LinkedIn advertising can seem very expensive compared to advertising on other social networks. It is true that companies will pay more for advertising on this social network, but this is often positively reflected in the number of leads and their value. In today’s article, we’ll look at why you should try LinkedIn advertising despite the initial higher cost and why it pays to advertise on this social network.
Article content
- LinkedIn as a unique advertising platform
- Factors influencing the cost of LinkedIn advertising
- How do I find out the price of advertising on LinkedIn?
- Optimising LinkedIn advertising costs
LinkedIn as a unique advertising platform
LinkedIn is a unique advertising platform for several reasons, but the most important is its high accuracy in targeting professionals. On no other social network will you find as many specialists in the field as LinkendIn. Among the 900 million users, you’ll find 73 million people in leadership positions and 45 million with decision-making power in the company.(1) The vast majority of them also have a correctly filled out profile, which is very friendly for setting up an advertising campaign. You can reach specific professional groups very easily and increase the chance of getting quality leads.
On Instagram and Facebook, you’ll also see more B2C targeting. LinkedIn, however, offers you the opportunity to target your marketing directly to leading companies to strengthen your B2B marketing. LinkedIn itself offers a tool Lead Gen Formsthat helps you collect contact details from user profiles directly on the platform and accelerate the acquisition of quality leads.
Tool Lead Gen Forms helps with faster collection of contact information
Tip: Want to learn more about how LinkedIn itself works? Sign up for our LinkedIn trainingwhere we’ll show you everything you need to know.
Factors influencing the cost of LinkedIn advertising
The factors that most influence the cost of the resulting campaign include the target audience, ad format, bidding strategy and geography of targeting.
The first factor depends on how highly specialized your users are. Advertising to display to senior executives or company directors will be much more expensive than advertising to display to employees and small business owners.
The second factor is the format of the ad itself. On LinkedIn, you can choose from the following advertising options:
- Sponsored Posts
- Text ads
- Sponsored News
- Dynamic ads
- Ads with video
- Lead Gen Forms (with company profile only)
The bidding strategy also has an impact on the price. Like other social networks, LinkedIn allows manual and automatic bidding. With manual bidding, you have control over the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click or view. Automatic invests the amount according to your set goal. However, for this type of strategy, you often have to set aside a larger budget.
The last factor is geographic targeting. LinkedIn ads targeting higher-income countries tend to be more expensive compared to those in developing countries. This is due to different levels of competition and purchasing power in different regions.
LinkedIn offers different ad formats
How do I find out the price of advertising on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn does not directly publish ad pricing on its site. This is because the cost of advertising is highly variable and depends on the factors we have outlined above and the competition in the target group. However, to calculate the cost you will need to know the abbreviations used on LinkedIn.
- CPC (Cost Per Click)
You pay for each click on your ad. This model is most commonly used for event-based ads. - CPM (Cost Per Thousand)
This metric shows you how much you pay per 1,000 impressions of your ad. It is most often used to build brand awareness because users don’t have to click on the ad. - CPL (Cost Per Lead)
Cost Per Lead shows you how much you will pay for each lead, or filling out an enquiry form. This metric is best suited for companies looking to acquire quality leads, not just for B2B collaborations. - CPS (Cost Per Send)
You’ll see this metric with sponsored messages and it tells you how much you pay per message sent to the user’s inbox.
Comparison of individual LinkedIn advertising prices in USD
| Type of advertising | Metrics | |||
| CPC | CPM | CPL | CPS | |
| Sponsored Posts | 5-10 | 30-55 | x | x |
| Text ads | 2-6 | 10-30 | x | x |
| Sponsored News | x | x | x | 0,20-1 USD |
| Dynamic ads | 5-12 USD | x | x | x |
| Ads with video | x | 30-65 USD | x | x |
| Lead Gen Forms | x | x | 20-60 USD | x |
The prices in this table are averages and often the price of advertising on LinkedIn will vary according to the factors set out above. The actual campaign setup is done in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. To get accurate pricing, you must log in and create a campaign for which you set your targeting and budget. The system will then calculate an approximate cost based on your preferences.
LinkedIn Campaign manager calculates more accurate advertising costs
Tip: In addition to optimizing your profile, we can help you with the complete setup PPC advertising.
Optimising LinkedIn advertising costs
Fortunately, the high costs spent on advertising can be optimised.
- The most common strategy to maximize ROI is A/B testing. This involves testing different versions of your ads (e.g. different content, images or calls to action) to see what works best. Take notes on what types of ads brought the most customers to your site, which ones had the highest click-through rates, and focus on those. That way, you’ll make incremental improvements to your campaigns based on performance metrics and maximize the return on your LinkedIn ad investment.
- Another strategy is targeting optimization. The best tool for this strategy is the creation of a so-called marketing persona. This will help you clarify which specialists you are targeting and eliminate those who only increase advertising costs. It’s also effective to extend your targeting to look-a-like users by using a “look-a-like” audience, which includes people with similar characteristics to your existing customers.
- You also need to take care of your campaigns and maintain their content regularly. If you’ve been using the same graphics and text for months, users may experience “ad fatigue”. Continuously updating your visuals and text will prevent this phenomenon and increase the effectiveness of your ads.
- Another option to reduce costs is manual bid management, which is very effective for budget management. It automatically follows the competition and in most cases will cost you more because you have no control over the maximum amount. The use of dynamic ads and Lead Gen Forms is also very important for the reach of your ads. Additionally, using dynamic ads allows you to personalize the content of your ads for your users, which increases their relevance. Lead Gen Forms allow you to collect user data directly on LinkedIn.
Is LinkedIn advertising worth it?
Advertising on LinkedIn is not a cheap affair, but with the right campaign setup, you’ll recoup the cost many times over in leads and leads. No other social network is as friendly for B2B advertising, and for businesses in particular, advertising on LinkedIn is sure to pay off.
At GetLeads, we help our clients with proper optimization of LinkedIn profiles, their management and mainly lead generation. We can also set up and manage your LinkedIn advertising for you. Do you also want to expand your following with relevant contacts and close deals faster? Contact us and get great opportunities.
