LinkedIn may not be the most talked about social network, but it definitely holds a niche space in the social media marketing world. In an attempt to be much more than a job search and resume touting site, the network has come a long way recently. LinkedIn articles and revamped brand pages are just a couple of the newer and more popular features, but some still struggle with how to use the network to generate leads. With a “pay to play” culture dominating social media marketing, LinkedIn advertising just took another step to help users solve this issue with the introduction of three new audience targeting options.
Long gone are the days when you could send someone a scripted message in their inbox and reap the rewards. If you want to break through the noise today, you have to be personal. You have to treat people as individuals rather than unassuming consumers. Many platforms that offer advertising options are honing in on this more than ever and now LinkedIn advertising options offer three new ways to reach a more targeted audience.
New LinkedIn Advertising Audience Options
1. Website Retargeting on LinkedIn
Website Retargeting on LinkedIn is exactly what it sounds like. Choose this option if you want to reach people on LinkedIn who already visit your website. Just like many other advertising platforms, you’ll be able to specify if you want to reach people who visit specific pages. This is an awesome option for businesses that offer products or services to professionals. Just make sure your messages match the content that your audience has already expressed an interest in. For example, if you create an ad to people who have visited a landing page on your website with interview tips, make sure that your ad on LinkedIn is relevant to the job search/interview process.
To get started with this option, you’ll have to add the LinkedIn Insight Tab on the backend of your website. It’s a fairly simple process that you can easily ask your website manager to do for you.
2. Contact Targeting on LinkedIn
The Contact Target option is a fantastic way to reach people who have already expressed an interest in your products/services through a previous opt-in to your email list. If you collect emails when someone makes a purchase, this option would be a way to reach those people again as well.
If you want to give this Contact Targeting a try, you’ll have to upload your database with “email” being the first column. LinkedIn will allow you to upload databases of up to 300,000 email addresses. To get started, you’ll go to the campaign manager on LinkedIn and click on the option that says “create an audience.” In the next step, you will select the option that says “choose match based on a list of email contacts,” which will then prompt you to upload your database and finish creating your ad.
3. Account Targeting on LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s Account Targeting advertising option is an awesome solution for businesses that don’t necessarily have a lot of website traffic or a huge email database. With this option, you’ll be able to match your list of target companies against the company pages on LinkedIn and target professional demographics to reach the people who make buying decisions.
All you need for this option is a single column excel spreadsheet saved as a csv with a list of up to 300,000 company names. Note that the title (first row) of the spreadsheet must read “companyname.” When you are ready to set up your ads, you’ll again choose the option to create an audience. Then you will need to choose the option that says, “match based on a list of accounts.”
There are lots of ways to reach people on social media. Advertising to specific audiences with messages that matter to them can help generate short-term and long-term leads and customers. No matter which option you choose, be sure to give yourself some wiggle room to test different ads to see which ones give you the most for your money.
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