A Basic Guide to LinkedIn Ads

While LinkedIn is a great way to showcase your resume, it also has other perks. For instance, let's say you started a new business and wanted to advertise it. Well, you can do that with LinkedIn ads. According toSocial Media Examiner, "the platform’s 350+ million users are almost entirely businesspeople, so why not use ads to get in front of your ideal prospects? Ads increase your visibility, and therefore improve the “know, like and trust” factor."

If you're in this position and want to create and post ads on LinkedIn, here's a simple guide on how to use LinkedIn ads.

First and foremost, you're going to want to set up a company page. To find out what you need to set it up, check out LinkedIn's requirements here. Once that's done, according to Marketing Land, go to the LinkedIn ads login and click 'get started.' You can then choose to create your own ad or a sponsored update instead. According to Marketing Land:

"Sponsored updates are a great way to get your message directly onto a user’s home feed. The offering is comparable to sponsored content on Facebook, and it is a good tool to use to amplify your content. For example, if you have a great story, interview or other piece of content, you can post it through your company’s LinkedIn account and then make it a sponsored update."

According to Social Media Examiner, there are two ways to set up your ads:

Cost-Per-Click (CPC): The method you should use if you go the route of sponsored content "because people don’t click-through as much on sponsored updates. LinkedIn will keep showing your ad until they get their money... This is perfect if your strategy is to start getting recognition and visibility."
Pay-Per-Impression (Mille) (PPM): Good for text ads and generating leads.

There are four main steps to creating an ad according to Marketing Land. The first is to create your ad by filling in the following fields:

Campaign Name: Name of your business, ad title, etc.
Ad Language: Will your ad be in English, Spanish, etc.?
Media Type: Are you creating a text ad or using video/pictures?
Ad Destination: Are you linking the ad to your LinkedIn page or to a different URL?
Ad Design: "Create your headline and description… The headline has a 25-character limit, and the description cannot exceed 75 characters. You can also add your imagery here."
Ad Variations: Check out this link for more information.

The second step is to begin targeting, and narrow down who you want to see this ad. You can target people by these categories:

Age
Friends
Company
Job Title
Employer
Industry
Skills and Interests

The third step is to begin budgeting your ad because LinkedIn ads do come with some pricing. According to Marketing Land, "LinkedIn offers two basic pricing models: CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions).

And now it's time for the final step, which is to simply submit your ad. According to Marketing Land, "LinkedIn reviews almost all ads manually, so your campaign won’t be online until it goes through a quick review process." Once the review process finishes, it's time for your ad to circulate and you can begin to get noticed!