LinkedIn: Maximising ROI on The World’s Most Important B2B Marketing Channel

August 11, 2017

 

 

For senior B2B marketers, social media has the potential to be the most valuable tool in their marketing toolkit. It has become a complete game-changer and has hugely transformed the way we do marketing. Social media is increasingly allowing us to present our messages to the right audience at the right time in new and exciting ways.

With its changeable nature and fast-paced growth, there has never been a better time to be on social – it’s the ideal opportunity to embrace the opportunities social media advertising offers.

Here, we’ll be focusing our attention on LinkedIn – a 400 million+ members’ social media site that has transformed the professional networking landscape, and importantly to us, how we market to an audience of professionals. An astounding 80% of B2B marketing leads come through LinkedIn.

So why don’t more B2B marketers embrace this platform and take advantage of all the benefits it offers?

LinkedIn is frequently overlooked as a social channel because it is often thought of one of the least user-friendly and engaging, for example compared against Facebook or Snapchat. However, despite its reputation, LinkedIn in fact offers a wealth of opportunities for social media advertising by allowing advertisers to connect with a specific audience that differs to those on other networks – one with a higher proportion of professionals, influencers, business executives and key prospects.

With exciting updates to the platform being introduced all the time, we have created an infographic to show just how far the platform has come since its launch in 2002. We truly think it has had an impressive history, don’t you?

Social media advertising, especially B2B, is such an important tool for today’s marketers

Research reveals these impressive statistics that highlight the utility of LinkedIn:

  • 80% of B2B marketing leads from social media come through LinkedIn
  • 92% of B2B marketers use this platform over all others
  • Marketers say they see a 28% lower cost per lead with LinkedIn Sponsored Content than with Google AdWords

At agency:2, we recommend LinkedIn advertising because it can deliver significant marketing ROI. Here’s how:

  • LinkedIn is one of the few social media marketing platforms that allows marketers to target professional people. In addition, it offers very accurate targeting data which is updated by actual users; therefore, it’s in a user’s best interests to keep their data current so they can use LinkedIn as a professional marketing tool. We recently compared targeting criteria amongst networks (see here)and rated LinkedIn very highly based on our experience from working with global brands such as JLL and Worldpay.
  • The LinkedIn ad manager dashboard offers a wealth of data to measure and refine advertising campaigns. Feedback on audience engagement is much more detailed than what is offered on other platforms.
  • Pixels can be added to websites which allows tracking of conversion rates, for example how many people have purchased a product online, added a product to their shopping basket or requested additional information about a service. When marketers are under pressure to demonstrate ROI, this is a beneficial tool to prove social media results.
  • Sponsored updates (LinkedIn’s most popular advertising method) shown in users’ newsfeeds are relatively expensive compared to advertising on Twitter and Facebook; however, they perform very well, with high engagement rates as a result.
  • The actions taken in response to advertising on LinkedIn are also more valuable compared to actions taken in response to advertising on other platforms. This is because people are in a business frame of mind when on the network, thinking of work-related challenges and service needs. Therefore, if they click on something they are more likely to be truly interested, rather than just browsing for distraction, as is so common on other platforms.
  • Sponsored updates can attract new additional followers to a company page, offering wider organic reach for company updates. Yes, it takes a long time to build a following for a company page and significant internal resources to make it work well (e.g. employees sharing and interacting with content and thought leadership type content by senior colleagues) – but it’s worth the time investment due to the quality of the audience.

What is next for LinkedIn?

In the near future, LinkedIn will be rolling out new video features for all users, allowing them to natively upload videos onto the channel via the mobile app. Currently, only LinkedIn influencers have been given the ability to create video content; over 500 Influencers have been invited to create video content sharing their insights on professional topics and news.

LinkedIn does not currently serve video ads on the platform, and perhaps the next step following the development of native video content sharing is the ability for advertisers to promote their own video content. This will likely attract new and different brands across various industries to advertise on the channel. Audience analytics will also allow brands as well as the platform to cleverly and accurately target users with relevant video content, and with the use of algorithms such as those on Facebook, prioritise videos within its feed.

As with any technology updates, it is the users who will decide what works for them and what doesn’t. Knowing that LinkedIn has access to Microsoft resources means that it’s likely that more updates will follow. We believe the future looks bright for LinkedIn!

Our top tips for digital marketers

  1. Accept there are no quick wins: Invest in advertising on LinkedIn if your audience is B2B in focus, but recognise that building a truly engaged audience on LinkedIn takes time.
  2. Have a dedicated company-wide social media strategy in place for LinkedIn – enabling strategic content creation will truly boost social media marketing reach.
  3. Engage with Likes/Comments on Company Page, and add a variety of media e.g. slide show feature to increase the appeal for your target market.
  4. Participate in niche groups for your audience.
  5. Add valuable information and provide thought leadership – secure true buy-in to this from your senior manager, as you will need their support for content creation and driving engagement via their personal profile page.

 

We deliver LinkedIn social media advertising campaigns for the world’s leading brands. Contact us on +44 203 598 9194 to explore how we can boost your social media marketing.

Follow our company page on LinkedIn to be the first to read our social media updates and tips for marketers. We look forward to meeting you there! https://www.linkedin.com/company/agency2

 

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