Many businesses know they should be advertising on LinkedIn but keep putting it off. Maybe you’re overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the other marketing strategies like content creation and email campaigns.
Or perhaps you’re hesitant about allocating the budget to a new platform without knowing the return on investment.
Whatever the reason, the reality is that LinkedIn marketing strategy presents a tremendous opportunity for businesses to reach quality leads.
I formerly put off investing in LinkedIn ads for over a year at my small consulting firm, constantly finding other “priorities”. Once I finally got LinkedIn campaigns launched, I kicked myself for not starting sooner.
Defined Target Audience Personas
Do you have clearly defined buyer personas and target audiences spelled out for your business?
Before creating any LinkedIn ad, you need to already know who you are trying to reach and what matters to them.
Without clear audience personas, your ads will lack focus and speak to the wrong people.
As an example, my consulting firm targets Chief Information Officers and IT directors in healthcare and insurance. We have detailed personas with demographics, challenges, and goal information.
Compelling Ad Content
Next, you need ad content that will entice your target audiences. This includes ad text, images, links, and ads.
If your ads don’t quickly communicate value directly to the challenges facing prospects, they will ignore them.
For my firm, we highlight technical expertise, risk reduction, and fast time-to-value. Think carefully about what messages and hooks align with personas.
Landing Pages in Place
It’s also imperative to have landing pages ready that align with your ad campaigns and buyer journey stages.
Sending traffic to generic homepages results in high bounce rates and wasted spending.
Yet building custom pages for awareness, consideration, and decision stages demands significant work.
If you only have generic pages about services or products, hold off until you build personas-aligned pages that move leads through the funnel.
| Ad Campaign | Aligned Landing Page |
| Problem/Pain Point Awareness | Educational content on solving pain points |
| Product/Service Benefits | Content on product details and customer examples |
| Promotions/Discounts | Special offer page with clear call-to-action |
Analytics Tracking Established
How will you measure impact and optimize efforts if analytics tracking isn’t in place first?
Implementing platforms like Google Analytics, LinkedIn Insights Tag and conversion tracking is critical.
It’s also wise to align on key performance indicators for your campaigns upfront.
Example metrics to track include impressions, clicks, cost per click, conversions, and pipeline influence.
While this seems like a significant amount of preparation, the work you put in before launching LinkedIn ads pays off exponentially.
So don’t keep delaying the start of your LinkedIn advertising efforts based on fuzzy objectives or incomplete foundations. Use this checklist to confirm if your business is ready first.
Once all the components are addressed, you can start LinkedIn ads with confidence and quickly demonstrate the value.
