A Beginners Guide to LinkedIn Ads

Written by Nicolas Vargas
 
LinkedIn advertising is a service which allow users to create and manage ads within this professionals networking platform. LinkedIn Ads are supported in more than 50 countries around the world and the service is supported in many languages.
 
If you’re wondering why you should try LinkedIn Ads, you have to keep in mind that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network which means you can reach influencers or decision makers such as Business owners and Marketing Directors, which could be a good opportunity for almost any kind of business.
 
Currently LinkedIn Ads offer two pay options (PPC) or (PPM):
 
Pay per click (CPC) : As with many other platforms you pay only when someone clicks on your ad, the minimum bid required for LinkedIn is $2.00
 
Pay per impression (CPM): With this option, you pay when your ad has 1,000 impressions.
 
The only payment method currently available on LinkedIn ads is credit card and you can’t pay in advance for your ads
 
Where Can you see your ads?
 

Other Users Profile Page

Users Home Page

Users Inbox Page

Search Results Page

LinkedIn Groups Pages

 
Here you can see an example of an Inbox page with LinkedIn Ads, all the other pages have the same ads sections
 

 
LinkedIn also offers promotional coupons to encourage people to use LinkedIn ads, but be careful, when you exceed the credit on your coupon you will be charged.
 
Note that you have to pay a $5 activation fee, even if you have a LinkedIn Advertising Promotional Coupon.
 
The Process to Create an Ad
 
1) First of all you need an account in LinkedIn. It can be either a personal or a business one, so just login into your account, go to the home section and click on “Advertise on LinkedIn”
 

 

 
2) Linked in will ask you for an ad campaign name, Ad Language and the Media Type (Basic for image and text)
 
You can choose between two options for your ad destination – website or LinkedIn Profile There’s no difference between the ads if you choose a website vs LinkedIn profile as your landing page.When it comes to the landing page selection, it’s up to the aim of your ad . For example, if you want your customer to register for your newsletter you probably will use your website, but if you want to increase your followers on LinkedIn you will use your LinkedIn profile as a landing page
 

Write the headline (Max 25 characters)

Description (Max 75 characters)

Add the image (50×50 pixels) if you want an image ad. In this example we made a text ad.

The ‘From’ section allows you to add your business name, from a list of Institutions which are within your profile

The Ad variation option is useful for A/B tests for multiple ads

 

 
3) Targeting: You can target your audience using these options
 

Location: Country, Area

Company: By name or Category

Job Title: By Job title or Job function

School: Name of the school

Skills: List of skills

Group: LinkedIn Groups you want to target

Gender: Male or Female

Age: 18 to 55+

 
Linked In calculates your estimated audience based on your targeting.
 
Here is an image with the estimated Audience for our example.
 

 
4) Payment options
 

Payment Options: here you can choose CPC or CPM

Daily Budget: The minimum amount is $10 per day

Lead Collection: Include a button in your ad which helps users contact you It is Free

Campaign Duration: here you can choose how long your campaign will run for.

 
5) Finally there will be a normal checkout process where you enter your payment information.
 
Want to Learn more about LinkedIn Ads?
 

Best Practices for Advertising on LinkedIn