One size fits all doesn't work well in PPC given how rapidly the industry changes.
Here at SEER, we have a vast array of clients with different goals, KPIs and target audiences and are constantly looking for new ways to get in front of the right people. So, when we needed to grow awareness and leads for one of our super niche clients focused on B2B, we pitched them a test on LinkedIn. The results have been impressive to say the least!
Through many accounts, clients and tests, we’ve learned a lot about how to optimize LinkedIn performance. I’ll share some of the highlights below, but if there is one thing you learn from this blog post let it be this:
Launch New LinkedIn campaigns and ads on a regular basis!
If you are familiar with LinkedIn advertising this may not come as a big surprise but throughout this campaign we’ve collected data that helps support this belief. We’ve found that pausing our current campaigns and relaunching them (you can easily duplicate an ad campaign to keep targeting and settings intact) with a mix of current ads and new ad combinations based on previous month’s performance will help improve CTR.
In the image below, you can see the immediate impact this technique had on performance last month:
- Clicks increased 152% when comparing one week prior and one week post LinkedIn campaign relaunch.*
- Conversions increased 900% when comparing the same periods.*
Unlike Google and Bing, LinkedIn automatically optimizes your ad rotation based on performance. At first this might seem a little scary to those used to rigorous A/B testing, but it’s actually a great feature and takes some of the leg work out of determining the top performers from the previous month.
For this particular B2B client, I relaunch campaigns every month because I’ve found that performance can become stagnant (reduced impressions, clicks, CTR) after several weeks. This stagnation is likely related to LinkedIn’s ad rotation method mentioned above. Pro Tip: I like to label the campaigns with the launch date to help keep track. In the chart below you can see these trends have held true throughout the duration of the account with spikes in CTR correlating with campaign relaunches.
Other helpful strategies to maximize your return on LinkedIn:
1. Launch with at least 8 ads per campaign. As I mentioned above, there is no option on LinkedIn to evenly rotate ads so we’d recommend starting with several (SEER account managers generally see the most success when launching anywhere from 8-15 ads) and letting LinkedIn work it’s magic. This will help prevent the possibility of only one ad serving because LinkedIn deems it superior to the other.
2. Target LinkedIn Groups that are relevant to your audience. With this option, LinkedIn allows you to target users based on groups they personally identify with or have expressed interest in vs. standard industry and title targeting that is less personable. We’ve been able to capture a lot of additional volume and value by targeting LinkedIn group members who tend to be more engaged (30% of overall conversions).
3. Bid Up - I know this isn’t rocket science, but we’ve found that when you err on the lower side of the recommended bid range, you’ll see much lower exposure and CTR. Of course this will vary by goals and cost restraints but at SEER we generally recommend bidding anywhere from the highest recommended CPC to 2x the recommended CPC.
