progress at least once a day. You hopefully set a budget, but why spend through the entire budget if the ad begins to produce negative results. You shouldn’t blow through your budget for the sake of hitting your budget. Track the metrics: CTR, the number of clicks, CPC, total amount you’ve spent, and impressions. But, don’t forget about checking for conversions or the numbers associated with your goal. Seeing how many clicks converted to leads and then calculating the cost per lead is extremely important to factor in.
Add tracking codes to your links in the Sponsored Updates and then see how many leads you got form. Then divide that number with the total you spent and that’s an easy way to determine the CPL (Cost per lead). This is an easy factor to show how worth it is to keep this campaign going, but don’t forget to also add in the number of qualified leads in vs. a standard lead.
Something to keep in mind, if you can specifically target your product’s audience, you should have higher than normal results. Try revitalizing the copy or the creative to get those CTRs up and those conversions higher.
Go Forth and Convert With Sponsored Updates
Many marketers are apprehensive because they have to fork out some cash, but that doesn’t mean you should turn your nose up to the ads. There will always be the negative side to anything. With ads, you could easily spend too much money, you could get terrible conversions and you can even just run a terrible campaign.