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Should I invest in Linkedin Ads?

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GatsbyMag

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I've searched for threads about Linkedin Ads on this forum and they are all centered around actively messaging prospects, are there any about actually investing in banner, video, text ads?

The last time I invested in Linkedin, I got decent results (in terms of increased customer acquisition), however I'm still quite a beginner and I'd appreciate any guidance from *experienced* linkedin advertisers or B2B marketers (I'm not sure if we have many?) as to how a fastlaner can drive the most value out of their money into linkedin.

Below is a screenshot of my previous campaign which was done many months ago; to be honest I'm not sure if these metrics are good or not:

34404

I'm looking at you in particular @Andy Black since it seems you've had the most experience marketing here, appreciate your 2 cents!

Thank you as always everyone :)
 
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Andy Black

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I've searched for threads about Linkedin Ads on this forum and they are all centered around actively messaging prospects, are there any about actually investing in banner, video, text ads?

The last time I invested in Linkedin, I got decent results (in terms of increased customer acquisition), however I'm still quite a beginner and I'd appreciate any guidance from *experienced* linkedin advertisers or B2B marketers (I'm not sure if we have many?) as to how a fastlaner can drive the most value out of their money into linkedin.

Below is a screenshot of my previous campaign which was done many months ago; to be honest I'm not sure if these metrics are good or not:

View attachment 34404

I'm looking at you in particular @Andy Black since it seems you've had the most experience marketing here, appreciate your 2 cents!

Thank you as always everyone :)
Thanks for thinking of me, but I’m afraid I avoid LinkedIn!
 

Envious

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I've searched for threads about Linkedin Ads on this forum and they are all centered around actively messaging prospects, are there any about actually investing in banner, video, text ads?

The last time I invested in Linkedin, I got decent results (in terms of increased customer acquisition), however I'm still quite a beginner and I'd appreciate any guidance from *experienced* linkedin advertisers or B2B marketers (I'm not sure if we have many?) as to how a fastlaner can drive the most value out of their money into linkedin.

Below is a screenshot of my previous campaign which was done many months ago; to be honest I'm not sure if these metrics are good or not:

View attachment 34404

I'm looking at you in particular @Andy Black since it seems you've had the most experience marketing here, appreciate your 2 cents!

Thank you as always everyone :)
You need to look at your cost per aquisition and return on adspend for you to figure out if they were worth it or not.

Otherwise you have nothing to base it off.
 
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The-J

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Started workin with LinkedIn ads last year. It's a mixed bag, and many people avoid it. However, this avoidance is to their detriment I think.

It HIGHLY depends on what you're selling. Education and career search is king on LinkedIn. But you can use LinkedIn ads to promote pretty much any B2B business if you know who you're selling to.

LinkedIn is expensive. But as a previous poster said, as long as your customer acquisition cost is low enough to provide a good return on ad spend, you're doing something right.

Best campaign I worked on was for a high dollar SaaS at about $17/lead. Been running for a few months, still getting the same results.

Sponsored content ads >>> all others. Message ads, haven't had good results with em. Haven't tried the other placements.

Did those 11 website visits actually bring you customers? It's hard to believe. The metrics don't look good at all: $6 per website visit? 0.35% link click CTR? Those are low and there's lots of improvements that can be made.

What's your actual business goal? Leads?
 

GatsbyMag

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Started workin with LinkedIn ads last year. It's a mixed bag, and many people avoid it. However, this avoidance is to their detriment I think.

It HIGHLY depends on what you're selling. Education and career search is king on LinkedIn. But you can use LinkedIn ads to promote pretty much any B2B business if you know who you're selling to.

LinkedIn is expensive. But as a previous poster said, as long as your customer acquisition cost is low enough to provide a good return on ad spend, you're doing something right.

Best campaign I worked on was for a high dollar SaaS at about $17/lead. Been running for a few months, still getting the same results.

Sponsored content ads >>> all others. Message ads, haven't had good results with em. Haven't tried the other placements.

Did those 11 website visits actually bring you customers? It's hard to believe. The metrics don't look good at all: $6 per website visit? 0.35% link click CTR? Those are low and there's lots of improvements that can be made.

What's your actual business goal? Leads?
J thanks for great feedback so far.

The goal is to gain customers by getting website visits who then click on 'request free trial'. From my recollection, about 3-4 of those 11 visits used the free trial and only 1 or 2 became paying users ($25 each).

Seeing as it's been awhile, maybe I should start again from a clean slate and carry the campaign for 1-2 weeks to see if there's a change? I'm working on better messaging & ads so perhaps it could lead to different results.

Otherwise, I may have to find a different and more effective method of advertising, either on linkedin or a different platform - open to suggestions here as well.

Thanks J
 

Andy Black

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The-J

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From my recollection, about 3-4 of those 11 visits used the free trial and only 1 or 2 became paying users ($25 each).

Solid conversion rate. You just need a better ad. .35% CTR is awful.
 

SchenkFinancial

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When people are on LinkedIn, they are either thinking about their job or their career, which puts them in exactly the right mindset if you have an offer that augments one of these two things.

What that generally means is that you give someone something that solves a problem for them at work or satisfies a work curiosity and you’re going to end up with much higher conversion rates than you might otherwise.

Of course, LinkedIn is also high-priced. For Facebook, you are probably going to pay $1-$2 per click. With LinkedIn from $6 to $9 per click it’s many times more expensive.

Now the larger costs per click upfront are not such a big issue as long as you have a large enough deal size or lifetime value of a customer on the back end to ensure that you see a return on your investment. So, if you have a lifetime value north of about $15,000, then you are generally going to have success on LinkedIn, no matter what.

I can see that you spent $65 on your campaign. In order to get statistically significant conversion rates, you would have to spend between $3,000 to $5,000.

Whether that’s over the course of 2 days or 6 months is not that super important. What is important is that you have that much data, in order to take a look at the costs of conversion and your conversion rates and get a good feel if this is the platform for you.
 

Think Expand

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I log in and my inbox is full of spam. I answer the genuine messages then log off for another few weeks.
Great. I've been following you for a while and I like your analysis, comments and thought process. Thanks for the feedback.
 
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Andy Black

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Great. I've been following you for a while and I like your analysis, comments and thought process. Thanks for the feedback.
I know people use the platform very well to make great connections etc. It’s just not for me currently. I may spend more time investigating LinkedIn another time.
 

Think Expand

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I know people use the platform very well to make great connections etc. It’s just not for me currently. I may spend more time investigating LinkedIn another time.
I get a client from LinkedIn ones in a while. So I keep posting and sharing valuable content there. I think that is how to build an organic following and get people to flock to you... and eventually, get a client... but I focus on SEO, Blog Posts, Social Posts, Email Posts and Cold Outreach to get clients. Done well, I think LinkedIn can drive leads and sales.
 

MJ DeMarco

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So I was on LinkedIn today and received the following in my inbox, which is an advertisement...

Has anyone done any of this "inbox advertising?" I would think it would be pretty powerful, although this gal completely missed the boat on thinking I'd be interested.


1700426205725.png
 
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Andy Black

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So I was on LinkedIn today and received the following in my inbox, which is an advertisement...

Has anyone done any of this "inbox advertising?" I would think it would be pretty powerful, although this gal completely missed the boat on thinking I'd be interested.


View attachment 52548
Not seen those at all. I feel left out now.

I think it's smart to appear in people's inboxes.

Is that like a LinkedIn chatbot?
 

Crissco

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So I was on LinkedIn today and received the following in my inbox, which is an advertisement...

Has anyone done any of this "inbox advertising?" I would think it would be pretty powerful, although this gal completely missed the boat on thinking I'd be interested.


View attachment 52548

Oh yes it happens all the time. Haha. Recruiters especially when they’re looking for people to line up with a job. I get messages that has NOTHING to do with my field at times. It’s funny to say the least.

But yes LinkedIn can be great. There are also LinkedIn bot you can use to mass message people, scrapers to scrape emails..etc. If used correctly it can be a gold mine in my opinion.
 

The-J

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I have gotten a bit more experience with LinkedIn ads since making my post originally. My beliefs have changed a little bit.

A lot of B2B businesses go for LinkedIn ads because it seems like the right thing to do, but the real question is: can I reach these people cheaper by going direct? In many cases you can.

LinkedIn has absurd CPMs and that could be worth it if you're selling a high-ticket product to a niche-but-large audience that is dependent on the person having a particular problem at a particular time. Even then Google might work better if they're trying to Google the problem.

I don't tell people that LinkedIn is a bad platform to advertise on because that would be untrue. It's almost like Facebook but with way better professional targeting options.

So I was on LinkedIn today and received the following in my inbox, which is an advertisement...

Has anyone done any of this "inbox advertising?" I would think it would be pretty powerful, although this gal completely missed the boat on thinking I'd be interested.


View attachment 52548

That kind of advertising doesn't work very well most of the time. It's actually a very obscure reason. LinkedIn is not straightforward about this to new advertisers but dig into their documentation and you learn that these ads restrict frequency so severely that, if the target doesn't open the message and take action immediately, they probably won't see the ad again. You also learn that these ads don't actually stay in the inbox so it's nowhere near as good as a cold email or direct message on LinkedIn. It's also even more expensive than their feed ad posts.

The ad placement itself is very powerful but LinkedIn is super careful with it because if they're not, it would put people off of LinkedIn. Imagine if your inbox was FULL of these kinds of messages. You'd never use LinkedIn again.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I think it's smart to appear in people's inboxes.

Is that like a LinkedIn chatbot?

I have no idea, but the power to appear in 1000 people's inbox seems incredibly powerful.
 

Andy Black

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Imagine if your inbox was FULL of these kinds of messages. You'd never use LinkedIn again.
Yeah, I'd stop logging in if i was getting spam in my inbox again.

I stopped using LinkedIn for a few years due to all the inbox spam. I've not had any in ages so I guess LinkedIn realised it was a problem and fixed it.
 

The-J

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Yeah, I'd stop logging in if i was getting irrelvant spam in my inbox again.

I stopped using LinkedIn for a few years due to all the inbox spam. I've not had any in ages so I guess LinkedIn realised it was a problem and fixed it.

LinkedIn restricted certain accounts' ability to connect with new people, which is the main way to get consent to send direct messages to people on the platform.

@Black_Dragon43 can explain a bit more about this & how it works, but part of it is that inbox spammers got a bit better with targeting. Also accounts only get a limited amount of InMail messages (which allow you to message people you're not connected with)
 
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Black_Dragon43

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My LinkedIn inbox is full of spam. I get 8-10 per day, but it’s because I keep an open profile, so it’s free for people to send me InMails (doesn’t cost them credits). Guess I should change that, but I’ve never been too bothered by it yet lol
 

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