The rumors are true: Yes, LinkedIn ads can spend your money in a snap.
But don’t write them off. After all, the high cost comes with quality customers and inquiries.
Unlike other social networks that determine “who you are” based on what you engage with in the algorithm, LinkedIn lets users group themselves into buckets. Targeting is outrageously specific.
To keep it simple, I go over Brand Awareness and Lead Generation ads commonly used on LinkedIn.
What types of businesses should use LinkedIn paid ads?
B2B and B2G: Absolutely.
There’s so many powerful ways to get in front of your core customer base. The options are *almost* endless. For example, targeting by:
- Job title (e.g. “mayor” “creative director”)
- Specific company names, such as a list you already have of your key prospects
- Size of the company, narrowed by industry (e.g. “construction” “education” “government administration”)
B2C: Maybe. It depends on your goal.
Here’s my B2C example: I’m a college institution (we’ll use the University of Washington, go dawgs!). Our department is struggling to sign up people for the Foster School of Business for autumn (this scenario is very fake!). Our numbers are down, so now is the time to hire an ad manager.
As the ad manager, my strategy focuses on two things for UW:
- Sharing points of differentiation about the Foster School of Business
- Encourage users to click to learn more for a customized ad landing page(s)
This all starts with figuring out your customer segments / marketing personas. What are their pain points? Why would they want to get a Master’s degree at UW? After answering these questions to develop your key messages, it’s time to figure out targeting.
With LinkedIn, there’s so many opportunities to hit the right audience. For example, as an ad manager, I could create three unique audience segments:
Segment A
- People who listed their Education as “Bachelor of Business Administration”, excluding people who listed their education at UW, in surrounding PNW states
Segment B
- People who attended UW, UW Tacoma, and UW Bothell, narrowing the audience by select Fields of Study (e.g. international business, business administration)
Segment C
- People who have listed “Business Strategy” “Business Analysis” and other skills under their LinkedIn profiles, excluding Segments A and B
The list goes on. Each audience needs customized messaging based on their familiarity with UW and the Foster School of Business. Tailored ads and landing pages work together.
How much do LinkedIn Brand Awareness ads cost?
TLDR: $2.00 to $9.00 for 1,000 member accounts reached
First, a couple key terms to understand:
Brand Awareness ads are focused on either “Reach” or “Impressions”, which shouldn’t be used interchangeably. Reach is the number of unique people viewing your content; impressions can be sent over and over again to a select audience.
Depending on whether you’re driving Reach or Impressions, your results will be different. A mix of variables impact your estimates, including but not limited to budget, date range, and audience size. I’ll stop there (if you want to learn more, email me!).
Using our UW example, LinkedIn estimates that our 30-day cost for reaching 1,000 unique accounts with a $10 daily budget is $7.66 – $9.00.
If we increase the budget to $50 per day, that number drops to $2.74 – $3.22. Wildly different.
Talking to an ad manager can help you understand how all these metrics tie together, and what you can expect from your budget.
So how much should you budget for ads? For simplicity, let’s say you’re trying to reach as many people as possible in your audience; start with a minimum of $20.00 per day. You can always add more money later.
My recommendation is to mix your total budget for brand awareness among different platforms, such as display, Meta, and Reddit. You might find success in a different channel with a much lower CPM, or LinkedIn may be your sweet spot. Testing matters.
How much do LinkedIn Lead Generation ads cost?
TLDR: $40 to $200+ per lead
If nothing else, remember this: Your ad manager needs to know your audiences’ pain points before running any lead generation ads. No fiddling around.
Content and curiosity drives conversions. With LinkedIn Lead Gen, you’re committing to a $40+ cost-per-lead (CPL).
When I was an in-house ad manager for a Seattle-area manufacturing company, the research phase was all-consuming. Our product? Rapid-build shelters for people experiencing homelessness. Big government contracts required. Government officials’ attention is highly competitive on LinkedIn; our LinkedIn rep said the CPL could sit around $150.
Your content needs to resonate so well that a Very Important Person is willing to fork over their personal information. Every lead gen ad began with reading news articles, checking daily Google Alerts, pulling data from research papers, scanning Reddit, and listening to public meetings.
So when I ran a campaign about military veterans experiencing homelessness, it was wildly successful. The campaign did two things:
- Provided an educational resource instead of a sales pitch
- Captured attention based on the pain points of the buyer
For this campaign, the CPL landed at $46.41. Other campaigns ranged from $60 to as high as $120 (those were adjusted or turned off fast).
As an ad manager, I was in LinkedIn Campaign Manager every day checking the metrics and incoming leads. Making adjustments is essential.
Quick Summary
Because the cost of LinkedIn is so wildly variable, it’s important to have a person dedicated to running advertising campaigns. Their focus should be on lowering your CPM or CPL, as well making sure you’re marketing to qualified buyers.
Brand awareness ads can range from $2.00 to $9.00 for 1,000 member accounts reached; lead generation ads can range from $40 to $200+ for one lead.
Develop key messages for each buyer persona before any ads launch; ad sets should be used to test creative, and can make a difference between success and budget shock.
Need help building a LinkedIn advertising strategy? Reach out: lindsey@paperraccoon.com
