LinkedIn ads can be utilized in many different ways. In this blog, we will delve deeper into personalizing your advertisements. If you are running an ABM campaign or wish to address a small target audience, personalizing your ads can have a significant impact on the click-through rate (CTR). Would you like to find out how we approach this as a LinkedIn Ads Agency? Read on and discover how we, as a LinkedIn Ads Agency, get this job done.
LinkedIn ads in a nutshell
Compared to ads on other platforms, LinkedIn ads require slightly more attention. This is because the average user spends less time on the platform relative to the time spent on other social media. Because you receive less attention from LinkedIn users on average, you must utilize the available resources more effectively. The points that require the most attention for a well-personalized ad are as follows:
- Target audience analysis
- Ad design
- Ad copywriting
- Matching the ad offer with the intent of the target audience
I will discuss each point in detail with examples and techniques that we use to achieve the desired results for our clients.
Target audience analysis for LinkedIn ads
When setting up a marketing campaign, you usually start with a target audience analysis. I will therefore spare you the standard steps and only go into the relevant details regarding LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn provides its advertisers with a vast array of targeting options. Everything on a personal profile can be used as a targeting option. Think of: job title, years of service, interests, groups, and much more.
It is therefore extremely important that you know which individuals within your target audience you want to reach and what commonalities they share. LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes this type of research very simple through the search functions it offers. If you do not have Sales Navigator, you can always use the LinkedIn Insight function to learn more statistics about your target audience.
Personal experiences with clients and your target audience are, of course, of greater value than what you find on LinkedIn. Be sure to include this in your research to find as many angles as possible. In this way, you create more options that you can later test with LinkedIn ads. Once you start advertising, you can continue to refine this process further.
How we approach target audience analysis
When starting a new campaign, we first collect as much information as possible about the target audience. Our clients often already have a dossier with files we can work with. If this is not the case, we often begin with a competitor analysis. We then look at the best-performing companies in the same industry. This gives us a good idea of what their target audience sees and how they are addressed. Furthermore, we check the internet to see if there are current issues in the industry or if important matters are being shared about it.
LinkedIn ad design
The ad image is the most important part of a LinkedIn advertisement. When you are scrolling through LinkedIn, the first thing that is registered is the visual information. Your brain is subconsciously searching for interesting things. Scrolling on LinkedIn rarely has a conscious purpose; after all, you never know what you will see. Your attention will therefore be drawn to things that your brain labels as interesting. These are generally matters related to the person themselves. I will now discuss various strategies you can use to implement this.
Humanizing
One of the proven strategies you can apply in the design of your LinkedIn ads is humanizing. Humanizing is a term in the marketing world used when an advertisement features real people. This can be an image or a video. The reason why this works is very simple. People are more likely to interact with companies that present themselves as sincere, empathetic, and aligned with their values. Using people in your imagery reinforces all these positive emotions.
Look and feel
It is important that your LinkedIn ads have the right look and feel. Exactly what this should be depends on the goal of the campaign. Are you working on brand awareness? Then the focus is much more on presenting your company’s values. Are you looking for potential clients? Then you want to project the value of your product or the service it reflects. Perfect examples of this are the extremely expensive TV commercials from the largest companies in the world. Coca-Cola, for example, sells you a drink that might not be healthy for your body, but in their ads, you only find positive emotions. When you subsequently taste the drink, it meets your expectations exactly.
Call-to-action
The call-to-action button is always important to use if you want to encourage the target audience to take action. By using a call-to-action button, you can already let the target audience know the intent of the advertisement. It will also help make the next step easier. Because the button is already in the ad, it is often the first place people click.
Copywriting for LinkedIn ads
The copywriting you use for your LinkedIn ads is one of the most critical moments to persuade your target audience. If you have managed to attract attention with your design, reading the ad copy will follow. This does not mean, of course, that you cannot use copywriting as the primary point of attention. More on this shortly.
Personalize your copywriting
The text in an ad copy can be approached in many different ways. Personalization is only one part of this. Do you want to know everything about copywriting? Then read this article of ours.
For personalization, it is important that you know exactly why your target audience is interested. With the copy, you want to ensure that all these reasons are utilized. Take, for example, an IT manager who sees how automation at the competition leads to more growth, while he still has to track everything with Excel sheets. If you are a company that offers solutions for this, you can tap into that frustration.
Addressing such a topic with an IT manager will at least pique his interest. You can then further capitalize on this in the rest of your customer journey.
Standing out with copywriting
Naturally, you can also use copywriting to make your LinkedIn ads stand out. By default, LinkedIn displays the first 150 characters of an advertisement. After these 150 characters, you must click ‘more‘ to read the full text.
You can use the first 150 characters for a targeted call-out, for example. An example of this is: ‘Hey entrepreneur, are you looking for…‘ or ‘Looking for a new job? We offer the best…‘. With these openings, you directly address the person you want to click on your LinkedIn ads.
Match your offer with the intent of the target audience
It is important to carefully consider what content you offer per target audience. You also want the images and text to align with this. The target audience must know what they are going to see. If your offer then completely misses the mark, it will only deter people. If you do deliver the expected value, the sales process will proceed much more smoothly.
How do I know what the right offer for my LinkedIn ads is?
Often it comes down to a matter of simply trying things out. Most companies have multiple forms of content. It is important that in the first phase of advertising, you examine which content performs well within your target audience. Based on this information, you can look further into potential new content to create.
How do I present the offer to the target audience?
Once you know which content you are going to offer, the first step is very simple. Read and research the substance of the content. As soon as you know exactly what the content entails, you can begin with ad design and copywriting. This way, you are one hundred percent certain that everything aligns perfectly.
Conclusion
Personalizing LinkedIn ads requires a lot of attention per campaign. It is therefore not recommended to go this deep into the material for every campaign, but rather to apply it primarily to smaller target audiences and ABM campaigns.
By making a good first impression with your ad design, combined with strong copywriting, you bring the advertisement closer to your target audience. This makes it easier to pique interest. To achieve a cohesive end result, you must also thoroughly research the offer you are providing before starting the design and copywriting. Would you also like to personalize your ads for your target audience, or are you looking for a partner to take LinkedIn ads off your hands? Then feel free to contact us without obligation.
info@primemarketing.nl
