LinkedIn video advertising: the power of visuals in B2B marketing
What are LinkedIn video ads?
LinkedIn video ads are short videos that companies use to promote their products, services, or brand stories in an engaging way. These videos appear directly in users’ news feeds, just like posts from friends and other connections. The content of these videos can range from informative company updates and inspiring customer testimonials to educational videos about new product or service launches. But do you know what’s probably the most important? LinkedIn automatically plays your video ads as soon as someone scrolls past them. Now that’s stopping power.
Why LinkedIn video advertising is important for your business
So why should your business focus on video advertising via LinkedIn? What makes this a better opportunity compared to photo or text ads? Here are five reasons:
- Building relationships
LinkedIn video advertising allows you to establish an authentic connection with your target audience. Videos enable you to tell stories and showcase your brand’s personality, which helps create an emotional bond. This personal approach fosters trust and loyalty.
- Competitive advantage
Not all companies fully utilize the potential of video advertising. By effectively using video, your company can stand out and attract attention amidst other ads. This unique positioning allows you to present your brand as innovative and engaged.
- Clear explanation
Video is a powerful way to clearly explain complex information and product demonstrations. With visual elements, you can easily illustrate processes, features, and benefits, making it much easier for your audience to understand the content.
- Increased brand awareness
For companies, having a strong and recognizable brand is important. Video advertising on LinkedIn is a fantastic way to share your brand story and communicate your organization’s values in a visually appealing manner. Videos have the power to quickly and effectively convey information, making them easier to remember than text or images.
- Measurable results
LinkedIn provides valuable insights and statistics on video ads, such as the number of views, engagement, and demographic data of users. This makes LinkedIn video advertising an excellent choice for companies, as it allows them to accurately measure the results of their campaigns. When an ad resonates well with viewers’ wants and needs, engagement increases, resulting in a higher return on investment (ROI).
Goals of LinkedIn video advertising
LinkedIn video advertising is a versatile tool that enables businesses to effectively achieve various marketing goals. Whether you want to increase your brand visibility or inform potential customers, videos provide the opportunity to convey your message in an attractive and dynamic way. There are several goals you can achieve through LinkedIn video ads:
- Increased brand awareness
- Higher conversion rates
- Improved customer engagement
- Efficient lead generation
- Attracting applicants
- Successful event promotion
- Creating an active community
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The difference between LinkedIn video advertising and video marketing
While both LinkedIn video advertising and video marketing utilize video, they differ in their approach and objectives. LinkedIn video advertising focuses specifically on paid ads that appear in users’ news feeds, aiming to increase direct engagement, lead generation, or brand awareness. These ads are often tailored to specific demographics and interests. In contract, video marketing encompasses a broader strategy that utilizes organic video content across various platforms, such as websites and social media. Rather than promoting immediate action, video marketing focuses on building trust and loyalty over the long term, while video advertising targets immediate engagement.
The two often complement each other, and a (version of a) video is frequently used for both purposes. However, the best-performing organic video often looks different from the best-performing LinkedIn video ad.
Types of LinkedIn video ads
LinkedIn offers various video ad formats designed to help you effectively reach your target audience. Understanding these different types of ads can assist you in choosing the right format for your campaign goals. What types of LinkedIn video ads can you use, and for what specific purposes?
- Sponsored content
This type of video appears directly in users’ LinkedIn feeds. These ads are perfect for increasing brand awareness, driving engagement, and generating leads. They blend seamlessly into the feed and play automatically without sound, capturing users’ attention. Ensure you have attractive visuals and subtitles so your message comes across clearly even without sound.
- LinkedIn stories
These videos disappear after 24 hours and are ideal for conveying time-sensitive messages. They are designed for mobile devices and require eye-catching visuals and text to quickly deliver your message. Interactive elements, such as polls or questions, help to enhance user engagement.
- LinkedIn audience network video ads
With the LinkedIn Audience Network, you can expand your video ad campaign to external apps and websites. They can appear as outstream or in-stream ads.
- Outstream video ads: These ads play automatically when the user sees them, making them effective for reaching a broader audience. They are displayed on external web pages, meaning they are not limited to the LinkedIn feed. This gives you the chance to reach your audience wherever they are, even outside the LinkedIn platform.
- In-stream video ads: These ads play within longer videos on external websites. They appear at three points: at the beginning (pre-roll), in the middle (mid-roll), or at the end (post-roll) of the video. In-stream ads generally have higher view rates than outstream videos since they are part of a video that the viewer has already chosen to watch.
Getting started with LinkedIn video ads
When you want to start with LinkedIn video ads, it’s important to follow several steps to advertise successfully. First, you need a company page and an ad account. Make sure your ad account is linked to a payment method. This is easy to set up through LinkedIn itself. Once you have an ad account, you can begin setting up your first campaign. This includes creating your ad account, selecting the right ad format, and defining your campaign goal and message. It is also essential to carefully define your target audience and set an appropriate budget.
- Create a LinkedIn ad account
- Determine ad format, campaign goal, and message
- Assemble your target audience
- Set a budget
- Use LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Implement the LinkedIn Insight Tag
- Launch your campaign
- Optimize your LinkedIn campaign
In the full article “Advertising op LinkedIn”, we detail each step extensively.
Measuring results
After placing your video ads, you’ll want to know how they are performing. To analyze and optimize your results, you can refer to the ad dashboard. Here, you’ll find various categories of data regarding your campaigns and ad performance, including specific information for each ad type. Additionally, the demographic report provides valuable insights about your audience: who viewed your campaign? This overview shows which companies these users work for and what roles they hold. The performance report presents a clear graph of key KPIs, such as impressions, reach, CPM, and CTR.
The future of LinkedIn video advertising
With the growth of digital media and the shift toward visual content, the future of video advertising on LinkedIn looks promising. Companies that position themselves with effective video campaigns will benefit from strong brand recognition and better customer relationships in the future. By leveraging trends, businesses can further enhance and expand their strategies. It’s crucial to regularly evaluate your video advertising strategy and adapt to new opportunities.
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