How Specific Can You Get With LinkedIn Ad Targeting?

With every day that passes, a new way to spend your marketing dollars becomes available. Google and Facebook ads are the primary online advertising avenues, but an often overlooked platform is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn offers great value as an advertising platform, recently surpassing 500 million users. In addition to its wide reach, 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions. LinkedIn offers robust targeting options that can help you narrow that reach and get your brand in front of decision makers.
Unlike Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn is a social platform designed primarily for career-based networking. This means the majority of users on LinkedIn tell you where they’ve worked, for how long, and in what capacity. These data points provide endless opportunity for your ads, especially as a B2B company.

WHAT CAN YOU TARGET?

As mentioned, LinkedIn ad targeting allows you to narrowly hone in on specific career-based criteria for focused advertising. Looking to target only CEO’s in your city? Or people who have graduated college in the last 2 years with a civil engineering degree, living within 50 miles? Maybe you’re looking to reach Executive Assistants who work for mid-sized companies?

No other platform allows for this kind of targeting. The implications are endless. Not only can you be as specific or as broad as you want, but you’re ultimately leveraging an extensive network of professionals, and if you’re B2B they’re likely more qualified than the users perusing Twitter or Facebook. We’ll try and paint a picture with three potential advertising scenarios:

1. The HR Platform

You are a local company providing an HR solution. You’re looking to reach decision makers at mid-sized businesses in your city; obviously Directors of HR, as well as their bosses. You will hone in on location, company size, and job title, producing an audience that looks something like this:

Keep in mind that while you can target an audience this narrow, it decreases the likelihood that you’ll get the website visits you want. Smaller audiences means less impressions and fewer clicks, regardless of how much money you’re willing to invest in the ads.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing — it’s just something to keep in mind when using LinkedIn ad targeting.

2. Regional Construction Company

You are a regional construction company specializing in educational facilities. You’re looking to utilize the location, company industry, and job function criteria to make sure you’re reaching decision makers rather than teachers or professors. Your audience might look like this:

3. Looking to Hire an App Developer

This is a rather unique situation, but say you’re a small company looking to have an app developed for clients. Rather than using a recruiting firm, you decide to simply advertise your opening on LinkedIn. “Member skill” will be your best friend here, allowing you to pinpoint the exact skills you’re looking for (we didn’t in the below, but you can even target users who have identified themselves as unemployed):

Never Stop Refining Your LinkedIn Ad Targeting

Another great piece of this targeting is the reporting aspect. Once you’ve run your ads for a bit of time and collected some data, you can see what demographics are clicking on your ads, based on factors like job title, job function, seniority level, industry, and company size.

That means as you gather more information, you can further refine your targeting to ensure your pinpointing the individuals that matter most to your business.
LinkedIn is a powerful advertising platform, offering as little or as much specificity as you want. All that’s required to get started is a LinkedIn account, knowledge about your preferred clients, and some writing skill.
However, it’s okay if you’re not prepared to tackle LinkedIn ads on your own. There are certain nuances to the platform that require a bit of a learning curve.
If you don’t have time to learn these subtleties, or feel overwhelmed trying to grasp them, reach out to our team today! You’ll learn how we can partner with you to get your brand in front of the decision makers that can help move your business forward.