Greetings Happy Readers! This week’s PPCChat discussion was about what experts think of LinkedIn Advertising in the year 2022. Host Julie F Bacchini & guest host AJ Wilcox discussed the new features that experts are trying or plan to try in the coming months, what frustrates the PPCers in LinkedIn advertising, and more.
Q1: Are you currently advertising on LinkedIn? If so, for how long have you been advertising there, and for how many clients/accounts? And if not, why not?
While I have managed LinkedIn advertising in the past, my current set of clients are not advertising there, which is a bummer. @NeptuneMoon
Definitely currently advertising on #linkedinads.Over 11 years, and over 700 accounts. $150M+ in spend. Love the platform, despite its flaws. @wilcoxaj
Yes, currently have several clients on LinkedIn Ads. Been there for at least 7-8 years. @robert_brady
We’ve got about 40% of our clients on LinkedIn, would like it to be more since we are mostly B2B. Have been advertising there for 2-3 years. @_RileyDuncan
Yes, more and more. A handful of clients all focused on B2B. These clients took a brief pause during covid but has been on LinkedIn for years. One of their top platforms. @selley2134
We are not, though we have in the past when working on tech and SaaS brands. Our agency is 95% ecom and DTC these days. Though I think about what type of ecom & DTC brands would make sense to run LinkedIn ads for. Higher-end priced products. @duanebrown
I only do in-house LinkedIn ads. @DianaAlinaAldea
Q2: What have you found to be working really well in LinkedIn advertising lately?
It’s funny, the majority of the stuff that worked 5+ years ago is still working! The first 2 ad formats that LI came out with are still working great (Single Image Sponsored Content & Text Ads). Valuable content still converts better than demo requests and trials. @wilcoxaj
Straight-ahead single image, animated video sponsored content. It’s the audience that really makes it happen for us. @JuliaVyse
Surprisingly or not, retargeting ads perform very well for us on LinkedIn. @DianaAlinaAldea
We tend to stick to the Text ads as they are on the cheaper side and tend to perform well. But have recently seen more success with Lead Ads. Had one campaign just spend over $3k with a $22 CPA. @selley2134
Have no value to drop… I’ll eat my Thai lunch and see what others say. @duanebrown
Sponsored content promoting webinars, ebooks, checklists, etc. As long as the asset is compelling enough to the audience, we see great results. Using Lead Gen forms can help improve conversion rates, too. @_RileyDuncan
Q3: What has been frustrating you in LinkedIn advertising lately?
Lack of buckle editing last time I used the ad manager, which was last summer. Or if this exists, maybe I just don’t know how to do it. @duanebrown
The business manager rollout is very slow. Here in Canada, can we just have it, please? Every single buyer on my team needs direct client access to the page in order to publish. shake a leg and get us switched over! @JuliaVyse
Ad previews are just not…a thing. The type of customer on LinkedIn very much likes to approve their content. Simple ops upgrades would really help. @JuliaVyse
#linkedinads has always been a premium platform, but CPCs have increased by 50% in the last year in many cases. Yuck! @wilcoxaj
It’s expensive. Especially if you just want to test something new (hard to get enough budget to make the test worth it). The amount of tagging can also be a bit annoying to get clients to implement correctly for a test. @selley2134
Budget control is terrible. Bid suggestions are comical and add to the CPC inflation issue. Bulk editing anything is hard to do. @robert_brady
Okay, one about the actual platform. CPMs are relatively high, which I can make a case for. But the YoY increase is very noticeable, particularly for regional campaigns. @JuliaVyse
Not being able to duplicate an ad. Yes, I know you *can* but it remains weirdly tied to the original ad. LI Ads needs a duplication feature like Facebook has. Please and thank you. (Unless this changed while I was off the platform? ) @NeptuneMoon
The platform can be glitchy at points for me when creating campaigns. sometimes campaign names won’t save. sometimes I can’t add images etc! @rachel_lowell
To all that was added here and with which I agree a lot, I would also add the fact you can’t edit the UTMs of carousel cards once the ad went live. @DianaAlinaAldea
Q4: Are there things that used to work well for you on the LinkedIn platform that no longer perform well? Do you have any thoughts as to why this might be happening?
I do see that our lead magnets really need to solve a “migraine problem” instead of a “headache problem”. It used to be that you could get fairly good performance from decent assets. Now they really have to be GREAT assets to get high performance. @wilcoxaj
Audiences need to be a bit broader these days – it’s a theme folks! @JuliaVyse
Thai is done and I kinda want some ice cream. Also no value to drop in this questions. @duanebrown
Q5: Are there any newer features that you’ve tried and/or plan to try in the coming months on the LinkedIn advertising platform?
Definitely add single image retargeting to that list of stuff you need to try. It now builds audiences in arrears, so no more setting up retargeting and waiting for a 300-person audience. @wilcoxaj
I’m curious about Dynamic ads on LinkedIn, but I don’t have a good candidate to try them out with. @JuliaVyse
Q6: What questions do you have for @wilcoxaj about LinkedIn advertising in 2022?
What are your thoughts on Message Ads right now? Are you using them? Where do they fit best for advertisers? @robert_brady
@robert_brady Message Ads and Conversation Ads are SOOO hard to make work. CPCs are ridiculous ($25-50 range on average). Takes a VIP offer that feels like a personal invitation to make more efficient than Sponsored Content. @wilcoxaj
@robert_brady we’ve had success in EXACTLY one campaign where we did message ads inviting specific businesses to apply for a specific grant. and it was still pretty pricey. We did it alongside sponsored content, so a pretty big lift for that particular one. Not for everyday. @JuliaVyse
Getting leads is the easy part – what are some proper strategies for nurturing TOF leads? @CryptoPeasantry
@CryptoPeasantry VERY good question and one that deserves its own whole topic. Can’t tell you how many times we slayed it for a client but they quit because their sales team didn’t know how to nurture the leads. @wilcoxaj
This is what I’m dealing with now. Reps that have been spoon fed leads direct from the company website that are BOF. They have never really had to work a lead in their lives. @CryptoPeasantry
@CryptoPeasantry EXACTLY! And TOTALLY different approach. Need to be consultative rather than a “sales guy” and they need to be trained on it. Hold their hands and walk them through the mindset and process. @wilcoxaj
What do you think would be better: a lead generation campaign, that directs users for example to homepage, or a simple conversion campaign instead, that directs users to a landing page with a form on it? @DianaAlinaAldea
@DianaAlinaAldea Good question, definitely hard to say. Purpose-built landing page is easier to show the value and explain the benefit, but the conversion rate will be lower than lead gen form. Leadgen has much higher conversion rates, but lower quality of lead. Gota balance. @wilcoxaj
PPCChat Participants
- Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
- A J Wilcox@wilcoxaj
- Robert Brady @robert_brady
- Riley Duncan @_RileyDuncan
- Shaun Elley @selley2134
- Duane Brown @duanebrown
- Diana-Alina Aldea @DianaAlinaAldea
- Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
- Rachel Lowell @rachel_lowell
- WOOTOPIA @CryptoPeasantry
Related Links
Stop the wasted ad spend. Get more conversions from the same ad budget.
Our customers save over $16 Million per year on Google and Amazon Ads.