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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Q&A!

• AJ@B2Linked.com

• @WilcoxAJ

• www.B2Linked.com

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