Would you like to broaden your understanding of the LinkedIn bidding strategy? If yes, this is for you! Many marketers often wrestle with how to make every dollar count.
This article is your cheat sheet for mastering strategies for bidding on LinkedIn. We will look at six advanced LinkedIn bidding strategies that top experts swear by. They’ve cracked the code to optimize ad spend and smash performance goals.
Based on my years of experience in LinkedIn advertising, I’ll break down how these pros play the game, from real-world examples to insider tips. At the end of this article, you will have a wide understanding of the different bidding strategies for LinkedIn ads.
Key Takeaways
Expert Strategies: Learn from top marketers like AJ Wilcox and Parul Sharma to boost ad performance and lead generation.
Bidding Types: Choose the right bidding strategy (CPC, CPM, CPS) based on your campaign goals and objectives.
Optimization Tips: Regularly review and adjust bids, target the right audience, and leverage LinkedIn’s tools for better results.
What is a LinkedIn Bidding Strategy?
A LinkedIn bidding strategy is a plan that guides how you spend your marketing budget on a LinkedIn ad campaign. When you create a campaign on LinkedIn’s campaign manager, you can select a bidding strategy for LinkedIn ads that matches your campaign goal.
Now, let’s talk about the basics. When you launch a campaign on LinkedIn, your ads enter a lightning-fast, behind-the-scenes auction. This auction runs in the background. It ranks bids from advertisers vying for the same ad slot for a member. Your bid is the highest amount you’re willing to pay for a specific action, like a click. The outcome of this auction determines the visibility and effectiveness of your ad.
Let’s look at a real-situation example.
Take, for instance that you’re the CMO of a fintech startup, and you’re planning to launch a LinkedIn ad campaign to promote your new budgeting app. Your target audience is millennials who are interested in personal finance and budgeting. Before crafting your LinkedIn bidding strategies, you must decide on the bid type to use.
LinkedIn offers three bid types: Maximum Delivery, Cost Cap, and Manual.
- With Maximum Delivery, LinkedIn’s system sets the bid to spend your budget fully and get the best results.
- Cost Cap also automates bidding but allows you to choose your desired cost per click, impression, or view.
- Manual bidding gives you complete control over your bid but may not perform as well as the automated options.
Now, as the CMO, which strategy for LinkedIn bidding do you go with? Are you still unsure? Just stick with me, as you will learn a great deal from the coming sections.
10 Common Challenges or Mistakes in LinkedIn Bidding
Let’s look at ten common challenges and mistakes faced by marketers when using different strategies for LinkedIn bidding.
1. Several people need help understanding the LinkedIn bidding system. The way advertisers are charged on LinkedIn differs from other social media platforms.
2. Some others don’t set competitive bids. If your bids are too low, you might miss out on reaching your target audience. Setting a high, competitive bid improves your odds of winning the auction and getting your ads in front of the right people.
3. A lot of people underestimate the learning phase. When using the Maximum Delivery bidding strategy, your campaign enters a learning phase. LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager gathers auction data during this phase to optimize your campaign’s performance. Patience is key here, as immediate results may not be seen.
4. Some people choose the wrong LinkedIn bidding strategies. Marketing teams often struggle to decide if they want to control their bid value or use an automated system that maximizes results.
5. There’s also the mistake of inadequate targeting. A common pitfall is not defining your target audience precisely. Understand your ideal customer and use LinkedIn’s targeting tools to reach them.
6. Fintech professionals are sometimes too promotional, generic, or offering low-value propositions.
7. Many marketers need to pay more attention to analytics. Just as the finance team would examine financial data, marketers should analyze campaign analytics. This will help them track performance and make data-driven decisions.
8. Lack of testing and optimization. A “set it and forget it” mindset won’t cut it. Test different bidding strategies, ad creatives, and targeting options to find the optimal combination for your campaigns.
9. Failure to utilize enhanced CPC. Enhanced CPC allows LinkedIn to raise or lower the bid to reach the most relevant audience. This can be a powerful tool to reach individuals who are more likely to take your desired action.
10. The problem of inconsistent budget management. Inconsistent budget management can be harmful, just like poor personal finance. Using LinkedIn’s budget tools and pacing options properly can help to ensure that your campaigns spend money efficiently and effectively.
Strategies for LinkedIn Bidding from 6 Marketing Experts
When it comes to bidding strategies for LinkedIn ads, experts have tested and proven several methods. Let’s look at some of them.
Strategy 1 – How AJ Wilcox Transformed LinkedIn Ads Bidding and Budgeting to Drive Results
Ever wonder how some businesses seem to dominate LinkedIn with their ads? AJ Wilcox, a LinkedIn Ads fanatic and host of the LinkedIn Ads Show, shared strategies that have driven impressive results.
Here’s a look at how his approach to bidding and budgeting can help you generate more leads and optimize performance. His approach includes bidding types, objective-based strategies, and optimization tips.
Wilcox breaks down the five different bid types on LinkedIn. These include CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Mille), and CPS (Cost Per Send). He explains when and how to use each type depending on your campaign objectives.
According to him, when you run ads on LinkedIn, you compete with other advertisers for the same audience. The cost to reach your audience depends on how popular they are.
LinkedIn uses objective-based pricing, meaning what you pay depends on your campaign goal. For example, if your goal is Website Visits, you only pay when someone clicks on your website link. Different goals have different billable events, and you only pay when that event happens.
- For CPC, you only pay when someone clicks your ad. This is good for driving traffic to your page and getting leads.
- For CPM, you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. This is aimed at increasing brand awareness, not necessarily interaction.
- CPS is used for sponsored in-mail, and you pay when your message is sent directly to someone’s LinkedIn inbox.
Wilcox’s strategies have led to significant improvements in ad performance. By employing his techniques, businesses have seen:
- Increased lead generation and improved cost-efficiency
- Enhanced visibility and engagement through optimized bidding
- More effective use of ad budgets, resulting in better ROI
Let’s look at his step-by-step approach to implementing these strategies for Bidding on LinkedIn:
- Select between CPC, CPM, or other bid types based on your campaign goals
- Start with low bids to test performance and adjust as needed based on results
- Regularly review performance metrics and adjust bids to optimize results
- Set a high initial daily budget to avoid spending limits too quickly, and monitor spending to make necessary adjustments
For a more comprehensive guide on LinkedIn ads bidding and budgeting, check out AJ Wilcox’s full article.
Are you still unsure whether to use automated or cost bidding? Let’s look at other expert’s views on this subject.
Strategy 2 – How Rosalina Felipe Helped Businesses Boost Lead Generation with the Right LinkedIn Bidding Strategy
Marketing expert Rosalina Felipe helps you choose the best strategy for LinkedIn bidding for your campaigns. She explains two main types, Automated Bidding and Cost Bidding, and when to use each one to get the best results.
By following Rosalina’s advice, businesses can boost lead generation and manage their ad spending more effectively. Picking the right strategy can greatly improve a campaign’s performance.
Rosalina Felipe says automated bidding is ideal for:
- New campaigns
- Gaining visibility
- When your budget is near 85% of daily spending.
Cost bidding is best for:
- Controlling costs
- Managing smaller audience sizes
- Driving high-quality traffic when costs are too high.
To learn more about Rosalina Felipe’s tips for choosing the best bidding strategy on LinkedIn, check out this guide.
Strategy 3 – How Prime FinTech Generated 2,170 Leads
Prime Marketing’s strategy uses LinkedIn’s bidding system to get the most out of paid ads for Sentinels.ai, a FinTech startup. The goal of the campaign was to attract quality leads and increase brand awareness among financial institutions.
The results are impressive. They generated 2,170 leads, scheduled 34 demos, and gained over 6,000 new followers.
Prime Marketing’s approach to LinkedIn bidding starts with an initial content audit and campaign launch. They used LinkedIn’s automated bidding to find the best bids for maximum visibility. They focused on a popular whitepaper called “How to set efficient AML rules.” The campaign included a lead form to gather key details, resulting in 34 leads, each costing €34.
The next phase is scaling up. Based on the initial results, they adjusted their bids to get a lower cost per lead. They also expanded their target audience to include more financial professionals and increased the budget to reach more people. This resulted in 153 leads with a reduced cost per lead of €27.
Prime Marketing also tested new content by switching to manual bidding to see how the new content would perform. They introduced two new whitepapers and a free demo campaign. This resulted in 670 leads at €45 per lead.
Prime Marketing also carried out target group segmentation, which involved using LinkedIn’s advanced targeting options to reach specific job titles. They customized ad copies to address the unique challenges of different decision-makers. This strategy resulted in 1,195 leads.
In the final optimization stage, they used both automated and manual bidding to improve where ads were shown. They used insights from earlier steps to keep getting leads consistently. This approach resulted in 565 leads.
Check out their case study for more details on how Prime Marketing worked with Sentinels. Their success shows the importance of a flexible, data-driven bidding strategy for LinkedIn ads. This approach helps them constantly improve. They were also able to adapt to get better results in generating leads and building brand awareness.
Strategy 4 – How Parul Sharma Generated 3X More Leads with LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads can be great for getting leads, but you need to know what you’re doing. Parul Sharma is an expert in LinkedIn Ads and has years of experience. She tests her ads thoroughly and knows how to use different ad formats and bidding strategies. Her success comes from constantly adjusting her methods based on how well her ads are performing.
Sharma’s LinkedIn bidding strategy has greatly improved results, including tripling the number of leads. Her tips on setting goals, choosing bids, and using different ad formats have helped businesses run better campaigns and get a higher return on their ad spend.
According to Sharma, to make LinkedIn ads work for you, it helps to know the different stages of the ad process. You must also know how they fit into the AIDA model: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.
- Brand Awareness: These ads are all about getting your brand noticed. They help introduce your brand, product, or service to new people. Even if you’re already known, it’s good to remind people about your brand. The goal is to reach as many people as possible and build a strong presence.
- Website Visits: These ads drive traffic to your website. They target people who are likely to click on your ad and visit your site. The more clicks, the better.
- Engagement: Engagement ads get people to like, comment, or share your posts. They’re aimed at users who interact more on LinkedIn. This type of ad is great for growing your follower base and sparking conversations. For instance, an ad about BYJU’s acquisition of Aakash Education got a lot of interaction from the EdTech community.
- Video Views: These ads are perfect for sharing videos. The goal is to get as many views as possible. This helps with brand awareness, consideration, and conversions.
- Lead Generation Lead generation ads make it easy to collect contact information by using LinkedIn profile data. They’re great for gathering leads for downloads, sign-ups, or trials. For example, an ad offering free trials made it simple for leads to be captured and managed.
- Website Conversions These ads encourage people to take specific actions on your website, like filling out forms or making purchases. They’re useful for converting high-intent leads.
- Job Applicants Job ads on LinkedIn help you find and attract top talent. They speed up the hiring process and increase visibility among job seekers. For instance, an ad that leads candidates to an application page will make the recruitment process smoother.
By using these ad types effectively, you can guide your audience and get the most out of your LinkedIn ads. For a comprehensive guide on leveraging LinkedIn Ads to maximize your results, visit LeadSquared’s LinkedIn Ads Guide.
Strategy 5 – Optimize Ads and Scale LinkedIn Ad Campaigns
Anna Sonnenberg, a pro in marketing on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, shares her tips for improving LinkedIn ads. With over six years of experience running Sonnenberg Media, Anna knows how to make LinkedIn ads work better and cost less.
Using Anna’s methods can boost your clicks and results and save money on your ad spend.
Anna recommends the following approach to scale LinkedIn ads:
- Start by increasing your campaign budget by 20% every few weeks. This helps avoid abrupt changes that could disrupt the LinkedIn learning phase.
- If you’re setting bids manually, check LinkedIn’s suggestions and adjust your bids carefully to avoid spending too much.
- Expand your reach by creating predictive audiences or targeting specific job titles and skills to connect with a bigger and more interested group.
- Exclude low-performing segments and focus on high-intent audiences using insights from the Campaign Manager. Consider retargeting users who’ve interacted with your ads in specific ways.
To learn how to scale LinkedIn ads effectively, check out Anna’s guide.
However, what if you are doing everything right and still not generating enough leads? Let’s look at the possible causes, according to an expert.
Strategy 6 – Using Mitchell Gould’s Insight to Generate More Leads
Mitchell Gould, a Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads specialist for B2B Tech and SaaS, shared tips on setting up LinkedIn ads correctly.
First, he advises turning off the Audience Network and Audience Expansion settings. These options can accidentally widen your ad’s reach beyond what you need. To do this, turn off the Audience Network in the placements section of your campaign setup. Also, turn off Audience Expansion in the target audience section when choosing who you want to reach. For example, if you want to target only HR directors in the financial services industry, use the “and” statement to narrow your audience precisely.
Make sure to set up retargeting for people who have visited your website. Retargeting lets you reconnect with users who’ve already interacted with your site. It’s important to do this quickly because it won’t work on past visitors. Once your retargeting audience is established, data will be collected immediately. Delaying this setup could mean missing out on valuable retargeting opportunities.
Gould suggests starting with manual bidding. This way, you can better manage your costs. Start with a low bid and slowly increase it until you find the best balance between getting good traffic and not spending too much. Manual bidding helps you get better control.
Watch your campaign’s demographics closely. After your ads have been running for a bit, check how different job titles, functions, and companies are responding. To see this data, click on your campaign or ad group and select “Demographics.” This will show you which groups are engaging with your ads and which are not. Use this info to remove unrelated groups and fine-tune your audience.
Since many LinkedIn users visit the site on their phones, you should make sure your landing page looks and works well on mobile. Check your page on a mobile device to ensure it’s easy to navigate, read, and use. Avoid too much empty space and tiny text, and make sure the content is easy to understand.
Frequently Asked Questions
LinkedIn requires at least 300 people as the minimum audience size.
Well, it depends on many variables. The following numbers are just to give you ideas:
Text Ads: Average CTR is 0.02%
Dynamic Ads: Average CTR is 0.06% – 0.08%
Sponsored Content: Average CTR is 0.40% – 0.56%
Message Ads: Average CTR is 3%
It depends on your goals and budget. LinkedIn has daily budgets starting at $10 and lifetime budgets starting at $100.
It depends on your goals. For example, the best strategy for bidding on LinkedIn is to use LinkedIn’s Maximum Delivery bid type to maximize delivery within your budget.
The best LinkedIn bidding strategy involves optimizing your company page, targeting the right audience, and setting competitive bids.
Related:
Wrapping up
Mastering LinkedIn bidding strategies can greatly improve your ads and make the most of your budget. This article covers six advanced tips from top marketing experts, with real-world examples and practical advice. By using these insights, you can apply LinkedIn bidding strategies better and reach your marketing goals.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences, so please share your comments below!
