B2B marketing is booming on LinkedIn

Targeting the right audience is essential to the success of your LinkedIn campaign. Whether you are looking to narrow your audience to only the most qualified customers or broadening it to reach new ones, following these tips will generate higher engagement and lower CPCs. 

Avoid “Too Narrow” Reach

LinkedIn’s algorithms calculate audience volume based on various factors that will impact reach.

It’s a LinkedIn best practice to start with a larger, broader audience first. After testing, you should optimize your audience based on who is interacting with your ads. Although the required minimum audience size is 300 members, it’s recommended that your initial audience be at least 50,000 people. This prevents an audience that’s too narrow for your campaign, giving you plenty of opportunities for your ad to be seen.

Test and Optimize

First, you need to set a timeframe for your initial test. Give your ads enough time to run and produce valuable results before you evaluate. LinkedIn recommends a time frame of two to three weeks to give your content enough impressions.

Second, create an A/B testing strategy to better understand your audience. You can promote the same ad against two separate audiences, or change one variable in ads delivered to the same audience- for example, the image, the message, or the image caption. After two weeks, review your results and optimize. Be sure to document A/B tests over time to gain insights into your target audience and overall campaign success.

Retarget

Under matched audience, there is a new LinkedIn feature: retargeting. This ‘always-on’ campaign strategy allows you to create an audience based on your website's visitors. Early reports from LinkedIn show a 30% increase in CTR from advertisers using the Retargeting tool.

There are filters available to target visitors to your entire site, or a specific website subset. After defining audience segments, give your audience some time to build. The segment goal is 300 people before an ad can be delivered; depending upon your site traffic, it could take up to 48 hours to build.

Match Your Audience

Sync your own first-party data with LinkedIn’s professional database using LinkedIn Matched Audiences. This feature allows you to upload a list of email addresses that LinkedIn will review and match to existing accounts/users. After 48 hours, LinkedIn will provide a list of all available matched accounts. This customized audience allows you to engage key accounts and prospects with very specific messaging. This matched audience is available for Sponsored content, sponsored inMail, and other LinkedIn ad formats.

Exclude the Wrong People

LinkedIn allows you to exclude certain audiences or members from seeing your posts, which can minimize lost dollars. You can do this one of two ways: by uploading a specific list of contacts, or by excluding company followers.

You can upload a list of contacts (LinkedIn email addresses) under Target a list of accounts or contacts and select Exclude. This will prevent profiles under those specific email addresses from seeing your content.

If your company is trying to gain new followers, you may not want people who already follow your company to see your posts. Underneath Target company followers?, select the Exclude company followers bullet.

Interested in setting up a targeted LinkedIn Campaign?  Contact us to learn more.