LinkedIn advertising is an expensive form of B2B digital advertising. It’s also one of the most cost-efficient. Wait, how can it be both? The answer arises by looking beyond the cost of placing an ad and the potential ROI.
LinkedIn ads aren’t for every print business. But if you sell higher-value print to SMBs and enterprises, you may need to target individual buyer roles (marketing, facilities, procurement) in specific companies in various segments and geographies. If so, you can’t afford to waste your ad spend reaching people outside your target market. You need focus, flexibility, and measurability.
LinkedIn Ads’ cost-per-click (CPC) isn’t cheap. On average, it costs you $5.26 every time someone clicks on your ad. In comparison, advertising on Google or Facebook is about $1-2 per click. Google (+ YouTube) and Facebook (+ Instagram) may reach a broader potential audience, but LinkedIn is better for B2B micro-targeting than any other digital ad platform.
LinkedIn lets you zero in on individuals’ unique attributes:
- Demographics:
- Age, gender, location
- Education
- Psychographics:
- Connections
- Pages followed
- Interests
- Firmographics
- Industry
- Job Title
- Company name, size, categories
- Growth rate
By narrowing your target audience to specific parameters, you can customize your messaging and offers so they are most relevant and attractive to the people who matter most to you. This micro-targeting reduces waste and increases ad effectiveness.
How much you need to spend depends on the uniqueness and attractiveness of your messaging and the market’s competition. You can start small (with a budget as low as $10), test it, and scale. You can target and retarget custom-versioned ads for various ad groups and determine which performs better. A good digital marketing expert can help you.
LinkedIn is auction-based so your cost is based on the ad format you want and the competing demand for your target. Depending on whether your ad goal is Awareness, Consideration, or Conversion, you can pay a cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-impression (CPM), or cost-per-send (CPS) via Sponsored Content (CPC, CPM), Text Ads (CPC, CPM), or Sponsored InMail (CPS).
Finally, it’s good to optimize your company’s LinkedIn business page with strong organic content and offer a meaningful, compelling call to action (CTA) on a landing page that encourages conversions.
If you plan without a strategy and you execute without precision, LinkedIn advertising can be expensive. Otherwise, get it right and your measurable results can be cost-efficient.
David Murphy is the founder and CEO of Nvent Marketing, a marketing agency specializing in digital marketing for the print industry. David has 30+ years of experience in the graphics and document print production industry. He has served as a board member and advisor to print organizations and associations including Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), Print Industries of America (PIA), Association for Print Technologies (APTECH), and Electronic Document Scholarship Foundation (EDSF). David was also awarded the Idealliance Soderstrom Society Award for Print Industry Leadership.
David can be reached at dm@nventmarketing.com.
