Linkedin Course Episode three

Heey there,

Today is the 3rd edition of our 6(+) week, Linkedin Ads Junior Academy newsletter version. 

Today we'll be looking at steps to take to Plan Your First Ad Campaign.

FYI this is a high-level version of the LinkedIn Ads Junior Course we'll be shortly releasing.

However, if you find these insights valuable, the best way to support our work is by inviting your friends to become Dot Connecters and learn more about Connecting The Dots between marketing activities and financial goals.

Topic Of Today

• 🎯 Setting Clear Objectives

• 📚 Understanding Ad Formats

• 🔥 Personal Branding

• 💰 Budget Planning

• 📌 Actionable Tips

• 📚 Homework

• 💡 Pro Tip

🎉 Week 2: Mastering LinkedIn Ad Formats and Budget Planning 🎉

1. 🎯 Setting Clear Objectives

Before you start creating your LinkedIn ad campaign, define what you want to achieve.

It’s pretty hard to run successful campaigns predictably when you are shooting in the dark instead of aiming to achieve specific targets.
Your objectives could range from increasing brand awareness, generating leads, driving website traffic, or boosting event registrations.

Now of course you don’t want to pick something at random, your campaign objectives should align with your overall business goals. The ones you currently have » meaning these change as you grow, when you pivot etc.

Brand Awareness: If your goal is to increase your brand's visibility and reach, you might want to focus on campaigns that maximize your content's exposure. This could involve Sponsored Content or Video Ads that tell your brand's story and resonate with your target audience.

Lead Generation: If your primary goal is to generate leads, LinkedIn offers Lead Gen Forms that can be attached to your Sponsored Content or InMail campaigns. These forms pre-fill LinkedIn profile data, making it easy for users to share their information with you.

Website Traffic: If you want to drive traffic to your website, consider using Text Ads or Sponsored Content with strong call-to-actions (CTAs) that direct users to your website.

Event Registrations: If you're hosting a webinar or other event, you might want to use Sponsored Content or InMail campaigns to invite your target audience. You can also use Lead Gen Forms to simplify the registration process.

Engagement: If your goal is to foster engagement, consider using Conversation Ads. These ads use a messaging-based ad format that encourages users to interact with your content.

An easy way to remember the key aspects of ad creation is the idea of creating S.M.A.R.T. ads - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Meaning that instead of setting a vague goal like "increase brand awareness", you should aim for something more specific and measurable, like "increase website visits from LinkedIn by 20% in the next quarter".

Doesn’t mean if you don’t reach that your campaign was a failure.
But at least you have a goal you can measure against and adjust accordingly.

Once you have defined your objectives, you can then choose the LinkedIn ad formats and bidding options that best align with these goals.

This will ensure that your campaign is strategically designed to achieve your desired outcomes.

2. 📚 Understanding Ad Formats

We’ve covered this last week, plus mentioned most in the previous section, so let’s just do a quick recap.

LinkedIn offers a variety of ad formats that fall into four main categories: Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Dynamic Ads, and Text Ads. Here's a quick recap of each type and category:

LinkedIn Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content ads appear directly in the LinkedIn feed and are excellent for building brand awareness, driving website traffic, and generating leads. They come in several formats:

Single Image Ads: These are simple, static image ads that appear in the feed.
Document Ads: These ads allow you to share a document or PDF with your audience, which can be particularly useful for sharing more detailed information or resources.
Video Ads: These are native video ads that play automatically in the feed. They're great for telling a more engaging story about your brand.
Carousel Ads: These ads use a series of swipeable cards to tell a story or explain a concept. They're excellent for showcasing multiple offerings or telling a brand story.
Event Ads: These ads are designed to promote a LinkedIn event, and they can help drive attendance and engagement.

LinkedIn Sponsored Messaging

Sponsored Messaging ads are personalised messages delivered to your target audience's LinkedIn inbox. They're perfect for sending personalised content, offers, or invitations.

Message Ads: These are personalised messages that can be sent directly to your target audience's LinkedIn inbox.
Conversation Ads: These are personalised messages with call-to-action buttons. They're great for guiding prospects through specific paths and driving them to take action.

LinkedIn Dynamic Ads

Dynamic Ads are personalised ads that automatically use LinkedIn profile data to tailor the ad content to each user.

Spotlight Ads: These ads dynamically display your audience's LinkedIn profile data, like their photo, company name, job title, and more.
Follower Ads: These ads are designed to help you grow your LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page following. They're personalised to each member and show your target audience why people at their company follow your Page.


Other LinkedIn Ad Formats

Text Ads: These are simple, pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) ads that appear on the side or top of the LinkedIn feed. They consist of a headline, a brief description, and a small image, and they are primarily used to drive traffic to the advertiser's website or LinkedIn page.
Lead Gen Forms: These forms are pre-filled with LinkedIn profile data, making it easy for users to share their information. They're perfect for collecting high-quality leads.

When you put together your ad there are a couple of things to focus on.
1st: make sure your offer is actually relevant, valuable and clear for your audience.

In a more technical aspect, focus on the headline & copy and creative, and make sure they relate to one another.

Also, make sure your ads have message synchronisation with the Landing Page.

3. 🔥 Personal Branding

Again, we have covered this extensively in the 1st 2 editions so just a quick recap:
LinkedIn is a platform where personal branding thrives.

Build up at least 1 (preferably more) profile from your business and post about:

• client wins (basically case studies),

• the most relevant issues to your audience (ask them, talk to them, list the most relevant questions they ask you),

• and personal experience-based opinions on the subject matter.

Make sure to build relationships with engagers, meaning the people engaging with your content.

You can retarget them with content that reflects your expertise & is relevant.
You can even sponsor these posts to reach a wider audience, humanising your brand and showcasing your company's subject matter expertise.

Try and avoid:

• Boring posts about why your business is amazing

• Company news that has nothing to do with your audience

• Convoluted, jargon-filled trains of thought for the sake of sounding smart.

4. 💰 Budget Planning

Setting a budget for your LinkedIn ad campaign involves understanding LinkedIn's bidding options.

You can choose between cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-impression (CPM), or cost-per-send (CPS) for Sponsored InMail.

Justin Rowe shares valuable insight about LinkedIn retargeting campaigns. These campaigns often drive the majority of results despite accounting for only a fraction of your ad spend. Aim for a 90-day frequency, which is often the sweet spot for most ad types.

Monitoring and Adjusting Your Budget: It is crucial to regularly monitor your budget and adjust as necessary. This involves tracking your spending and measuring the results of your campaigns. If a particular strategy or channel is not delivering the expected results, you may need to reallocate your budget.

Considering the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): When planning your budget, consider the long-term value of acquiring new customers. This can help you determine how much you should be willing to spend on customer acquisition.

Accounting for Unexpected Costs: Finally, it's always a good idea to set aside a portion of your budget for unexpected costs. This could include sudden changes in the market, new opportunities, or unforeseen challenges.

Keep in mind that effective budget planning is not a one-time task. It requires ongoing attention and adjustment to ensure long-term efficiency.

5. 📌 Actionable Tips

• Set clear, measurable objectives for your LinkedIn ad campaign.

• Experiment with different ad formats to see what works best for your audience. Consider using LinkedIn Lead Gen forms and sponsoring posts from employees.

• Plan your budget carefully, considering your campaign objectives and LinkedIn's bidding options. Consider implementing a 90-day retargeting campaign.

• Develop a content strategy for your personal profile that showcases your expertise and provides value to your audience.

6. 📚 Homework:

• Define the objectives for your first LinkedIn ad campaign.

• Research different LinkedIn ad formats and decide which one(s) you'll use for your campaign.

• Set a budget for your campaign and choose your bidding option.

• Start developing a content plan for your personal profile.

7. 💡 Pro Tip:

LinkedIn Retargeting Campaigns: LinkedIn retargeting campaigns are often the most effective, driving the majority of results despite accounting for only a fraction of your ad spend. Aim for a 90-day frequency, which is often the sweet spot for most ad types.

LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN): If you have LAN enabled, filter out the data to see your true LinkedIn in-feed frequency. LAN can often inflate your perceived frequency, leading to less effective marketing.

Ad Rotation: By default, LinkedIn optimises for performance, which can result in the same few ads being shown repeatedly. Switch to "rotate ads evenly" to provide a fresh journey of content for your prospects over the 90-day campaign period.

That’s a wrap for Week 2.

We’ve had week 1 & week 1 part 2 so far, so the 6 weeks course will likely extend by 1-2 weeks.

Stay tuned for next week we will talk about Creating and Launching Your First Ad Campaign.

Keep learning and growing! 🚀 ❤️

New episodes of Connecting The Dots & Business Companion are coming out each week, so stay tuned.

Subscribe to our podcast and keep an eye on your inbox for the next edition of our newsletter as well.

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:


1. Why PLG Might Not Be The Right Way

"...at scale, public PLG companies are 5–10% less profitable than public SLG companies"

2. How To Plan Your 1st 100 Days As a Marketer/Growth Person

If you're not customer-obsessed, producing good experiment ideas will take you 100x times more time.

3. Free Courser From Harvard, Stanford, Google

A short guide on how you can find a free, high-quality course on Class Central