LinkedIn Ads Playbook

Table of contents

STEP
What Is LinkedIn? Creative Assets
03
05 25

STEP
Why Should I Advertise on LinkedIn? Ad Approval
04
06 30

STEP STEP
Campaign Goals Tracking Results
01 05
07 32

STEP
Campaign Name Conversion Tracking & Business Account
02 07 34

STEP
Targeting Cheat Sheet
03 09 39

STEP
Budget & Time Period Frequently Asked Questions
04 20 40

linkedin.com/ads | 2

4 OF 5
OUT

What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn members drive
business decisions

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional
network, with members from hundreds of
countries and territories.

LinkedIn members are active, influential
professionals in a business frame of mind. They 39%
use LinkedIn to learn about new products and of members are senior-level
services, keep up with industry trends, research executives (and above)
companies, network with peers, and conduct
business.

So whether your objective is to reach influential
decision makers at companies or affluent

28%
consumers, advertising on LinkedIn is a great
way to drive new leads to your company.
of members are responsible
for managing budgets


Why should I
advertise on LinkedIn?

High traffic pages
Target with precision
Our agile platform lets you
We make it easy to reach
create and place ads on high-
your ideal audience without
traffic pages of LinkedIn.com
wasting impressions or clicks.
within minutes.

Multiple languages
Performance based
Ads can be written in any of
LinkedIn Ads is an easy-to-use,
the languages supported by
self-service, performance-
LinkedIn, and can be shown to
based advertising solution. members in most countries.

What account should I use for ads?
A business account allows you to separate ads and billing information from your personal
LinkedIn account and share business account access with other team members.


First, let’s come up with some
goals for your campaign.

STEP
01

Define your ProStock Example

campaign goals Imagine you’re ProStock*, a small accounting software
company, that wants to sell software subscriptions. What
would your campaign goals be? The software is pretty
For any ad campaign to be successful, you need expensive, so your best bet is to gather and nurture leads –
to understand your business goals. then turn them into customers over time.

Are you trying to build brand awareness, drive ProStock’s campaign goals are focused on driving leads in
traffic to your website, or get new leads? The two ways:
clearer and more specific your goals are, the 1. Offering free trials of their software
more compelling your ad campaigns will be.
2. Providing educational material on the benefits of using
Your campaign goals will directly affect how accounting software.**
much you want to spend, who you want to
target, and what creative assets and messaging Fictional customer
*

A lead would need to fill out a form in order to download the material
**

you need to develop.


Now that you’ve thought about
your campaign goals, let’s
create a campaign name.

STEP

Create a 02

campaign name
Your customers won’t see the name – it’s just for you.

✓ Choose a descriptive name that reflects the goals you’re
hoping to achieve.

If you’re just starting out, we suggest creating a name
✓ that reflects your target audience. Make it super easy to
understand and remember!

ProStock Example

✓ When you have a lot of campaigns to keep track of,
having a clear naming system will keep you organized.
For example, one of ProStock’s campaigns
is called “Software Trial North America
Accountants.”


Next up, targeting your ads,
where we’ll cover personas,
filters, and testing.

STEP

Develop your 03

targeting persona
Who should you target?
When choosing target options, start by
narrowing down your target audience to LinkedIn
members who are likely to be interested in what ProStock
you offer. Here are some things to consider when
thinking about your target audience:
Using personas to picture your audience
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience by creating
a persona. ProStock, as an accounting software company,
would have a sample customer like this:
Do they have specific job junctions?
Mark Smith
Age 45
Do they have certain skills? Title Accounting Director
Company ABC Investing Corp.
Location San Francisco Bay Area
Where are they located? Professional interests
Entrepreneurship, Leadership,
Finance/Accounting, Investing
Do they work in a certain industry?

Do they belong to certain LinkedIn Groups?


STEP

Choose your 03

targeting filters
Who should you target?

Targeting Filters
You can filter your target audience by criteria such
Geography Seniority
✓ as: job title, job function, industry, geography, age, • •
gender, school, skills, company name, company size, or • Company name • School
membership within specific LinkedIn Groups. • Industry • Skills
• Company size • Age
• Job Title • Gender
• Job function • Groups

✓ As you select your target options, we’ll show you an
estimate of the audience size you’ll be able to reach.

To start out, we recommend having at least 100,000 You’ll want to avoid gender and age

✓ members per target group so you don’t miss out on
unexpected opportunities.
targeting until you get the hang of
the system and learn a little more
about what works for your business.


STEP
03

Targeting
by geography
Choose who sees your ad based
on where they live or work.

Start by choosing at least one geographic Note
location for your campaign.
If your products or services are applicable to members all
over the world, you can select all regions. However, for
Select geographies based on where your higher engagement we recommend you focus only on those
audiences who are most likely to be interested.
leads or customers are located.

You can target up to 10 regions,
sub-regions, or countries.

Use information you know about your
prospects to develop thoughtful targeting –
but don’t go so narrow that you miss other
opportunities by casting too small of a net.


STEP

Targeting 03

by company
When you target by company, you can select:

✓ Company by name or
✓ Company by category

Company by name

If the product or service that you’re offering could appeal to employees at a particular company, you may want to target
by company name.

When you enter the name of a company you’d like to target, we’ll automatically suggest similar companies that you
could target as well.

Keep in mind that this is a very specific targeting method, and that we only recommend it to those who feel comfortable
going very narrow. Even in cases where you want to target a specific company, we recommend you also include some
“similar” companies to your campaign. Including similar companies will give you a better chance at getting impressions
and clicks.


STEP

Targeting 03

by company
Company by category
If you’re new to online advertising, still refining your target audience, or want to scale campaigns, this
broader targeting option is recommended for you. You can choose from company size and/or industry.

Company Size Industry

Target LinkedIn members based on the size of the Target based on your audience’s industry.
company they work for.
Choose broad industry categories or get more specific
You can target companies with as few as one employee or with industry subsets. There are over 17 categories to
as many 10,000+ employees. choose from.

Some companies choose not to identify their size, so we
recommend testing out targeting to both “all sizes” and
Different industries may use different terminology so
your “target size.” Your results will show which works best
consider creating separate campaigns and ad copy for
for your campaigns.
each industry you’re targeting.


STEP

Targeting by job 03
When you target by job title, you can select:

✓ Job Title or
✓ Job Function and/or seniority

Job by Title
When you enter a specific job title, we’ll suggest similar Example
titles for you to target.
If you’re looking for an Account Manager, also try targeting a Senior
Because different companies have different titles for the Account Manager, Junior Account Manager, Director of Accounts,
same jobs, try using additional words in the job title. Account Strategist, and so on.

LinkedIn will help you by suggesting additional titles.

If you know the job titles for the audience you’d like to
target, this is a good option for you.
You can target up to 100 similar job titles in a single
campaign, so the more you choose, the broader your
ad’s reach.


STEP
03

Job Function
Target by job function if you want to show your ad to
members in a specific job discipline. You can choose up
to ten job functions.

If your offering could appeal to multiple job functions,
consider creating separate campaigns with ads tailored
Targeting by job to each function.

Job by Function and/or Seniority
Job function and seniority are two job title
Seniority
categories you can use to hone your targeting. If you’re trying to target professionals with a certain level
of professional experience, you may want to try targeting
by seniority.

Since LinkedIn is a professional network, members don’t
list age on their profile. We recommend targeting by
seniority instead of age.

Job function, seniority, and industry can be combined for
more accurate targeting.


STEP

Targeting by Groups 03
Since over 80% of our members belong to at least one
group, targeting by Groups is an effective way to reach an
already highly engaged audience.

Since the autocomplete doesn’t pick up
Get started searching for groups using the
✓ LinkedIn Groups Directory:
www.linkedin.com/search-fe/group_search ✓ ALL relevant groups when you enter a
certain word, it helps to experiment with
multiple word combinations.

Next, try testing a campaign just for Groups.
The bigger and more aligned your overall
✓ Target as many groups as possible with a
common theme and highlight that theme in
your ad copy.
✓ target audience, the better the chance
your ad will get multiple clicks.

You don’t have to be a part of the same LinkedIn Groups
as the members you want to target in your campaigns.


STEP

Targeting: More options 03

LinkedIn Audience Network

Reach LinkedIn members on other websites. Go to help.linkedin.com Gender and Age
and search “LinkedIn Audience Network” to learn more.

Because LinkedIn is a professional site, many members choose not to
list personal information such as age and gender on their profiles. We
recommend focusing on other targeting options instead.
Skills

Imagine you’re organizing a developer conference in your area. You
may want to target professionals who have skills like HTML, CSS, Ad Languages
Javascript, or Flash listed on their profile.
Select from one of our many supported languages for your ad
Call out the skills you’re targeting in your ad copy. campaign so you can target say, French speakers, no matter where
they’re located.

You’ll need to write your ad copy in the language you’ve selected.
Schools Otherwise, we won’t be able to run your ad campaign.

Target by a single school or many.

If you’re offering a GMAT prep course in the New York Area, for
example, you may choose to target members at schools like Columbia Once you’ve submitted your campaign for review, it’s no
University and New York University. longer possible to change the language of the ad.


STEP
03

ProStock Example

Try each targeting option as its own campaign. Once you

Test and iterate know which target works best, you can start optimizing for
that target.

Campaign 1. Geography (North America)
When you’re feeling comfortable running
Campaign 2. Industry (Accounting)
campaigns, and are generating enough click Campaign 3. Groups (Finance)
volume to measure performance, try testing
different targeting criteria. This way you can see
which combination of targeting filters is the most ProStock Example
effective in generating clicks and conversion.
Go a step further and create different targeting combinations
Here are some suggestions along with examples to see if a particular pairing performs better than others.
based on ProStock’s typical customer persona,
Mark Smith. Campaign 1. Geography + Industry
Campaign 2. Geography + Groups
Campaign 3. Industry + Groups

Using 2+ targeting criteria can increase your
performance by up to 10% according to our
internal LinkedIn analysis. Keep in mind your
own campaign performance could vary.


We’ve covered a lot of
ground related to targeting.
Let’s move on to budgeting.

STEP
04

Some things you’ll want to decide:

The total budget you want to invest in your

Setting a budget
LinkedIn Ads campaign.

& time period The total number of campaigns you want to
create based on your total budget.

You can control your advertising costs by setting
a daily maximum and total budget. Plus, you Your daily maximum, which is the amount you
only pay for performance, which means you only want to spend per day.
pay when you receive clicks or impressions.

For additional flexibility, you can log in to the Whether you want to run a CPC or CPM
LinkedIn Ads Dashboard at any time and switch campaign, and how much you’re willing to bid.
your campaigns on or off.

Whether you want your campaign to run
continuously or for a specific period of time.

What’s a click, impression, CPC, or CPM campaign?
You can learn about these terms on page 23.


STEP
04

Bid & budget details
The minimum CPC bid (cost per click) is $2.00
per click.
Note
The minimum CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
bid is $2.00 per thousand impressions. Although we turn off your advertisement for the day once
your daily budget is reached, the change isn’t instantaneous.
You will be charged for clicks or impressions that are
delivered during that time; sometimes this number is up to
There is a $5 deposit the first time you use 20% over your daily budget.
LinkedIn Ads, which covers the initial clicks/
impressions that result after the ad has been
approved and posted. Once the $5 credit is
depleted, you will be billed periodically for the
clicks or impressions that your ad incurs.


STEP

Here are some terms 04

you might find helpful

Payment Methods

CPC is cost per click. You’ll only get charged when someone clicks on Clicks are exactly what you think – when a visitor actively clicks on your
your ad. ad.

For CPC, if your maximum bid is $3.00 per click, you’ll be charged less Impression refers to when your ad is shown to a LinkedIn member.
than or equal to $3.00 every time your ad receives a click. If your ad
doesn’t receive any clicks, you won’t be charged. Bid your maximum Bid Price is the amount you’re willing to pay LinkedIn every time
CPC because your actual CPC will be lower. someone clicks on your ad or every time your ad shows 1,000 times.

CPM is cost per thousand impressions, so you’ll be charged. Every We’ll provide a Suggested Bid Range to help you choose the best
time we show your ad 1,000 times. possible bid price. The range represents an estimate of the competing
bids by other advertisers for your target audience.
CPM is a good option if you care more about the number of times your
ad is shown, versus clicks received. This is a good choice for campaigns If you’re just getting started with LinkedIn Ads, we suggest you enter
with brand awareness goals. a bid that’s within or above the Suggested Bid Range. In general, the
higher you bid, the more likely you are to get impressions and clicks.
We generally only recommend this type of bidding option for people
with experience advertising on a CPM basis. Daily Budget is the amount you’re willing to spend per day. To set
your daily budget, multiply your CPC or CPM bid by the number of
clicks or impressions that you’d like to receive each day.

For example: If you want 1,000 clicks each day and want to spend no
Most people visit LinkedIn on weekdays, so focus your more than $3 per click, you’ll want to set your daily budget at
budget on those days. $3,000/day.


STEP
04

Lead collection
Lead collection is ideal for advertisers whose goal ✓ Banner from LinkedIn for lead collection
is to generate quality leads. This feature enables
you to collect leads directly through your ad
campaign.
ProStock’s Website
When you activate this feature, members who
click on your ad will be taken to your landing page
where they can click on a button to request being
contacted by you.

Each time a member clicks on the button, you’ll
see their name, headline, and a link to their
LinkedIn profile. You’ll then be able to contact this
person directly via InMail. Members also have the
option of sharing their email address with you.


Got the basics of budgeting?
Now, let’s start designing your
ad creative.

STEP
05

Image Description

Deciding on
50x50 pixel image Up to 75 characters

Headline

creative assets
Up to 25 characters

Ads that perform best are relevant to the
target audience and are written with clear, and Close Your Books Faster
Accounting software for small &
compelling language. midsize companies. Get a free
30 day trial.
Try writing different variations of ad copy to www.prostock-company.com
determine which version speaks more to your
audience. To create a new version of your ad, with ProStock has 1,680 followers on LinkedIn
the same target audience, click “Add a variation”
and you’ll see a new creative box to fill out.
URL
Note: Your ad may be shown as a text only You can choose to send members to
From your website, a specific landing page,
version in locations such as the top of the LinkedIn Your name or company or a LinkedIn Company Page.
homepage.

Choose words that grab the attention of your
target audience. Give LinkedIn members a
reason to click through by highlighting special
offers, unique benefits, downloadable white
papers, free trials, or product demos.


STEP

Here are some tips 05

for creating great ads

Speak directly to your target
Include an image to grab your audience’s attention. audience through your headline and text.

Ads with images perform significantly better than those without. For example, if you’re targeting finance professionals, include relevant
Images with bright colors are more likely to catch the attention of your job titles or the word “finance” within the ad.
audience.
Use industry-specific language that customers can relate to.
We’ve seen a 20% lift in CTR when ads include an image.

Include a strong call to action, such as “Try,” Create 3-4 variations of your ad per campaign.
“Download,” “Sign up,” or “Request a Quote.”
Test images, text, and call-to-action phrases to see what works best
Words and phrases that encourage action and urgency tend to perform with your audience.
well.

Rotate in new creatives at least once a month.
Double check your landing page
Make sure text is concise and easy to read.
Make sure your landing page (the place where someone goes when
they click) matches your ad. Clearly list the benefits of your products and services.


STEP

Creative assets: 05

Common mistakes

7 Not including an image 7 Using only one targeting criterion

✓ Use an eye-catching image that describes your product or service. ✓ Consider using 2-3 targeting criteria, such as “Geography” and
“Job Function.”

7 Only using one creative 7 Fully capitalizing your ad or repeating punctuation

✓ Be sure to use at least two creatives so you can test out variations ✓ No one wants to be yelled at – unfortunately, that’s what all caps
and lots of exclamation points feel like to your readers. Instead,
of your ad. For example, try re-framing your headline as a question
try using normal punctuation and use exclamation points in
or referencing the audience in the headline.
moderation.

7 Not showing the “best” creative more often 7 Not including a call to action or
offer in the body or headline of the ad
✓ Once you have multiple creatives in your campaign, select the
“optimized” strategy in your Ads dashboard, which automatically ✓ One way to improve your ad is to grab your audience’s attention
selects the best performing versions and shows those over under- with key phrases in your ad’s headline such as “Try Now,”
performing versions. “Download,” or “Free for 30 days.”


STEP

Creative assets: 05

Designing your ad
Here are two ads that ProStock (our accounting software
company example) could write for their target audience.

Close Your Books Faster
Accounting software for small & Improve Your Productivity
midsize companies. Get a free Innovative accounting software. Easy,
30 day trial. secure, robust – Switch to us today.
www.prostock-company.com

ProStock has 1,680 followers on LinkedIn ProStock has 1,680 followers on LinkedIn

Effective Less Effective

Headline draws attention of the target customer
Headline too generic
Description identifies the product
Image not relevant to the products offered
Ends with a strong offer

Review the advertising guidelines for details on what’s acceptable to include in your ad.

Once you’ve designed your
creative, it’s time to get it approved.

STEP
06

Getting your
creative approved During this review period, your ads won’t be shown
on LinkedIn. You don’t need to take any further
After you create and submit your ad, our team will action while your ad is under review. It will be
automatically review your creative to make sure it turned on once it’s been approved (usually within
meets our Ads Guidelines. You don’t have to do 24 hours).
anything.


When your campaign goes live,
you’ll want to start tracking results.

STEP
07

Track the number of clicks and impressions
you’ve received at any given time.

Monitor CPC and total spend.

You may bid higher to get more impressions.

Tracking results Track click through rates (CTR)

Track how your campaigns are performing using The more relevant and interesting your ad is to
the LinkedIn Ads Dashboard. From here you can: your target audience, the higher your CTR will
be. The higher your CTR, the more times your
ad will be shown.

In general, a good CTR is 0.0030% or greater.

Turn ads or campaigns On and Off based on
how they are performing.

Let all ads run to see which perform the best for
each campaign, then pause the ones that are
not performing as well. This will help the system
show your best ads as often as possible.


Great! You’re on your way to getting
great results with LinkedIn Ads.

Before you go, here are some bonus
topics you might want to review...

Managing campaigns for multiple clients on your
personal account is not recommended

The ads can’t be shown at the same time, in the same placement.

The ads will compete for ad unit vs. ad impression.

Business Performance and optimization triggers of your ads will blend across all
of your campaigns.

account overview
We recommend you create campaigns with Client Account Client
a business account instead of your personal
LinkedIn account.

A business account allows you to separate
ads and billing information from your personal
LinkedIn account and share business account Having a business account to manage multiple
access with other team members. Here’s why campaigns and clients is highly recommended
it’s a good idea to have a dedicated business
account: Ads will compete for each ad impression in an optimal manner.

Client campaign performance will remain independent between your
various clients.

Performance will be optimized for each of your clients.

To learn more about our business accounts, please Client Account Account Client
read the “Business Accounts (PDF)” found on
linkedin.com/ads.


Here are a few more reasons why it makes
sense to create dedicated business accounts

✓ Multiple users can access a single business account.

✓ You can create multiple business accounts (you can
only create one personal LinkedIn Account).
To start a business account

1. Go to your LinkedIn Ads dashboard.
2. Click on the dropdown menu under your name in
the top right of the page.

✓ Business accounts are conveniently associated with a
specific Company Page on LinkedIn.
3. Select “Create Business Account.”

✓ Business accounts don’t have profiles or network
connections, and cannot be found in search.


Monitoring ProStock Example

conversion rates This week ProStock had 100,000 impressions (which means
that their ad was seen 100,000 times). Their CTR was 0.025%,
Why is conversion important and how can you which means that 25 people clicked on their ad and landed
on their landing page. Now, this is the point in the process
track it? where LinkedIn tracking stops and your conversion tracking
begins.
Let’s start with a definition. What’s a conversion? A
conversion is simply the event that you’re tracking, By using tools such as Google Analytics, ProStock can
like sales or the number of leads your campaign now see that of the 25 people who came to their site from
LinkedIn, 5 subscribed for a free trial of their software. That
generates. Your conversion rate is the percent of means that this week’s conversion rate was 20% (5 divided by
new leads or customers you were able to get out 25).
of the number of visitors that your ad drove to your
website.


Monitoring
conversion rates Regardless of which tools you choose –
conversion tracking tools are a great investment
It’s critical that you know how many actual so that you have visibility into which marketing
customers you managed to get from your ad channels are working for your business.
campaigns. And since you’re probably running a
variety of marketing programs, you want to know If you want more information on conversion
which marketing channels are working best for tracking, check out our LinkedIn Ads
you. Optimization Guide.

So if you don’t have one, go out and get a
website analytics solution that can help you track
conversion.


Cheat sheet for creating ads on LinkedIn
Go to linkedIn.com/ads and click “Start Now”

Strategic elements For each ad you plan to create (see page 25)

Determine your campaign goals (see page 5) Choose your landing page and destination URL

Decide on your campaign name (see page 7) Choose a 50x50 pixel square image

Decide on your target audience & targeting criteria
Add a 25-character headline for your ad
(see page 9)

Think through your budget and campaign dates
Add a 75-character description
(see page 20)

Analysis and tracking

Set up your conversion tracking tools (see page 34) Monitor your performance and optimize your campaign


Frequently
asked questions

How does the auction work?
You set a bid for each of your campaigns. A real-time auction is run Where will my ads appear?
each time a Linkedln user visits a page that contains an ad unit. If Your ads will be eligible to appear in various positions on a variety of
the user falls into your targeting options, your ad will be entered prominent pages on me Linkedln.com website, such as the following:
into this auction along with the bids of other advertisers. If you do
not enter a bid within the suggested range, your ad will be less Homepage - The page members see when they sign in to
likely to beat other advertisers’ bids in the auction, resulting in fewer LinkedIn.
or no impressions or clicks. Remember that the bid you choose is
the maximum you’re willing to pay, and we will discount your click
or impression so that you’re only paying the minimum necessary
to beat the advertiser below you. For example, if you bid $3 and Profile Page - The page members see when they view the profile
someone bids $2.50, we will only charge you $2.51 (1 cent more of another LinkedIn member.
than the next highest advertiser).

Where does Linkedln get the information used to target
members? Search Results Page - The page that displays when you search for
All of the information used for targeting is based on the information a member by name.
members add to their profiles. Keep in mind that this information
isn’t personally identifiable. And you won’t be provided with any
identifying data about the specific members who view or click on
your ad. Groups - The page members see when they visit their group.


Frequently
asked questions Additional Information about the LinkedIn Audience Network:

Where else can I show my ad? Using this feature will increase the volume of impressions that your
In addition to showing your ad on Linkedln, you can ad gets.
also show your ads through the Linkedln Audience
Network. The LinkedIn Audience Network is a
collection of partner websites that display LinkedIn
There’s no additional cost to run ads on the LinkedIn Audience
Ads on their pages. This allows you to reach the
Network.
LinkedIn members you’re targeting, even when
they’re visiting other websites. This is a good option
if you want to maximize the number of clicks and
impressions you receive. Conveniently, you’ll pay You can include or exclude the LinkedIn Audience Network at any
exactly the same amount per click or impression as time, even after your ads have started running.
you do on LinkedIn.com. (Note: CTR may vary when
ads are shown on LinkedIn and off of the network).
You pay the same way you do on LinkedIn.com, either via CPC or
Here’s how it works: Suppose that you’re targeting CPM.
Linkedln members who are CEOs. If you choose to
run your ads on the Linkedln Audience Network, your
ads will be displayed to those CEOs when they visit
Linkedln and when they visit other websites in the
Linkedln Audience Network.


What’s the difference between LinkedIn Ads and

More advertising LinkedIn Marketing solutions?

options on LinkedIn
LinkedIn Ads are self-service, performance based text ads that can
include a small image. Advertisers are able to pay on a CPC or CPM
basis.
LinkedIn also offers display and social advertising solutions
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions are display ads (IAB-compliant) with
as part of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. You can learn
guaranteed inventory and delivery. The minimum campaign budget for
more at marketing.linkedin.com.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is $25K.


So, that’s it! Ready to get started? Great!

Go to linkedin.com/ads and click “Start Now.”

And remember – we’re always here to help! Just
visit us at our Help Center for some quick Q&A
(help.linkedin.com).

LinkedIn Ads Playbook

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