When it comes to social selling, LinkedIn is not just another social media platform.

It provides an incredible opportunity for salespeople and marketers to leverage the power of social networks in building meaningful relationships with prospects and customers.

With LinkedIn ads, you can precisely target leads based on their job titles or industry, structure your campaigns around their specific interests, and deliver personalized messages that truly resonate with your audience.

In this post, we will go into the ways social selling is revolutionizing sales and marketing on LinkedIn and provide strategies to help you create a winning approach.

The Power of LinkedIn: A Platform for Selling Success

With more than 575 million members spread across over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn stands as the largest professional network in the world.

This vast user base provides marketers with a treasure trove of data to inform their targeting efforts through LinkedIn Ads.

LinkedIn Ads offers a variety of campaign types tailored to specific objectives, such as lead generation.

Moreover, you can create targeted audiences based on job titles, company names, industry interests, and even keywords from users’ recent activities on LinkedIn, such as articles they’ve written or groups they’re part of.

Customizing LinkedIn Ads for Different Campaign Types

One effective technique is creating a custom audience from your email list using LinkedIn Ads Manager or LinkedIn Ads Editor.

This approach allows you to leverage the information in your sales team’s inboxes to build a custom audience that can be utilized across multiple campaigns or ad sets.

Simply access either tool, click on “Create Audience,” enter the email addresses, specify inclusion criteria, and save the audience.

Furthermore, LinkedIn Ads Manager enables you to create a custom audience based on various criteria.

For instance, you can choose to target audience members who use Gmail, specify their job titles and departments, and fine-tune your audience selection by adding more filters.

Once you’ve made your selections, save the audience for future use.

Another method to generate a custom audience is by mining your sales team’s inbox. While tools like Salesforce or HubSpot can streamline this process, you can manually create a custom audience within LinkedIn Ads Manager.

Access the “Audiences” section, click on “Create Audience,” name the audience based on your product or target location, and add additional criteria, such as company size.

Determining the appropriate data volume for the custom audience is crucial, as too many contacts may result in inaccurate targeting.

Aim for 50-100 contacts per day to strike a balance between accuracy and relevance.

Expanding Your Reach with Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences are a powerful feature that allows you to target potential customers similar to those who have already engaged with your product or service.

By utilizing the connections of an existing audience as a model, you can identify and reach individuals who share similar traits and behaviors.

LinkedIn Ads Manager enables you to create lookalike audiences based on factors like company size, job titles, seniority, industry, and specific job titles.

This empowers marketers with ambitious goals to expand their reach without exhausting their budgets.

With the capability to add up to 10 categories per ad campaign, LinkedIn allows you to refine and expand niche audiences to a greater extent than ever before.

Crafting Lead Generation Ad Campaigns with Precision

One effective approach is to utilize job titles and company names as keywords when creating LinkedIn ad campaigns.

Job title targeting is especially valuable when trying to engage with influencers in your industry or niche audiences that may not be readily visible through LinkedIn’s default keyword suggestions.

For example, if you’re a recruiter seeking software engineers, targeting the broad term “software engineer” may yield limited results due to high competition.

Instead, focus on more specific terms like “JavaScript developer” or “Ruby developer” to ensure your ad reaches qualified candidates who are more likely to apply for relevant roles at your company.

Additionally, consider combining category targeting with job title targeting to extend your reach even further into niche audiences within specific industries.

Job Title Targeting: Building Credibility and Authority

Leveraging job title targeting allows you to establish credibility and authority with influencers in your industry.

By specifically targeting job titles related to your products or services, you can position yourself as a relevant and trustworthy source.

This strategy is particularly effective when targeting users who work at competitor companies or companies with similar offerings.

To maximize the effectiveness of your LinkedIn ads, it’s crucial to consider relevancy as the key to success on social media.

LinkedIn Ads Manager empowers you to narrow your audience by targeting job titles, ensuring that your ads reach individuals who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Leveraging the Power of LinkedIn Ads for Your Business

The potential uses of LinkedIn Ads for businesses are extensive.

Here are a few ideas to help you harness the power of this platform:

Reach a Specific Audience

Utilize LinkedIn ads to target your desired audience based on various parameters, such as job titles, industry, or company size.

Build Credibility and Authority

Leverage job title targeting to establish yourself as a credible and authoritative figure within your industry.

Custom Audiences From The Sales Team’s Inbox

Take advantage of the information within your sales team’s inbox to create custom audiences, especially if you have salespeople spread across different regions.

Lead Generation Campaigns with Targeted Keywords

Craft lead-generation ad campaigns by using relevant job titles and company names as keywords, ensuring your ads reach the most suitable audience.

Category Targeting for Expanded Reach

Add category targeting to your LinkedIn ad campaigns to extend your reach to audiences interested in products or services similar to yours.

Conclusion

Social selling through LinkedIn Ads presents a powerful tool for reaching new customers and generating leads.

While not all businesses may benefit from social selling techniques, it is worth considering and experimenting with these strategies if you have the time and resources.

Remember, with the right approach, LinkedIn can be a game-changer for your sales and marketing efforts.