How To Create and Manage Ads with LinkedIn Campaign Manager

linkedin campaign manager

Getting Started With LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Linkedin is a fantastic place to advertise, even though it is often neglected and forgotten as everyone is so focused on Facebook ads nowadays.

LinkedIn now has more than 875 million members with over 58 million registered companies which means you can reach many people.

In addition, the targeting options on LinkedIn are precise and detailed, so you can use that to your advantage and run your ads to the right people.

Prerequisites for Launching LinkedIn Ads 

Before launching your first campaign, you’ll need a LinkedIn Page and a Campaign Manager account.

If you already have a LinkedIn Page and Campaign Manager account, go to linkedin.com/campaignmanager/ to set up your account.

Creating a LinkedIn Page

To manage your advertising campaigns, you can create a LinkedIn Page. This is an easy and free way to build your brand on LinkedIn. All you need to get started is a LinkedIn account and a verified email address. If you are not a business owner, ensure you have permission to create pages in your company’s name.

A LinkedIn Page has two main benefits:

  • The page allows you to run sponsored content and message campaigns in Campaign Manager.
  • By publishing quality content on your LinkedIn Page, you improve your bids in LinkedIn’s ad auction. This is because LinkedIn’s Relevance Score rewards marketers who consistently post content that gets lots of clicks, likes, comments, and shares.

Creating a Campaign Manager Account

Campaign Manager is LinkedIn’s advertising platform. The platform will walk you through each step of setting up your first campaign after you sign up for a free account.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager allows you to pick your objectives, define your audience, and have complete control over your campaigns, but first, you need to create an account. Make sure to connect your new account to your LinkedIn Page!

LinkedIn Ad Types

Now that you know more about how advertising works on LinkedIn and how it can help you reach potential customers let’s look at the different types of advertising available on the platform.

Sponsored Messaging

Sponsored messaging, formerly known as Sponsored InMail, lets you advertise directly to LinkedIn members in their inboxes to reach new customers.

You should be aware that LinkedIn places a monthly limit on the number of ads you can send to your customers. This is to prevent offering your customers the same offer repeatedly.

Many businesses overlook this opportunity because they undervalue this tool. In fact, only 48% of businesses use email to communicate directly with customers.

Sponsored Content

Sponsored content is the most used ad format, mainly because it is the best and easiest. The feature has the highest free click-through rate as well, and the reason is that you find it right in the feed. 

It almost looks like an organic LinkedIn post.

When advertising with sponsored content, you can choose between the following:

  • LinkedIn carousel ads 
  • Single image ads 
  • Video ads 

Lead Gen Forms

Reaching new audiences is made much easier with Lead Gen forms. They are templates that can be attached to a single image, video, message, or document to collect customer information.

When someone clicks the call-to-action button, the contact and profile information is automatically filled out on the form.

This feature is handy for reaching a massive audience on LinkedIn. In fact, LinkedIn Lead Gen ads can easily convert users into leads.

Text and Dynamic Ads

As far as dynamic ads are concerned, they work differently. First of all, they are displayed on the right-hand rail of LinkedIn, which directly attracts the public’s attention.

Indeed, when a dynamic ad appears in a member’s feed, it displays information such as the photo, the employer’s name, and the job title.

However, be careful in choosing the information to display because if members find the ads too personal, they can change their settings to hide these details.

There are two types of dynamic ads:

  • Follower ads
  • Sponsored ads

Text ads also display as dynamic ads (at the top right of the LinkedIn desktop feed) and are also very useful for reaching your customers.

For marketers, 58% say that improving lead generation is one of their top digital marketing objectives. Thus it is recommended to use LinkedIn text ads to reach a broad audience with a limited budget.

Setting Up an Ad Campaign With Linkedin Campaign Manager

Read below and learn how to quickly set up an ad campaign with the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. We will show you a step-by-step guide packed with valuable tips and tricks.

Log in to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and choose an ad objective

We will list three types of objectives below:

  • LinkedIn awareness ads. It helps to get audiences to talk about your products and services. The goal is to gain more followers, increase views, and grow your engagement rate.
  • LinkedIn consideration ads. The goal of these ads is website visits, better engagement, more views, and so on.
  • Linkedin conversion ads. The goal is to generate leads using forms pre-filled with LinkedIn profile data and website conversions and increase your sales.

Pick your target audience

Next, select the parameters for your audience. Targeting who sees your ad can help you reach your campaign goals. 

Pro Tip: The more specific and relevant your audience is, the better your performance will be.

LinkedIn allows you to target several different categories. That means you can use some of LinkedIn’s targeting options, but the more specific your targeting criteria are, the more relevant they will be to your chosen audience. And your ROI is likely to improve.

Choose an ad format and placement

This feature analyzes your campaign parameters (bid, budget, targeting, start/end dates.)

If it is your first time, decide which ad type you want and choose the budget carefully. Remember to outline your priorities first, and then you are sure to determine which ad type works best for you.

Select your ad budget and schedule

Set a daily budget for what works best for your company. 

Pro Tip: Test before you spend a lot of money on one campaign. 

You can measure the success of your LinkedIn ad. Because the last thing you want to do is spend money with no results. Now that you figured out your budget, it’s time to choose a date for your campaign.

Lastly, we want to mention conversion tracking, which is actually optional. So if you set up conversion tracking for your LinkedIn campaign, you will be able to track and measure the actions people take after clicking on your ads. We recommend it as it is highly valuable for your business.

Build your ad with the required creatives

Now it’s time to build your ad and include your image or video, creative headline, URL, and more.

Review your LinkedIn ad and launch

Before launching, you want to make sure that everything is okay. Review your LinkedIn ad one more time and add a payment method. You can add a debit or credit card, then click save.

Now you are all set!

Monitor and track performance

On LinkedIn, you can easily track your progress in the Campaign Manager Dashboard. There you can see different charts that measure your performance, like clicks, cost, CTR, and more.

You can also track your conversions in the charts at the bottom of your dashboard.

The first thing you see when you sign in to Campaign Manager is the LinkedIn Ads reporting dashboard. You can see performance metrics, access charts, demographics, and export CSV reports. You can also do your conversion tracking.

Key Takeaways 

Now you are ready to create your LinkedIn ads and manage them through the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. Let’s recap some things you learned today:

  • All you need to get started with a LinkedIn Campaign Manager is a LinkedIn account and a verified email address.
  • There are four LinkedIn ad types: Sponsored messaging, sponsored content, text ads, and dynamic ads.
  • There are three ad objectives: LinkedIn awareness ads, LinkedIn consideration ads, and Linkedin conversion ads.
  • The more specific and relevant your audience is, the better your performance will be.
  • Test your ads before you spend a lot of money on one LinkedIn campaign.

Have you tried using LinkedIn ads? Share your opinions with us in the comments below.

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