Advertising on LinkedIn: Explanation and roadmap

Curious about how to start advertising on LinkedIn? In this article, we cover everything you need to know. We’ll explain the steps to launch your first LinkedIn campaign, the various advertising options available, what to keep in mind, and, finally, how to optimize your results. 

To start from the beginning: if you want to advertise on LinkedIn, you need a company page and an ad account. The latter must be linked to a valid payment method. Both are easily created within the platform. Once your foundation is set, you can begin building your first campaign. In this article, we’ll guide you through:

• Creating a LinkedIn ad account
• Determining ad formats: campaign goals and messaging
• Building your target audience
• Setting your budget
• LinkedIn Campaign Manager
• LinkedIn Insight Tag
• Launching your campaign
• Optimizing your LinkedIn campaign

Creating a LinkedIn ad account in Campaign Manager

Ideally, you already have a company page, but you might not have an ad account yet. Fortunately, setting one up is simple. Open LinkedIn and click the nine dots in the top right corner labeled “For Business.” This opens a menu where you will find the “Advertise” option. Clicking this will open a new tab: LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

Look for the blue button in the top left to create a new account, then follow these steps:

• Account name
• Currency
• Link your LinkedIn company page

It’s that simple. However, before you can go live, you must set up your billing. Go to “Account Settings” in your ad account, select “Billing Center,” and enter the required information.

Building your LinkedIn campaign

On LinkedIn, you approach your audience proactively. Therefore, your message and how you deliver it are critical to the campaign’s success. Don’t just think about what you want to say about product X or service Y; ask yourself what will actually be interesting or valuable to your audience.

The goal of your LinkedIn campaign

What do you want to achieve? This is the first step in building any LinkedIn campaign. Your objective also dictates which ad formats you can use. Here is a brief look at the primary objectives:

• Brand awareness: Maximize the number of impressions among as many people as possible within your target group. The focus here is on visibility rather than a specific action.
• Website visits: Show your ads to people the algorithm identifies as most likely to click through to your website.
• Engagement: Aim for as many interactions as possible—likes, comments, clicks to your company page, or even viewing a video in full screen.
• Video views: Prioritize showing your video to those most likely to watch it for several seconds or more.
• Lead generation: Capture leads directly on LinkedIn using a native form. Instead of sending users to your site, they convert without leaving the platform.
• Website conversions: If you prefer users to convert on your own site, use this objective.
• Job applicants: Promote vacancies and attract new talent by focusing on recruitment-centric goals.

The message: Creative assets, copy, and visuals

What are you telling your audience, and which assets are best suited for it? LinkedIn allows for a variety of formats, from static images and text to videos and white papers. You can drive sales by leading users to a landing page, but you can also build trust through an instructional video or a downloadable factsheet.

What does your audience want?

You are reaching out to prospects before they may even be looking for a solution. What do they need to see to find your brand memorable or valuable? Recognize that much of your audience may not know your brand yet. This is why we often recommend starting with a brand awareness campaign before moving to a lead generation push. Launching your latest product with a video before trying to drive traffic to a shop ensures the audience is “warmed up” rather than being hit cold with an offer.

Building your LinkedIn audience

Who do you want to reach? LinkedIn offers incredibly granular targeting. Beyond basic demographics like location and language, you can build audiences based on:

• Job title and function
• Years of experience and seniority
• Specific skills and fields of study
• Company name, size, and industry

You can reach the same group of people in various ways, so think carefully about the shared traits of your ideal customers. You can also build retargeting audiences based on website visitors or engagement with previous campaigns, or even upload contact lists from your CRM.

Advertising on LinkedIn: Setting a budget

How much should you spend? That depends on several factors:

• Target audience size
• Number of campaign phases
• Ad format
• Duration

Audience size

While you aren’t strictly forced to match your budget to your audience size, your results will improve if you do. If your budget is too low, a large portion of your audience may never see the ad, or see it only once. Frequency is key—most people don’t remember an ad after a single exposure.

Campaign phases

How many touchpoints are needed to deliver your message? If you’re using a video followed by a blog post and then a white paper, you’ll need three distinct campaign phases.

Objective impact

The more “valuable” the goal, the more expensive the campaign typically is. Awareness and engagement campaigns usually have lower costs than lead generation or website traffic campaigns. This is one reason why we often start with awareness—it’s the most cost-effective way to warm up and optimize your audience.

Duration

LinkedIn requires a minimum daily budget of €10. Duration is also vital because not every professional checks LinkedIn every day; a longer runtime ensures you reach a larger percentage of your target group.

Using LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Campaign Manager is your hub for managing accounts, building ads, and analyzing data. The dashboard is straightforward, with a left-hand menu divided into:

• Plan: View your audiences, including Matched Audiences from retargeting. This section is great for verifying if the people LinkedIn is actually finding match your vision of the ideal customer.
• Advertise: The core of the tool where you build campaigns and track active performance.
• Analyze: This is where you find the LinkedIn Insight Tag and track conversion data or demographic insights about your website visitors.

The LinkedIn Insight Tag

The LinkedIn Insight Tag is a piece of JavaScript code that bridges the gap between LinkedIn and your website. It allows you to track conversions, measure ROI, and—crucially—build retargeting audiences based on website traffic. To use these audiences, your target group must reach at least 300 people. You can install it directly into your website’s code or via a tag manager.

Launching your campaign

Once the groundwork is laid, it’s time to go live. Follow these steps in Campaign Manager:

• Choose an ad group
• Name your campaign
• Select your objective
• Configure your target audience
• Choose your ad format and placement
• Set your budget
• Set up conversion tracking
• Create the actual ads (copy and creative)
• Final check of all settings and launch

LinkedIn usually reviews ads within an hour. Once approved, your ads will start running, and the optimization process begins.

Optimizing your LinkedIn campaign

To optimize, you’ll spend most of your time in the “Advertise” section. Here you can break down performance by engagement, delivery, or specific ad types. You can also use the demographic report to see exactly who is seeing your ads—which companies they work for, their job functions, and their experience levels.

When optimizing, focus on these questions:

• Is your reach meeting expectations for your audience size?
• Is the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) aligned with your budget?
• Are your CTR (click-through rate) and engagement rates healthy?
• What is the average frequency (how often an individual sees your ad)?

These elements allow you to steer the campaign toward your desired ROI.

Expert advice on LinkedIn advertising

If you want to dive deeper into the possibilities of the platform, visit our main page on LinkedIn advertising. If you’d rather discuss the specific opportunities and challenges for your brand, we’d be happy to share our expertise in a personal consultation.