Ben Givon finds out about “LinkedIn Enhanced Ads Targeting Tools”
When you first pick up your new LinkedIn direct marketing tools then your first impulse is probably to put them good use. But what strategy should you use to do so most effectively?
If you don’t target your message properly, then it doesn’t matter how mesmerizing or meticulously timed it is, it won’t fly. If only you could ensure that the right people see at the right moment! That “only if” is the difference between success and failure and also the difference between the somewhat successful and genuine blockbuster campaigns.
So how can you maximize the impact of these new direct targeting tool?
Broad strokes for all sorts of different folks
A good principle to follow is to make use of the good old rule of three — after you choose your location (that’s the first targeting parameter by Ben Givon), then aim for two more targeting parameters. Why? In order to avoid targeting too broadly or too narrowly. Somewhere between location + one more targeting parameter and location + two more targeting parameters is usually the sweet spot you should be aiming at. It’s also better to err on the side of targeting too broadly, and then refine down, than to do the opposite.
For example, you can stack job function with seniority, enabling you to reach senior leaders in marketing, sales, and public relations. Then, when you start getting real world campaign performance and demographic analysis of your viewers and respondents, you can slingshot the results to tweak the targeting parameters.
Starting out broadly enables you to investigate the possibility of engaging leaders in subfields you would not even have considered if you were targeting more narrow demographics.
Audience expansion/lookalike audiences
A sad but true fact is that you cannot hope to devise parameters targeting every one of your desired targets. LinkedIn may provide unparalleled accuracy as far as professional information goes, but there are also variables such as unique job titles that may result in the exclusion of important people from our marketing efforts.
When you use the Audience Expansion and Lookalike Audiences function you transcend this limitation. How? By enabling people with similar demographic parameters and interests to your chosen targeting parameters view your content. That means that more people who might be interested in your content get exposed to your ad, with a commensurate expansion of the reach and impact of your campaign.
So how do you activate these potentially game changing features?
Ben Givon recommends to click the “enable audience expansion” key in the profile based targeting options. That will enable you to reach out to audiences with options similar to those you selected.
The lookalike audience option is most effective after you have already generated traffic — people who have downloaded content, or even just visited your site. Feed in these high performers to this option and the feature will seek out other LinkedIn members who have similar profiles.
