Did you know that 38% of marketers use LinkedIn as part of their social media strategy? LinkedIn is a valuable platform for marketing and advertising your products to interested prospects.

If you want to start advertising your products or services on LinkedIn but don’t know where to start, this LinkedIn advertising guide is for you! I’ve broken this guide down into four parts:

1. The types of LinkedIn ads you can run
2. The LinkedIn advertising objectives you can set
3. How to set up LinkedIn ads
4. Tips for running successful LinkedIn ads

Keep reading to learn more!

LinkedIn advertising guide part 1: Types of LinkedIn ads

First in this LinkedIn paid advertising guide, let’s talk about the types of LinkedIn ads you can run. There are four main types of LinkedIn ads:

1. Sponsored Content
2. Text Ads
3. Dynamic Ads
4. Messaging Ads

Let’s dive in and learn more about these ad types!

1. Sponsored Content

First on our list of LinkedIn ad types is Sponsored Content ads. These ads are the ones you see most often –– they appear in your newsfeed as you scroll through content. You’ll see these ads tagged with the word “promoted” in your feed.

These ads are great for building brand recognition and helping more people discover your business.

Sponsored Content ads provide you with numerous opportunities to customize your ad type. You can create a single image, video, or carousel ad.

2. Text Ads

One of the simplest types of LinkedIn ads you can run is Text Ads. These ads appear on the right-hand side at the top of users’ feeds on LinkedIn. As the name implies, these ads are mainly text and only include a small logo next to the text.

These ads are an excellent way for you to reach people who browse LinkedIn on their desktops. It’s also great for reaching more qualified leads and getting them to check out what you offer.

3. Dynamic Ads

Another type of LinkedIn ad you can run is Dynamic Ads. Dynamic ads are personalized to the user and appear in the right-hand bar like Text Ads.

These ads often include the person’s name and come from companies that are a good fit. You can target people based on their industry or job to boost ad engagement and leads.

4. Sponsored Messaging

Last on this list of types of LinkedIn ads is Sponsored Messaging ads. Previously known as Sponsored InMail, these ads enable you to advertise to prospects in their inbox on LinkedIn.

Sponsored Messaging ads are a great way to reach users directly in their inboxes and engage those prospects. You can also provide them with more information here, which can help you turn more of these prospects into customers for your business.

LinkedIn advertising guide part 2: LinkedIn ad objectives

Now that you know the types of LinkedIn ads you can run, it’s time to look at the objectives you can set for your ads. Objectives are broken down into three categories:

1. Awareness objectives
2. Consideration objectives
3. Conversion objectives

Let’s dive in to see what objectives you can set in each category!

1. Awareness objectives

In the awareness category, you can set only one objective: Brand awareness. You’ll want to choose this objective if you’re looking to expose prospects to your brand and help them get familiar with you.

It’s an excellent option for introducing prospects to your brand to people who are likely to have an interest in what you offer.

2. Consideration objectives

If prospects are already familiar with your brand, you can deliver ads that get them to consider your company. You have three options for consideration objectives:

1. Website visits: Choose this objective if you want to focus on driving people to your website.
2. Engagement: Choose this objective if you want to focus on getting people to engage with your LinkedIn ads and your business’s page.
3. Video views: Running a video ad on LinkedIn? You can set video views as your objective to focus on getting people to watch your video ads.

These ads are a great option if you want to increase engagement with your business and nudge prospects towards conversion.

3. Conversion objectives

The last set of objectives we’ll cover in this LinkedIn advertising guide is conversion objectives. Conversion objectives are ones you set when you want people to take the next step. There are four types of objectives you can choose from:

1. Website conversion: If you want to get people to buy your products or use your services, you can set this as your ad objective.
2. Lead generation: Looking to capture leads? You can set up your ad objective to focus on generating leads.
3. Job applicants: Using LinkedIn ads to hire people? You can set job applicants as your objective.
4. Talent leads: Looking to generate qualified leads for your job openings? You can set this objective to generate top talent for your open positions.

You have numerous great options for setting conversion objectives for your LinkedIn ads.

LinkedIn advertising guide part 3: How to advertise on LinkedIn

Now that you know the types of LinkedIn ads you can create and the objectives you can set, it’s time to learn how to develop top-performing ads. Here are the seven steps to follow to set up your LinkedIn ads:

1. Create your ad
2. Set your objective
3. Choose your audience
4. Select your format
5. Choose your placement
6. Determine your budget and schedule
7. Craft your ad

Keep reading to learn more about how to complete each step!

1. Create your ad

If you want to know how to advertise on LinkedIn, start by creating your ad. You can do this by logging into the Campaign Manager. Once you do that, you can click “Create a New Ad” to start creating your ad.

2. Set your objective

The next step in this part of my LinkedIn advertising guide is to set your objective. You must determine what you want to achieve with your ad. As I mentioned above, there are multiple ad objectives you can set.

Here’s a refresher of what those objectives are:

• Brand awareness
• Website visits
• Engagement
• Video views
• Website conversions
• Lead generation
• Job applicants
• Talent leads

Choose the objective that best aligns with the goals of your ad.

3. Choose your audience

The next step in setting up your LinkedIn ads is to choose your target audience. When you set up your target audience, you have numerous options for how you want to target people in your audience.

You can target people based on their:

• Company name
• Company size
• Job title
• Seniority
• Skills
• Groups
• Schools
• Interests
• And more

You can set your parameters based on what you know about your audience and what people you want to reach.

For example, if you’re trying to reach the CEO at your target companies, you could use the job title and seniority settings to reach the right person.

4. Select your ad format

If you want to know how to advertise on LinkedIn, start by choosing your ad format. LinkedIn offers numerous ad formats, including:

• Text ads
• Photo ads
• Video ads
• Carousel ads

Choose the format that works best for your ad and the goals you want to achieve. You can always test different ad formats to see what works best for driving results.

5. Choose your ad placement

Next in this LinkedIn advertising guide, let’s discuss choosing your ad placement. As I mentioned earlier, there are four ad placement types:

• Sponsored Content
• Text Ads
• Dynamic Ads
• Sponsored Messaging

You’ll want to consider your objectives and goals to determine the best placement for your ads. For example, If you want to earn conversions, Sponsored Content or Sponsored Messaging might be your best options for earning those sales.

6. Determine your budget and schedule

Like with any advertising campaign, you must set your budget and schedule.

With LinkedIn ads, you can set a daily budget for your ad campaigns. You can determine your overall budget for your campaign and how long you want it to run. From there, you can split your budget amongst the days you’re running your campaign to get your daily budget.

You’ll also want to consider your bidding model when setting your budget. LinkedIn offers three bidding models, which include:

• Cost-per-click (CPC) bidding: You pay each time someone clicks on your ads.
• Cost-per-impressions (CPM) bidding: You pay for every 1000 impressions on your ad.
• Automatic bidding: LinkedIn automatically determines your bid type to maximize your budget and reach campaign objectives (CPC or CPM).

Once you determine your budget and bidding, you can move on to your schedule. With your schedule, you’ll want to determine when you want your ads to run.

Think about your target audience and when they’re most likely to see your ads. Do they engage with LinkedIn during the weekdays or weekends? What time of day are they likely to see your ads?

You must consider these factors when setting your schedule to reach prospects at the right time and drive better results.

7. Create your ad

Once you set up all the aspects of your ad, you can finally create your ad! At this step, you’ll add your visual, write your ad copy, and set your call to action (CTA). You’ll want to make sure you review all these elements together to ensure they create a cohesive ad experience.

LinkedIn advertising guide part 4: 6 LinkedIn ad best practices

Next in this LinkedIn paid advertising guide, let’s look at some best practices to follow:

1. Segment your target audience
2. Craft clear and informative ad copy
3. Choose a CTA that fits your message and objective
4. Adjust your bidding as needed
5. Test your ads to improve them
6. Monitor and measure your campaign success

Let’s look more at how you can implement these LinkedIn ad best practices:

1. Segment your target audience

First on our list of LinkedIn ad best practices is to segment your audience. If you’re targeting multiple types of people with your ads, you want to deliver ads that appeal to them. By segmenting your target audience, you can provide a better ad experience.

You can segment your target audience based on their interests, job types, and more.

Once you segment your target audience, you can deliver ads tailored to those groups, making them more likely to engage with your ad content.

2. Craft clear and informative ad copy

Another tip from my LinkedIn advertising guide is to create clear and informative ad copy. When creating your ads, your visual element is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need high-quality ad copy to go with your ad.

Informative ad copy is critical for getting prospects to engage with your ad. The visual draws them in, while your ad text tells them why they should care and what’s in it for them.

When you craft your ad, think about the most vital information to share with your audience. What do they need to know?

Think about what information you need to share to convince them to convert. Ensure you include it within your ad to help you drive more leads and revenue with your LinkedIn ad.

3. Choose a CTA that fits your message and objectives

A key component of your LinkedIn ads is your call to action. Your CTA tells users how to proceed and what happens next. You must choose a CTA that aligns with your objectives.

Take this example from Reddit. They’re focusing on getting people to join Reddit for Business. Their CTA reflects that goal –– they use “sign up” as their action.

Choosing the right CTA is critical to boosting engagement for your business. So, when you set up your ads, select the CTA that best aligns with what you what your audience to do.

4. Adjust your bidding as needed

A key component of LinkedIn is your bidding. As mentioned before, LinkedIn offers three types of bidding: CPC, CPM, or automatic bidding. When you run your ads, you want to adjust your bidding strategy as needed.

If you choose to do CPC or CPM, you may need to adjust your bid amounts to generate more clicks for your budget. You can try modifying your bid amounts to see how your ad performance changes.

When you look at your ads, you may find that you aren’t maximizing your budget the way you want. If so, consider switching to automatic bidding. That way, you put LinkedIn in the driver’s seat and allow them to maximize your budget for you.

5. Test your ads to improve them

Next on this list of LinkedIn ad best practices is to test your ads. The first copy of your ad won’t be the best version. You must test your ads to ensure you’re putting out the best ad to help you reach your goals.

When you test your ads, only test one element at a time. Testing one element at a time ensures that you get clear results regarding how your changes impact your ad performance.

Testing your ads will help improve ad performance and drive better results for your business.

6. Monitor and measure your campaign success

Last in this LinkedIn paid advertising guide, let’s talk about monitoring and measuring your campaigns. You don’t want to launch your campaigns and never look back at them. To maximize your return on investment (ROI), you need to track your campaigns to see if they drive the results you desire.

The metrics you track will depend upon your ad objectives and goals. If your objective is to earn conversions, you want to track metrics related to that action, like clicks, click-through rate (CTR), and conversions.

Make sure you choose the right metrics so you can ensure you’re maximizing your paid advertising results.