LinkedIn Ads:
The Killer B2B Ads Platform You’ve Never Heard Of
AJ Wilcox
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About AJ Wilcox
• 8+ years of PPC and SEO experience
• Began heavy B2B focus 4 years ago• Stumbled onto LinkedIn Ads and they won me over
• Saw awesome successes
• Left my full-time job to start B2Linked.com
• Lives in Utah, USA with my wife and 4 kids
• Triathlete, exotic car lover, soulless ginger
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B2B Challenges
•B2B marketers have to be more sophisticated
•Offline conversion events
•Delayed sales cycles
•Gives rise to #PipelineMarketing
•72% of the Fortune 1000 are B2B
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#PipelineMarketing
• All leads != equal
• Make optimization decisions based on real results
• Return On Ad Spend is the real metric
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Keyword Targeting
• Paid Search (AdWords) keyword-based targeting• Intent-based
• CEOs type the same keywords as janitors
• How do you ensure your dollars are spent on someone with BANT?
• Budget
• Authority
• Need
• Timing
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B2B Ad Options
• Industry Publications• Advertise in industry rags (ChiefExecutive magazine)
• AdTech Vendors• Bizo
• Quantcast
• DemandBase
• Paid Social• Twitter – Weak B2B targeting
• Facebook – Decent B2B targeting, personal focus
• LinkedIn – precise targeting, business focus
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LinkedIn Advertising - Pros
• Up to date (self selected)
• Robust targeting
• Business mentality
• No Gatekeeper
• Larger deal sizes
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LinkedIn Advertising - Cons
•Lacking functionality• Conversion Tracking
• Dayparting
• Hourly Reporting
• Device Bidding
• Retargeting
•Opaque Relevancy Score
• Ignored by LinkedIn (changing!)
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Who’s a Fit?
•Large deal sizes (>$20k)
•Very specific target customer
•Company Types:
•SaaS Software
•Recruiting
•Education
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Not a Fit!
•Small deal sizes (<$10k)
•Broad target
•B2C
•eCommerce
•Hard sell
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Ad Units – Text Ads
• Ad Units• Text Ads – Right rail
• 50x50px image
• .04% CTR is good
• 25 char headline, 75 char adline
• Desktop only
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Ad Units – Sponsored Updates
• Ad Units• Sponsored Updates – News feed
• 180x110px image
• .4% CTR is good
• Character limits
• 128 char intro
• 38 char title
• 155 char description
• Mostly mobile users
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B2B Targeting
• Targeting (profile completeness dependent)• Professional
• Job Title (Project Manager)
• Job Function (Marketing)
• Seniority (Manager)
• Skills (nunchuck, MySQL)
• Group (Project Management R Us)
• Company• Category/Industry (Hi-tech, consumer goods)
• Company Size (51-2000)
• Company Name (Microsoft)
• Education• School Name (Stanford), Degree, Field of Study
• Demographics• Gender (M/F/Both)
• Age (55+)
• Geography (San Francisco Bay Area)
• Combinations• & Exclusions!
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Jump on in!
• Go to: LinkedIn.com/ads
• Average CPC between $4-$8/click
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Efficient LinkedIn Reach
• 4 Methods of Targeting• Titles
• Job Function + Seniority
• Skills + Seniority
• Groups (+ Seniority)
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CMO
Groups
Job
Function
Titles
Skills
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Who Uses LinkedIn Ads?
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Content Marketing Funnel
Trial/
Demo
Blog Post/Infographic
Guide /
Whitepaper
Ebook
Webinar
Retargeting
Email Nurture
Low Friction
High Friction
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Glorious Retargeting
• Paid Search retargeting = Building audience around keyword
• LinkedIn retargeting = Building persona!
• Recommended Retargeting Mix:
• Tag Manager Containing:• AdWords ReMarketing
• Facebook Custom Audiences
• Twitter Tailored Audiences#webinarClub
Case Study
• Tag management software company ObservePoint• Customers have titles across the board
• Wanted to reach them other than with titles
• Took customer email list, ran through social scraper• Appended LinkedIn Skills and Groups to list
• Ran frequency of Skills and Groups across audience to find the most common
• Built our own homegrown lookalike audience
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