{"id":6727,"date":"2018-07-18T13:27:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T07:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/?p=6727"},"modified":"2018-07-18T18:48:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T13:18:08","slug":"ppcchat-linkedin-advertising-july-17-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karooya.com\/blog\/ppcchat-linkedin-advertising-july-17-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"PPCChat | LinkedIn Advertising | July 17, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s PPCChat session was hosted by AJ Wilcox<\/a> where PPC experts discussed all about LinkedIn advertising, their thoughts about LinkedIn advertising platform’s performance, what features they would like to see in it, any recent LinkedIn update that they are excited about, the LinkedIn ad unit that has been fruitful for them and more.<\/p>\n

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Here is the screencap of the discussion that took place.<\/p>\n\"ppcchat\n

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Q1:\u00a0Have you run LinkedIn Ads? If so, what are your thoughts on its performance?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Yes, good performance for the most part. Have mostly stuck to job title and matched audiences. –\u00a0@SEMFlem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I have run them but only had success with super high spending clients. –\u00a0@KyleShurtz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

No, but I hear they cost a pretty penny. –\u00a0@Howdy_Doughty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Obv yes.\u00a0Most successful for high-value B2B leadgen, white-collar recruiting, and higher-ed placement. Deeply useful for Customer Lifetime Values of $15k+. –\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, but it has been a while since I’ve directly pulled the levers. Dusting off my skillz. I love LinkedIn, if the post click funnel is measured because they tend to be a longer conversion from lead to cash. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, killing it since 2013 –\u00a0@MrAguilar_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We have run them, but successful performance is limited on its sub vertical.\u00a0–\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Jumping in late here. I love LinkedIn Ads! Expect high CPCs, but if you have strong content offers, solid audience targets (ideal companies to pursue) it’s great for B2B long-funnel engagement. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes! I’ve seen both good and bad. If your targeting and offering are on point then.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve run Linkedin Ads, although not as often Google and Facebook. CPC was high. –\u00a0@mikecrimmins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I run them now! I find LinkedIn text ads to be awful in terms of CTR and actual site engagement, sponsored InMail a bit better but no significant actions being taken or time spent on site – love any tips on how to change this. –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes. Love LinkedIn for B2B and higher education. –\u00a0@GeenaNazareth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, and mixed. It’s improved a lot as a platform, and the current offer is not bad, if you’re doing lead-gen or traffic goals. Boo on conversions. boo I say. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes for multiple different industries: recruiting, sourcing, healthcare, SaaS. Performance was always a mixed bag, sometimes we’d see some great stuff happening then other times it was expensive and conversions were frustratingly low. –\u00a0@timmhalloran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, but not running any currently. I want so badly to love them bc great targeting potential, but I could never get the conv volume\/CPL to make it worthwhile.\u00a0–\u00a0@akaEmmaLouise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, and performance has varied drastically depending on industry.\u00a0–\u00a0@DigiKat826<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes. Seen both good & bad. Gotta have the right numbers & funnel performance to make it a profitable channel, which is why we do these chats.\u00a0–\u00a0@robert_brady<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Ran then a long time ago but it was a bad fit for the platform. Have always found it expensive and very low-volume, but that can be a good thing. –\u00a0@ferkungamaboobo<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q2:\u00a0Will LinkedIn Ads play a role in your advertising strategy in 2019? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Yes for sure. I feel there needs to be much better lead nurturing strategies in place to make it effective. –\u00a0@KyleShurtz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, just got a higher ed client and you said LI is good for higher ed \ud83d\ude42 –\u00a0@SEMFlem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Potentially! We are looking to put more focus on LI for our internal marketing efforts moving forward. For now the focus is organic, but ppc may play a part in that depending on our goals. –\u00a0@Howdy_Doughty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yupcha! Video ads are performing nicely and video is only getting bigger. –\u00a0@MrAguilar_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yes. I tend to use content forward multi-channel media plans with a robust database nurture and programmatic follow-up. LinkedIn is a great platform for this kind of strategy now with audience match. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

only for b2b clients, for those, we’re scaling.\u00a0–\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

A number of my B2B clients are increasing their LinkedIn Ads\u00a0investments for various reasons, including new LI video ads, webinar on-demand promotion, or just being fed up with PPC’s keyword-based targeting. Audiences are better. LI quality trumps FB. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Not unless some nice B2B company wants to come and swoop me away from my current B2C situation.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Not currently running any linkedin ads, but looking at them for internal new biz development. –\u00a0@mikecrimmins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Always – LinkedIn is one of many tools in my toolbox as a strategist and account manager – if its a fit, we’ll give it a go. I think ignoring its presence does a disservice to my clients (despite my hardcore AdWords bias). –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

it depends on the goal. If it’s content marketing it’s the lead channel. Quite a performance drop off after that for high CPCs\u00a0– @jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I foresee it making a comeback. I’ve been reading about CPCs going down, and I’m starting to work with some larger-budget clients so it might make sense to test again down the road.\u00a0–\u00a0@akaEmmaLouise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Depends on the types of clients that come my way, their budgets, and if their products\/services would be a good fit.\u00a0–\u00a0@DigiKat826<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

LI’s targeting plays an important role in our overall ABM strategy. We’re testing those waters this year in order to invest more confidently in 2019.\u00a0–\u00a0@tunadonut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q3:\u00a0What\u2019s your favorite part about LinkedIn Ads?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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I absolutely love the targeting for B2B. Nothing out there like it on any platform. Target by job title, department, seniority, skills, groups, company size, etc etc. –\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Precise TARGETING. –\u00a0@MrAguilar_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The amount of options avail for B2B clients. Esp now that FB seems to be removing a lot of these options in the near future. –\u00a0@DigiKat826<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

usability! Not just New UI ranting, but compared to almost all the other platforms, Li is Easy. To. Use. no surprises, no weird blue error messages with Zucks face on them, no bizarre red bars, just simplicity. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

sounds stupid, but I like the fact that I have an alternate partner from the norm.\u00a0–\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

My fav thing is targeting by company name audience lists. I usually ask sales dept. if they have a wish list of ideal companies they want business with, and then we start promoting whitepapers, etc. by job titles \/ skillsets. Get the brand into the prospect’s brain. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The TARGETING. Such a huge thing. While you do have people going by the title NINJA and GURU, you can even get them with skills!\u00a0ALSO, AJ is the expert here so would love to have him chime in, but for a lot of B2Bs the CPCs on relevant keywords is ALREADY high. So I kinda find the high CPC argument as not holding a lot of weight. If you have high LTV then search CPCs usually are killer anyways.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

This. Targeting options not available in other platforms.-\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I love the targeting capabilities of Linkedin Ads. –\u00a0@mikecrimmins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Targeting, targeting, and then more targeting. –\u00a0@ericdfarmer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

AUDIENCE TARGETING. I love being able to show my clients that they got interactions from the industries\/companies they are targeting. –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yup, the targeting granularity. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Like a lot of people said, definitely their audiences and granularity. The only other platform that comes close is Facebook, and lately their job\/career options are severely limited imo. –\u00a0@timmhalloran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The amount of options avail for B2B clients. Esp now that FB seems to be removing a lot of these options in the near future.\u00a0–\u00a0@DigiKat826<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Targeting by group, specifically. Titles and industries are great, but can get ambiguous as companies like to brand themselves as wide-reaching, not as specific as we, the advertisers, would like. Affinity groups cut through that.\u00a0–\u00a0@tunadonut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The targeting is really the biggest differentiator for LI Ads. Can’t get such awesome professional targeting anywhere else.\u00a0–\u00a0@robert_brady<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q4:\u00a0What feature(s) would you like to see in LinkedIn Ads that aren\u2019t already available?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Metrics like Impression Share. What % of Impressions am I winning for my min. bid? \u00a0–\u00a0@SEMFlem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no targeting by device which is limiting. Also, the fact that the time zone is always set to GMT means small budgets are spent overnight, before professionals even arrive at work. Makes dayparting necessary. –\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Bulk uploads would be fun as well scheduling options, impression share or similar … oh! Also what about the ability to see the competitors ads – just like you can now do it on FB and Twitter. –\u00a0@andreacruz92<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

dayparting (direct) –\u00a0@MrAguilar_<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

seamless integration to 3rd party analytics, and a good ole offline tool-\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

would love to have an auction insights report \ud83d\ude42 Never going to happen on social though.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

ROBUST REPORTING. The reports section is awful. –\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Better reporting. I’m constantly explaining to my clients that the “click” when it comes to Sponsored InMail is actually “open” because they don’t change the columns\/assume it means a website click. –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

need placement reports for where my ads are being placed outside linkedin and the ability to exclude those placements. –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Competitive intell data would be cool and optimization suggestions. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve given up on Sponsored Content for now and switched over to InMail Ads. Love it! – @jdprater<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Frequency data. –\u00a0@GeenaNazareth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

more ad types within campaigns for easier retargeting. simplify the budget\/billing process. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

BING LEAD AD INTEGRATION. Two-way data, Bing to LI and LI to Bing. Making search campaigns with LI’s audience targeting features. –\u00a0@timmhalloran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Demographic and\/or audience segmentation would be hugely valuable, too! Let me optimize my audience by showing me which part of my targeting is killing the campaign (so I’m not forced to cancel everything, or play a guessing game to fix it).\u00a0–\u00a0@akaEmmaLouise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The ability to delete or edit lead gen forms and compare date ranges.\u00a0Better demographic reporting (sick of seeing “below reporting min). All other platforms show data after just 1 conversion. –\u00a0@DigiKat826<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

stronger tools for orgs to separate help-wanted ads from the kind of work we all do. Just because we’re hiring, doesn’t mean we want that to dominate our narrative. –\u00a0@tunadonut<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Some type of bulk editor\/offline editor would be awesome. –\u00a0@robert_brady<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q5:\u00a0What part does LinkedIn Ads play in your sales cycle? When is it useful?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Typically a high funnel approach and strategy. Would love to hear recommendations on how to use it as more of a DR low funnel strategy. –\u00a0@KyleShurtz<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

LinkedIn Ads plays a part in mid-funnel re-engagement when a prospect\/rmktg. list needs an extra push (company comparison piece, Gartner\/Forrester report, solid research) to sale. Also good for top-funnel introductions to brand expertise\/thought leadership content. I use low funnel – The focus is on building the brand’s reputation through Gartner\/Forrester guides to prospects. Also promoting the brand cross-organization to earn the attention of CEOs\/CFOs, etc. The underlings might love the brand, but boss doesn’t know. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Awareness & Branding for client whose average sale is $800K. So yeah, they can afford it. –\u00a0@SEMFlem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I find it especially powerful as a first touch since targeting is so useful for finding new, qualified prospects that we don\u2019t already have access to. Also good for sales acceleration – keeping your solution top-of-mind for leads that haven\u2019t yet closed. –\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It really works at all levels of the sales cycle. It’s best at bringing qualified people into the funnel. But, the remarketing capability has now expanded it’s possibilities to the nurturing in mid-funnel cycles too.\u00a0Remarketing to that perfect demographic audience on Facebook, Google and LinkedIn really works well and is super cheap to do. –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Has worked best for low barrier, high value offers to people unfamiliar with my client. Webinars, ebooks. Generally MOFU tho. The thing with LI targeting is that it basically pre-qualifies the audience to the point where I (almost) wouldn’t consider it TOFU anymore. –\u00a0@timmhalloran<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I bring it up as a fun idea, rarely ever a upfront thought. I feel shame as I type that sentence.\u00a0–\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I tend to focus LinkedIn spend higher in my funnels. If remarketing in my other channels are solid, and segmented by my LI targeting, then I don’t even need a form fill, the click will move them down into seperate, cheaper campaigns. Haven’t done much bottom funnel.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I like using Linkedin Ads for brand awareness with some lead gen mixed in, want to try it as remarketing. –\u00a0@mikecrimmins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We like to use LI to build remarketing lists of users with known characteristics – job titles, companies, etc. and then target them w\/search. Helps to reduce the ambiguity of B2B search. –\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I use it as TOF to bring sponsored posts to prospects then retarget later based on scroll data in Analytics – so top and mid funnel, usually. –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It really works at all levels of the sales cycle. It’s best at bringing qualified people into the funnel. But, the remarketing capability has now expanded it’s possibilities to the nurturing in mid-funnel cycles too.\u00a0Remarketing to that perfect demographic audience on Facebook, Google and LinkedIn really works well and is super cheap to do. –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Acquisition top & middle. Lots of content distribution and programmatic marketing assist with matched audience tools. Customer middle & end using matched audience stuff to try and build advocacy and re-engage. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

okay, for my big corporate giant client, it’s direct. come to our webinar, we tell you the things. for my influencer outreach, it’s top of funnel. hear about this thing, learn more later. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q6:\u00a0What recent LinkedIn Ads updates are you most excited about?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Lead gen forms \u2013 we\u2019re finding more and more clients that we recommend them for. Now supported with both Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail and integrates into Salesforce, Eloqua, Marketo, Dynamics, Driftrock, and Zapier.\u00a0They\u2019re tough to work with on the back end, and don\u2019t push traffic to your site, but we see conversion rates 10-30% higher so it\u2019s often worth a test. –\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

no one ever uses “excited” and Linkedin Ads in the same sentence.\u00a0–\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Video on LinkedIn Ads<\/b>. Video all darn day. I’m launching a lot of video right now. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The recent $1000 credit that’s available to all advertisers.\u00a0–\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

video ads have done really well for us. –\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I believe they just introduced the carousel option for sponsored posts… that’ll be interesting. –\u00a0@amaliaefowler<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Excited about the thing I can’t even see yet. The use of @BingAds<\/a> with LinkedIn targeting might be the game changer (it could also be horrible).\u00a0\u00a0Video Ads are at least a better way to get video content to a real B2B audience (Facebook and YouTube can’t do that). –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’m glad LinkedIn finally decided to add a video ad option. I’m interested to try the carousel ads as well. –\u00a0@GeenaNazareth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

mostly interested in the Bing integration, but waiting for other news. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’m looking forward to testing carousel ads and lead forms on LI, since they’ve worked well for me in FB (I know, I know, the two are very different but still. I’m optimistic). –\u00a0@akaEmmaLouise<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q7:\u00a0Which LinkedIn Ads ad units (Sponsored Content, Text Ads, Sponsored InMail) are you finding the most success with currently, and why?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Sponsored Content is my favorite as it\u2019s the most versatile. I recommend it 95% of the time. Text Ads are cheap and excellent, but CTRs are so low it\u2019s hard to drive enough traffic. Sponsored InMail are the hardest to get right, IMO. Expensive and can feel spammy.\u00a0–\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Content. The rest is proving to be fluff. –\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve only run Sponsored Content so pretty excited to hear from others! @jdprater<\/a> just broke PPCChat with his $7 CPL with sponsored inmail and lead ads. –\u00a0@markpgus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I’m currently using LinkedIn InMail + Lead Gen Forms and getting $7 CPL. Just saying it works and competitive to FB prices, but with a way better audience. –\u00a0@jdprater<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I heard text ads are all the rage right now in Europe. –\u00a0@ericdfarmer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Sponsored content all the way. Text ads have been pretty useless. Haven’t done much in mail. –\u00a0@Mel66<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been Sponsored Content ever since LinkedIn became a mobile channel. Back in the desktop days text ads were awesome. But social ads = mobile ads. –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Sponsored content and depending on the offer InMail. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

mostly sponsored content, hoping to test inMail soon. –\u00a0@JuliaVyse<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Q8:\u00a0Are you currently employing LinkedIn Ads for an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Yes, I find LinkedIn Ads to be awesome for ABM efforts! Targeting dream accounts, accounts in lead status that haven\u2019t closed are great. Also a big fan of using ABM lists for exclusion (exclude competitors, existing customers, etc).\u00a0–\u00a0@wilcoxaj<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Yep, LinkedIn is the best way to use ABM lists, IMHO. I wish Facebook could do the same but the audience there lists their job as “director of pillow forts” at Couch, Inc. It’s heaven when your client has an offer to promote that’s industry specific, and a big juicy list of said industry’s companies to target. Doesn’t happen enough for me but I keep asking. –\u00a0@PPCHartman<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

sadly we have not evolved to that yet. –\u00a0@JonKagan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Not like I want too. It’s amazing to me in this day and age that client sales teams can’t even come up with a top 50 list of the companies they want to sell to…True Story. –\u00a0@jstatad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We use LinkedIn for ABM on old school tactics like executive briefings. We run a series of topically relevant content to the target accounts.\u00a0I put outbound sales in the ABM bucket and we have run content distribution alongside outbound efforts. –\u00a0@HeatherCooan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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PPCChat Participants:<\/strong><\/p>\n