LinkedIn Conversation Ads can be a powerful tool to help you reach your target audience and spark meaningful conversations that drive conversions. In this blog post, we'll explore some best practices for creating effective LinkedIn Conversation Ads. But before we dive in, make sure you check out our previous post for a primer on what these ads are and how to create them. All caught up? Let's explore some tips for maximizing the impact of your LinkedIn Conversation Ads.
6 top tips for creating LinkedIn Conversation Ads:
Define your target audience LinkedIn Conversation Ads have a targeting tool that allows you to establish parameters for your audience. If you’ve used LinkedIn ads before and have top performing targets from previous campaigns, you might consider testing those audiences out first. Retargeting website visitors is another great option since those people have visited your site before and should be familiar with your brand.
Decide what type of budget to set You have two options when it comes to budget; you can set a daily budget or a total budget. You should use a daily budget for campaigns that have an audience of 100K+ or more, that are always turned on, or contain an offer that doesn’t have a specific end date. On the contrary, a total budget should be used in the opposite scenario, one in which you have a niche audience, an audience of less than 100k, and there is a predetermined end date.
Establish a bid strategy that fits your budget When utilizing a daily budget for your advertising campaign, it's advisable to select a bid that’s within the range suggested by LinkedIn when you input your targeting criteria. It's also essential to monitor your ad spend over the first few days. If you find you’re running up against your daily budget cap, you might need to decrease your bid to stay within your budget limit. However, if you are not reaching your daily budget cap, it's worth considering increasing your bid to remain competitive since your competitors may be winning out. Conversely, if you are employing a total budget strategy, it's best to set your bid at the upper end of that suggested bid range. Doing so helps ensure you remain competitive with other bidders in the auction.
Choose your sender carefully One of the unique features of a Conversation Ad is that it’s sent from a specific individual, just like a regular conversation. The sender you choose for your ads will represent your brand and influence your audience’s first impression. When picking a sender, ask yourself who your target audience would recognize and connect with. If, for instance, you are trying to drive product demos, your Conversation Ads should be sent from your Director of Product, not a marketing specialist. Apart from the sender’s job title being an accurate fit, you need to make sure that the sender’s profile picture is on brand, high quality, and welcoming. Just as LinkedIn points out, a smile never hurts! You can test the effectiveness of your sender selection by creating variations of your ads with different senders and see which performs best.
Start your ad content with your goal in mind When it comes to the content of your ad, knowing where to start can be overwhelming. We suggest grounding your efforts by identifying your main goal. What action do you want the person on the receiving end of these ads to take? It could be filling out a form, submitting a demo request, registering for a webinar, visiting a product page, subscribing to your newsletter, or something else. The content you select for your ad should depend on your goal. If you’re driving leads directly to your sales team, for example, you might want to share a product tutorial or demo. If you’re driving general brand awareness, you’ll want to share relevant blog posts that relate to industry trends. Whatever your goal, intentionally pick content to fit.
Create an engaging experience This part of the ad creation process is where your creativity can run wild. Don’t be afraid to experiment with all the capabilities LinkedIn Conversation Ads offer. Plan to have 2 to 5 layers of conversation. Each layer should include a friendly message that poses a question to the recipient, two possible responses they can select from, and one or more call to action (CTA) buttons. That’s right: you don’t have to limit yourself to just one button. If, for example, your goal is to drive asset downloads, provide ad recipients with multiple pieces of content to choose from. We do recommend you steer clear of providing a “Not Interested” or “No Thanks” CTA option in the first layer of the conversation; it makes it too easy for prospects to close the ad and minimizes the chance of engagement.
Personalize everywhere you can Personalize, personalize, personalize. I can’t emphasize this enough. Personalization is one of the best benefits of this 1:1 ad interaction, so don’t waste the opportunity. With LinkedIn Conversation Ads, you can personalize messages to include your recipient’s first name, last name, job title, company name, and industry. In one case study, LinkedIn found that using a company name in a Sponsored Message boosted click through rates by 21%. Another case study showed that using the job title macro boosted open rates by 48%.*
Want to learn more tips? LinkedIn has a slide deck complete with more details of their best practices.
If you’re ready to get started but need a helping hand, don’t hesitate to reach out.