{"id":26223,"date":"2022-03-01T01:06:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T01:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/?p=26223"},"modified":"2024-05-23T07:41:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:41:00","slug":"ultimate-linkedin-advertising-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/directiveconsulting.com\/ca\/blog\/ultimate-linkedin-advertising-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Targeting Guide for LinkedIn Advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advertising to your ideal customer can be complicated. With Google, you have numerous audience targeting options available, which can feel overwhelming for you and your marketing team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Google often makes assumptions about which audiences fit into each bucket; granted, it is based on online behavior. Facebook also has a variety of options, but often it can be challenging to find specific job titles or companies you are trying to reach.<\/span><\/p>\n

With LinkedIn, professionals update their profiles regularly, try to grow their network and make themselves stand out through various skills or groups they join. What does this mean for digital advertisers? Reaching your ideal customer has never been more comfortable using LinkedIn.<\/span><\/p>\n

This powerful platform allows advertisers to reach ideal users through a variety of targeting options. With over 575 million professionals on the platform and 260 million logging in each month, this platform can help you reach high-quality customers you\u2019ve been focused on in a variety of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019ll break down different targeting options available with\u00a0LinkedIn advertising<\/span> as well as look at real examples and how they\u2019ve performed. Is your team equipped to get the most out of this channel?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Read more about LinkedIn Conversation Ads that Actually Work [With Examples]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Getting Started<\/span><\/h2>\n

No matter what your campaign goal is, aligned targeting is the key to LinkedIn advertising success. The first step is to choose a realistic goal. After that, the real fun begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Location<\/span><\/h3>\n

As most marketers know, LinkedIn allows you to target your campaign to specific locations. This is the one targeting type you will be required to use. With location, you\u2019ll have two options on how you want to reach your desired locations by clicking the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

A drop-down will appear giving you the following to choose from:<\/span><\/p>\n

When deciding on a target location, you can go as wide as targeting by continent, you can stay hyper-focused and target specific cities, or find another option that works for your team.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Example of continent targeting)<\/span><\/p>\n

(Example of city targeting)<\/span><\/p>\n

Use the search bar to input your desired location\/s. You can also exclude locations to tighten your targeting focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Profile Language<\/span><\/h3>\n

Below the location is the \u201cProfile language\u201d option. This is where you choose which language your target users\u2019 profiles are in. Make sure your ad copy matches this language as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Narrow Further<\/span><\/h3>\n

Once location and language are figured out, you can launch your campaign. However, this audience would be pretty general, and you\u2019d likely be spending on users outside of your ideal customers. To cast a capable LinkedIn net, layer more options on top of your location. To do this, select \u201cNarrow audience further (AND)\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

Audience Attributes<\/span><\/h2>\n

Audience attributes allow your team to expand your target audience based on information displayed on a user\u2019s LinkedIn profile. This can include company name, demographics, education, job experience, and interests:<\/span><\/p>\n

Company<\/span><\/h3>\n

This section contains several ways to shape your ideal audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an explanation of each, via LinkedIn:<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Category<\/span><\/strong>: Allows you to target companies by custom segments such as S&P 500<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Connections<\/span><\/strong>: Allows you to reach the 1st-degree connections of employees at companies you select. This is only available for companies with more than 500 employees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Followers<\/span><\/strong>: Allows you to target your own LinkedIn Page followers. To use this targeting facet, your Ads account must be associated with your LinkedIn Page. When not utilizing this facet, by default your campaigns may reach both followers and non-followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Growth Rate<\/span><\/strong>: Allows you to target companies by their rate of growth year over year, determined by factors such as employee growth or inferred data from other similar companies within the same location and industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Industry<\/span><\/strong>: The primary industry of the company where the member is employed, as stated by the company. Additional industries may be inferred about the company and included for targeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Name<\/span><\/strong>: The organization a member lists as his or her employer. These are based on LinkedIn Pages, which are maintained by company employees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Revenue: Allows you to target companies by their estimated annual revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Company Size<\/span><\/strong>: Allows you to reach members based on the size of the organization where they work. Company size is determined by the number of employees listed on the organization’s LinkedIn Page.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Demographics<\/span><\/h3>\n

As marketers know, these filters allow you to target based on gender or age and are vital to campaign results.<\/span><\/p>\n

For age, you\u2019ll be able to choose from a few different age brackets:<\/span><\/p>\n

*Note: You cannot use age or gender to discriminate for employment, housing, education, or credit.<\/p>\n

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Education<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you want to reach a particular segment of people using education-related targeting, you\u2019ll have a few useful options available:<\/span><\/p>\n

According to LinkedIn:<\/span><\/p>\n

Fields of Study:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0The major or area of study within a member’s degree. Standardized from member-entered degrees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Member Schools:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0The school, college, university, or other learning institution where a member completed a course.<\/span><\/p>\n

Degrees:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Recognized ranks granted by a college, university, or other learning institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Using a combination of these can be a beneficial method to narrow your targeting and focus on individuals of a certain educational background, whether it be to promote a relevant product\/service or find someone who would be an optimal fit for an employment opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Job Experience<\/span><\/h3>\n

The filters available for \u201cjob experience\u201d are highly prevalent with successful LinkedIn campaigns:<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how LinkedIn defines each:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Job Function:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Based on standardized groupings of the job titles entered by LinkedIn members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Job Seniority:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Describes the rank and influence of a member’s current role in their organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Job Title:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0When members update their LinkedIn profiles with new roles, these job titles are grouped by LinkedIn’s algorithms and organized into standardized titles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Member Skills:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Highly relevant keywords found within a member’s profile and skills section that indicates expertise in a particular area. Member-entered skills in the Skills & Endorsements section on their profile, skills mentioned in their profile text, or inferred skills based on their listed skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Years of Experience:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Allows you to reach a target audience based on the years of professional experience they’ve accumulated over their career. We exclude any gaps in experience and also do not double-count overlapping positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Keep in mind, if you incorporate job titles into your targeting, \u201cjob functions\u201d and \u201cjob seniority\u201d become unavailable. This prevents users from creating conflicting targeting options. For example, if you want to target \u201cVice President of Marketing\u201d via job titles, it would conflict with targeting an accounting job function or managerial job seniority. On the other side, if you select seniority or function, titles will not be available.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to converse with your sales team. If they\u2019ve been successful with specific job titles, this is the metric to hone in. Mixing and matching these filters can help your organization reach specific and vital decision-makers.<\/p>\n

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Interests & Traits<\/span><\/h3>\n

With interests, target users based on various social aspects of LinkedIn:<\/span><\/p>\n

These are defined by LinkedIn as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

Member Groups:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0LinkedIn Groups where members who share interests or professional associations can gather, discover new information, and ask questions. *Note: To prevent ad targeting discrimination based on protected characteristics, member groups may not be used exclusively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Member Interests:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Interest categories identified by and inferred from member actions and engagement with content on LinkedIn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Member Traits:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Direct and inferred behavior traits based on member actions on LinkedIn, profile information, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Groups are a valuable tactic to target users who regularly engage with their LinkedIn profile. This goes beyond a user simply setting up his\/her profile with general professional details. These users are typically more engaged, and a quality and relevant advertisement targeted to these groups should see excellent engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Matched Audiences<\/span><\/h2>\n

Audience attributes allow you to build audiences based on filters set in place by LinkedIn. Matched audiences give you creative control to create audiences based on your website traffic, manually uploaded lists, and more:<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s dig into a few and how to set them up:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Retargeting<\/span><\/h3>\n

If your team is looking to run any remarketing campaign, you\u2019ll have a few different options within LinkedIn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s dig into one of the more commonly used retargeting options: Website retargeting. Utilizing your site\u2019s audiences\u00a0is a useful way to advertise to users already familiar with your company\/brand. If they know you, there is more trust in place than if they were encountering your brand for the first time. These users are more likely to perform to take the desired action!<\/span><\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t set up any website audiences yet, here are simple instructions on how to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n