What functions does the professional network LinkedIn offer for your B2B marketing?
Find out here how the platform has developed over the last few years and what opportunities it offers B2B marketers.
1. Why is LinkedIn a so important platform in the B2B?
The social network LinkedIn now has over 14 million users in the DACH region and offers employees and employers many opportunities. Professionals from all industries and positions can create their digital CV in their own profile. They also have the opportunity to network with colleagues, partners, service providers and potential employers and to consume or create impulses for the interdisciplinary exchange of experience and knowledge in interest groups.
For headhunters and human resources departments, LinkedIn is a valuable resource. Employers/companies can post job advertisements on the platform (for a fee), which are either displayed to potential candidates in a job board or submitted directly as an individual proposal. In addition, candidates can be filtered for a specific fit. With the LinkedIn Recruiter package, headhunters and recruiters can even contact up to 150 candidates individually per month.
In the meantime, however, LinkedIn has become more than a recruitment platform. In recent years, the network has developed more and more into an advertising platform in the B2B sector. Every user who regularly maintains his or her network on LinkedIn, follows interesting companies and participates in discussions in groups or is simply inspired by contributions from other experts will have already noticed it: This is where professional B2B marketing takes place.
2. How can you the structure of LinkedIn optimally for yourself use?
Even for specialised companies, LinkedIn is suitable due to its detailed targeting function. With the network's campaign manager, your ad will only be shown to the people you have previously defined as your target group. That's why many companies use the network for lead generation.
You can create and control ads or sponsored posts via the campaign manager. Whether text, image or video content, the platform can now be used for various content types. For a fee, the paid ads are displayed in the newsfeed of the target group. With visually prepared content (image or video) in combination with a call-to-action and a link to your landing page, you attract the maximum attention of your target groups. You can view the performance of your ads in a clear display and compare it with the performance of other ads. This is particularly important with regard to optimising your advertising measures.
3. A Overview of the different advertising formats
- Text ads: A short text with a link to a landing page or your company website.
Sponsored content: Blog articles or news from your company linked in posts. - Dynamic Ads and Carousel Ads: An ad consisting of up to 10 individual elements. This format allows you, for example, to present several facets of your brand in one ad. You can also explain different service areas or a process using several elements.
- Video Ads: Experience shows that moving images generate the maximum attention. If you run video ads in combination with a form on LinkedIn, you can collect accurate lead data. The form function can also be integrated with other ad types.
- Sponsored Inmails: This is not content that appears in the feed of the target group. This format gives you the opportunity to send your message as a personal message directly to the target group's inbox.
You can find a detailed overview of the formats here: https://business.linkedin.com/de-de/marketing-solutions/ads
4. What costs Advertising on LinkedIn?
Of course, detailed targeting with LinkedIn marketing comes at a price.
In general, the platform uses the bidding process:
For example, a click price (usually of several euros per click) is determined depending on your target group definition and that of your competitors. You may already know this procedure from Google Ads: As a user, you pay when the target group clicks on your ad. Impressions, i.e. the mere appearance of your ads in the news feed of the target group, are free of charge, so to speak. In order to be able to better estimate the "costs per click" (CPC) in advance, it is advisable to set an upper limit for the daily budget and measure the effect in a test campaign. The lower daily budget limit is 10.00 euros.
Another payment system is called "cost per 1000 impressions" (CPM). This approach is used, for example, in awareness campaigns that aim to spread advertising messages as widely as possible.
5. Conclusion: Benefit Use the business network strategically and efficiently
LinkedIn is constantly gaining more users as a business network. The platform is also growing in Germany. Within the B2B platform, there are extensive options for placing advertisements and displaying them to relevant target groups thanks to detailed targeting. The focus on the B2B sector, the transparent information about users of the platform and the diverse functions for customised campaigns offer you many advantages. However, this is associated with costs that can also be high, depending on the market and competitor environment. Therefore, you should use test campaigns and previously defined KPIs in order to be able to correctly assess and evaluate the profitability of the measure.
Yvonne Willmer
At Blaupause , my main task is to structure and manage complex projects for industrial clients. From time to time, however, I also write blog articles and social media posts on B2B topics that are close to my heart. Have you already put some of our suggestions into practice? Then I would be happy if you tell me about your results.