LinkedIn Ads can be an effective method to reach new potential customers. The benefits are many for B2B companies. A key one is the ability to reach clearly defined target groups: whether individually or by specific company. Also, your target audience is in business mode while on LinkedIn and are looking for information that can strengthen their organization and their own way of working.
Yet, we see people making some unnecessary mistakes when launching LinkedIn campaigns. Here are some of them:
1. Unclear goals for the campaign
It sounds obvious that you must set goals for your LinkedIn Ad campaign, but surprisingly, many people have undefined or unclear goals around the results they expect. That often means you have several different goals because you want to solve a number of problems with one agenda. Maybe you are trying build a brand in several different geographical markets, are targeting different types of decision makers, or haven't determined what action you expect people to take when they get to your site.
No matter how much you need to solve different parts of your marketing plan, you cannot do everything in one campaign. (It's a mistake to think you'll save money by doing EVERYTHING at once.)
One campaign, one goal is a good basic rule. Ask yourself: What is the purpose of the campaign and what will you measure to determine success? Is it a brand-building campaign or do you need to generate leads? Is it a time-limited campaign or do you intend to build a lead funnel that will generate qualitative leads over longer periods? This creates focus with the campaign and an opportunity to measure efficiency and ROI. Decide on one model per campaign. If you have several goals, you should set up several individual campaigns. Otherwise, the risk is a watered-down campaign that does not meet any of your goals particularly well.
What are your campaign goals?
- Brand building
- Lead generation
- Event or product promotion
- Engagement
- List building
2. Insufficient advertising budget
Hand-in-hand with becoming a little over-ambitious with goals for their Linkedin campaigns, many people are a little over-optimistic about how far their intended media budget will go. In general, it is often best to start with cost-per-click (CPC) as the billing model for lead-oriented campaigns.
If you then have expectations of how many leads the campaign has as a goal, it is possible to count backwards:
Goal for number of leads = conversion rate for landing page x visitors on the page
Number of visitors = Campaign budget / Cost per click
Example: 35,000 SEK in budget, CPC of SEK 75, 10% CTR on the landing page gives about 467 clicks to the page and about 47 leads
Download a simple template in Google Sheets to help you calculate your media budget.
3. You fall short with the strategic preparation
Effective lead generation is based on finding those who are most likely to become (good) customers for your company. The established BANT method of qualifying leads focuses on four factors: Budget, Authority, Need and Time. LinkedIn's options for selection should ensure that you reach the right person, which allows you to focus on meeting a need.
Thus, the content of your material should be relevant to those who experience the consequences of the problem (alternatively: challenge) you are there to solve. That is, the material must help them in their situation. Materials in the so-called Consideration phase of the buyer's journey often work best for this. Materials in the form of guides, checklists and tools, which without being product-oriented, focus on the underlying solution strategies.
In the strategic preparation for campaigns, we need to produce (or possibly repackage existing) material that the intended recipients will find relevant for their decision-making process.
4. Your content is wrong
Remember, as we said, your content should fit with your goals, and your customer's expectations. On social media, that means providing value, education or entertainment.
At the risk of kicking in an open door, consider using video in your ad. Moving media attracts attention, and gives you significantly better chances of the reader stopping at your particular material in their feed. Our experience is that video in the ad can provide more than four times as many clicks, which can be very crucial with smaller audiences.
It also does not have to be extremely expensive, on the contrary, an over-produced video can be perceived as advertising or seem much too "corporate". A video with well-written dialogue filmed on your mobile phone can often be the best solution.
Download our campaign planning template
We've created a planning tool for Linkedin Ads campaigns in Google sheets. You can make your own copy of the template to be able to make changes.
Need help with your campaign?
Contact us for a free LinkedIn Ad campaign planning consultation.
