LinkedIn Ads: How to Assess Content for a Campaign
There are are few ways to start a LinkedIn ad campaign. Sometimes you get lucky and something has been written; other times, you’re meeting with an attorney to discuss possible angles.
Either way, your job is to wade through all the talk and content to (1) find your selling point or hook and (2) identify whether it’s possible you can get a message to the intended audience.
If you’re a content manager of some sort, I guarantee you do this type of vetting on a regular basis whether you’re aware of it or not. For example, an attorney has a newsworthy topic that is worth pitching to a journalist now rather than spending the time to write a longform article for your firm website.
In the LinkedIn context, it’s asking “is this topic worthwhile enough for our intended audience to click on an ad?”.
What You’re Selling
On a basic level, whatever you’re selling should be worth the click. This isn’t the wild-west of internet advertising — your ads are associated with your firm account. If you keep putting out clickbait ads, you will lose your audience. Give your audience something useful. Here are some examples:
- A downloadable checklist for owners of trucking companies to give to their drivers for when they get into an accident.
- A link to a complementary webinar that isn’t ordinarily available.
- A website landing page with useful links for restaurant and hospitality owners on employment and tip-pooling laws.
- Even a top-10 list of considerations for micromobility manufacturers when thinking about their product’s safety compliance and insurance.
Essentially, whatever you’re giving away should have value above any ordinary article you’d write.
Can You Find Your Audience?
Besides having something worth selling, being able to capture your audience with LinkedIn’s tool is KEY.
And while there’s nothing that beats using the Campaign Manager (that’s where you set up everything in LinkedIn) to check your audience, there are some high-level things I’ve discovered.
Consider the platform. Make sure that your audience is on LinkedIn in the first place. If you’re aiming at tech startups, they may not be hanging out there. But your average in-house counsel? Oh yeah.
How can you identify* your audience? There are many moving parts to LinkedIn’s audience “selector.” You can target job titles, company industries, education, and even member organizations. (*LinkedIn has technology in place that blocks companies from targeting protected demographics, just so you know!)
Are there enough of them? The last thing to keep in mind is LinkedIn’s 300ish-person threshold, which means your intended audience must be over that number, otherwise it won’t send. You usually fall in that category if you’re getting too narrow.
The Examples
Theory is all fine and good but…
Let’s go through a few examples – some real, some made up. Remember that there’s not a formula to this, at all. What works for us may not work for you. And know that you can experiment for very few budget dollars to learn your way! It’s important you get the formula that fits your firm.
Example 1
The Scenario. Noncompete lawyers created an in-depth presentation on the state of noncompete laws for lawyers.
The Content. It’s a PowerPoint, but an in-depth PowerPoint. The content had actionable tips, and the presentation wasn’t given to the public.
The Audience. In-house attorneys and fellow private practitioners.
The Result. Because the PowerPoint has actionable tips and the audience is likely on LinkedIn. We aimed at Minnesotans with J.D.s – a smaller audience than making it nationwide. We created a landing page where users could download the PowerPoint (without having to fill out a form – we didn’t want to make people to that).
Example 2
The Scenario. Attorneys in the emerging IoT practice like the idea of doing a LinkedIn campaign. They don’t have anything written yet.
The Content. Because IoT products are so new, there’s almost no precedent or law to work with. Most of the content coming from the industry is news, a hard topic to campaign for when credible sources (more well-known) are out there doing it already.
The Audience. Even harder would be to determine who we’re trying to target. Would we aim at manufacturers? Are we looking at a specific industry? Are those folks even on LinkedIn?
The Result. In this scenario, I’d advise against doing a campaign. It’s hard to START with the platform (LinkedIn) and then work your way backward to “what sells?”. The opposite should happen – information we produce is relevant and useful to clients, we should get it out to them. It would be worth the click.
Example 3
The Scenario. There’s a new Minnesota tip-pooling law impacting restaurants and others in the hospitality industry.
The Content. This one falls into the “newsworthy” category, but in this instance, we knew a lot of our clients were unaware – or were unsure of the best practices that could help protect their business. We created a list of what employers should know/what they should be looking at, and how to remedy some of those things.
The Audience. The audience would be owners/etc. of businesses in the restaurant and hospitality industry who are local to Minnesota.
The Result. This is a great audience for a LinkedIn campaign – one we continue to use (which is why you’d want to make sure you’d not producing clickbait).
Example 4
The Scenario. Two women attorneys win three trials in a month…during COVID.
The Content. This one’s tricky, right?! On one hand, it’s a huge win AND involves two women litigators. But it’s also more of an announcement – there’s nothing to “sell” here.
The Audience. That’s the question.
The Result. This campaign could be viable IF it were truly a visibility campaign. We use an outside PR firm for media opportunities, so that may be the best route to go here – we’re already paying them, why pay more for ads. However, the attorneys may feel strongly about wanting people to know we do this type of work. In that instance, I’d say we could aim it at Minnesota lawyers – those with J.D.s – which targets peers (referral sources) and in-house counsel. We wouldn’t do great on the numbers, but then, we’ve set that expectation at the beginning.
Example 5
The Scenario. Your tech-startup folks want a campaign.
The Content. The idea is to have a top-10 list of what every startup needs to know.
The Audience. They have a list of client names they want to target.
The Result. First, I hate gimmicky Top 10 lists, but if there’s meat to it, then fine. But the list of client names…NEVER open that door. You can do it, if you have enough companies (or you don’t use any other filters), but it’s a huge resource time-suck, especially when a LOT of these companies aren’t on LinkedIn. Then you have to do the actually vetting – you have to make sure the company you select is the right one. The point of Linkedin ads isn’t to target specific companies/people – that’s not what it’s built for. It’s meant to get at folks you normally can’t…without stalking them. It’s not likely to get a lot of traction if you’re looking for clicks. In this instance, I’d look elsewhere to place the piece.
If this makes no sense now, it will (once I get the rest of this series done! LOL). It’s a process because you’re learning a whole new skill! But it’ll get easier.
