Always remember this. Quality over Quantity.

As a social media platform, LinkedIn can often be overlooked when it comes to advertising a business. People tend to immediately think of the likes of Facebook and Instagram – they have a much larger audience, right? See for yourself:

MAU (monthly active users) in 2021:

  • Facebook – 2.7 billion
  • Instagram – 1.16 billion
  • TikTok – 689 million
  • Snapchat – 433 million
  • Twitter – 353 million
  • LinkedIn – 310 million

Source: www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media/biggest-social-media-sites

But the size of your audience isn’t everything! If you’re actively trying to generate leads through social media as a B2B business, it isn’t the quantity of traffic that matters, it’s the quality.

Unlike the other platforms where users might be seeing what their friend had for tea last night, watching memes, or seeing what that random guy from high school is up to these days, every LinkedIn user is a business professional who is ready to engage with others alike. No other platform can offer this valuable guarantee when it comes to advertising your B2B business.

Detailed Targeting Options

A business professional will be a given for any B2B’s target audience. But where LinkedIn Ads really flaunts its feathers is the extensive targeting options available. For example, you can target users with attributes such as:

  • Location
  • Job title
  • Company name
  • Company size
  • Industry
  • Degree/field of study
  • Professional interests
  • And lots more

This amazing level of targeting allows B2B businesses to narrow their audience to the people that really matter and will most likely convert.

As most LinkedIn users provide accurate and up-to-date information, you can trust that your campaign will target the most viable candidates or business decision-makers. This benefit of LinkedIn Advertising helps companies make the most of their ad spend and achieve the best conversion rates.

What’s the Catch?

LinkedIn Advertising seems too good to be true when I read this back so far. But there is a common “con” to the platform – the cost.

Like all paid social platforms, LinkedIn allows businesses to choose exactly how much they’ll pay. The difference comes when you look at the average cost-per-click on LinkedIn against the other platforms.

Globally, the average cost-per-click on LinkedIn Advertising is somewhere around £3.96, while Facebook’s CPC is £0.73.

BUT! Just because you pay less per click doesn’t mean you’ll see better performance for lead generation. You’ll be able to afford more traffic within your budget on Facebook, that’s a near guarantee, but it’s not about the quantity of traffic as we know already.

Conversion Mindset

Although users spend less time on LinkedIn than other platforms, they’re in a conversion mindset when they are browsing.

That mindset can be easily represented when you look at the conversion rates across different platforms. LinkedIn Advertising generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rates across social platforms at 2.74%, more than 300% higher than Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). Even more, its conversion rate also outranks social media as an overall channel!

So if LinkedIn users are in a conversion mindset, how can you capitalise on that?

I believe a great way to do so is by using LinkedIn’s own Lead Gen Forms. These forms add a call-to-action to sponsored content ads. When users click the CTA, they’re greeted by a customisable form that is part of the ad.

Instead of users having to fill out fields, LinkedIn automatically pulls their details from their account. That way all users have to do is hit the submit button! As simple as that. This is a great way of generating leads without asking much from the user and really bolsters conversion rates.

To Summarise…

Time is money! If you’re a skim and scanner like myself then here’s the elevator pitch as to why you should consider LinkedIn Advertising to grow your B2B business:

  • Although LinkedIn has one of the lowest MAUs (monthly active users) across social media, every LinkedIn user is a business professional who is ready to engage with others alike. This means LinkedIn produces quality over quantity when it comes to traffic.
  • Targeting business professionals is great for a B2B, but you can take this miles further by using LinkedIn’s audience attributes. You can target users by their personal information and interests, their companies information and their job titles. You can be as granular as you’d like to achieve the best conversion rates.
  • Cost is a very common “con” of LinkedIn Advertising. The average cost-per-click is around £3.96 compared to Facebook’s £0.73. However, you’re paying for the quality of this traffic. LinkedIn has by far the highest conversion rate as a social channel and they charge businesses accordingly.
  • Users tend to spend less time on LinkedIn but when they do they are in a conversion mindset. This is easily shown when you look at conversion rates across each platform. LinkedIn has an average rate of 2.74% which is over 300% higher than the likes of Facebook & Twitter. It has a higher conversion rate than social media as an overall channel.