Why LinkedIn? 3 examples of B2B Advertising

LinkedIn is the essential professional social media platform for any B2B brand. Yet, surprisingly few brands utilize it as an advertising platform, even though that is where we believe the real opportunities lie. But why LinkedIn? In this article, we answer that question through three real-world examples. We share three (anonymized) client cases including results, each with a different strategic objective.

In our campaign evaluations, we primarily rely on the Merkelijkheid LinkedIn Benchmark. This contains the anonymized results of all campaigns we’ve managed for our clients in recent years. It is an essential tool for gauging campaign performance and making timely adjustments. In this article, we share three client cases:

• Apex Dynamics: Building brand awareness via LinkedIn
• Why LinkedIn is indispensable for supporting your trade show presence
• Why LinkedIn is the ultimate social platform for lead generation

Apex Dynamics: Building brand awareness via LinkedIn

Apex Dynamics BV is a supplier of gearboxes, pinions, and racks. It is also our longest-running partnership, characterized by a strong focus on digital marketing and a high willingness to innovate. The various LinkedIn campaigns we’ve developed for Apex over the years are a perfect illustration of this. The goal: to increase brand awareness for Apex Dynamics BV among engineers involved in mechatronics and robotics. In these campaigns, we target people explicitly based on specific interests and skills rather than just their job titles or the companies they work for.

“With our LinkedIn ads, we are fishing outside our own pond, but with the right bait and for the right fish (target group)” – Thom van Oss, Director of Apex Dynamics BV.

Through these campaigns, we distribute various films that highlight the personal and service-oriented nature of Apex. The content focuses on products, expertise, and people; think of an Apex technical expert explaining the quality classes of racks, a brief tutorial on the Apex design tool, or the features of a specific gearbox line. Additionally, we run a series of films where Director Thom van Oss visits former members of Team Rembrandts, which Apex has enthusiastically sponsored for years. These films emphasize the experience these young engineers gained and how they apply those skills today at various Dutch technical firms.

Key characteristics and results from these campaigns:

• Average of 5,000 to 10,000 views per month
• Average Cost Per Mille (CPM) between €8 and €15
• An average view rate of 35.11% to 46.65% based on all impressions
• An average completion rate of 2.46% to 3.6% based on all impressions

LinkedIn is pre-eminently the platform where you can achieve visibility and brand awareness within your B2B target audience at a relatively low cost.

Why LinkedIn is indispensable for supporting your trade show presence

In other campaigns, we combine brand awareness with sales support—specifically campaigns centered around trade shows. How often do you attend or exhibit at industry events? Our B2B clients typically attend several trade shows a year. However, the results of these visits and the associated efforts are often questionable or simply lack transparency. To amplify the impact of trade show attendance and investment, we support these events with LinkedIn campaigns.

One example is the Achema trade show, where one of our clients exhibited in 2022. The target group consisted of companies attending the fair, including both existing contacts and potential new relationships. Prior to the event, these contacts were approached by telephone for an appointment; the LinkedIn campaign served to support these conversations and build visibility in the lead-up to the show. The ad simply read “Meet us at Achema 2022 in Frankfurt” and linked to an article where the company’s management discussed the topics they hoped to address at the fair.

What did this deliver?

• Over 4,000 impressions among 600 people (a highly specific target group)
• 50% of the target group was reached during the summer holiday period
• Over 50 clicks to the website

Besides visibility, the most important result was the increase in high-quality conversations during the fair. An additional challenge in this specific campaign was the summer period, when fewer people are working and active on LinkedIn. Our key lesson from this campaign: start advertising earlier if your trade show takes place during or immediately after the summer holidays.

Why LinkedIn is the ultimate social platform for lead generation

By far, our clients use LinkedIn most for lead generation, and the platform is perfectly suited for it. You don’t just want to show ads and drive traffic to your website for a targeted B2B audience; you want to make contact! LinkedIn offers several ways to do this, but our favorite is lead generation using native LinkedIn forms: contact details in exchange for a white paper, factsheet, or brochure.

Over the past few years, we’ve executed multiple lead campaigns for a training agency focused on personal development and leadership. These lead campaigns are both a component and the ultimate goal of a larger strategy that includes phases focused on brand awareness and website traffic. Here are some results from one of these lead campaigns:

• Over 11,000 impressions among more than 8,000 people
• CPM of €22.50 and a cost of €30.48 to reach 1,000 unique individuals
• 3.19% Click-Through Rate (CTR)
• 20 leads, with a Cost per Lead (CPL) of €12.50

A few months later, the same target group and campaign generated another 10,000+ impressions and 10 leads, this time at a CPM of €18.44 and a CPL of €18.18. This campaign is a great example of the success of repetition: repeating your message across different campaign types leads to more leads.

In recent years, LinkedIn has proven itself across countless campaigns and industries as a premier platform for lead generation. While results vary significantly by sector, we believe that advertising on LinkedIn, including lead generation campaigns, should be a staple in any B2B online marketing plan.

Curious why LinkedIn is the right B2B platform for your brand and how we can use it to drive visibility, awareness, traffic, and leads? We’d love to start a conversation and show you, through even more examples and data, why LinkedIn is essential to your digital strategy. Want to learn more? You can find all our insights on our LinkedIn advertising page.