Content Driven Lead Generation Via LinkedIn Sponsored Updates

Content marketing is no longer just about creating compelling content, it's about knowing how to market that content to get it found by the right audiences and generate leads. One of the most powerful marketing channels at your disposal today is LinkedIn. 

1 out of every 3 professionals in the world can be found on LinkedIn. It’s the social channel responsible for driving more traffic to B2B blogs than all the others social channels combined. And now, it’s easier than ever to create, measure and leverage LinkedIn ads with HubSpot’s new Ads Add-on. 

LinkedIn Marketing Basics

You should already be using LinkedIn to post regular blog articles, share company news, and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You should also be joining LinkedIn Groups to increase your exposure and improve discoverability. And with social media marketing tools, HubSpot allows you to post directly to LinkedIn Groups from your marketing platform. This is an important feature because it allows you to more easily interact with groups, contribute to conversations via long-form posts and extend reach directly to the inboxes of your connections. But the one area of LinkedIn many marketers hesitate to engage with is paid advertising. 

The Problem with PPC

The other major issue with paid advertising attempts is that marketers measure the wrong metrics. Analyzing click-based metrics (directly in LinkedIn) is important and useful, but these metrics don’t showcase how much an ad generates in revenue, and that is the metric stakeholders care most about. The problem with PPC and social ads is that they’re difficult to start. That’s why so many companies have tried them in the past and quit before any real progress is made. The learning curve is steep, the software can be confusing and ROI isn’t always clear. 

HubSpot’s new Ads Add-on allows you to create search and social ad campaigns directly inside the HubSpot platform, providing a unique, closed-loop view of your advertising ROI with the simplicity you’ve grown accustomed to with HubSpot.

But before we delve into the exciting new features, let’s rewind.  

What Are LinkedIn Ads & Sponsored Updates?

LinkedIn ads enable you to create and place ads on different pages within the LinkedIn website. If someone clicks your ad, they get routed to your website. The solution allows you to set parameters regarding who sees your ad to better target the most appropriate users, set a budget and pay per click or impressions.  

LinkedIn’s sponsored updates allow you to publish relevant content directly on the LinkedIn feed of any member (not just your company followers). Like LinkedIn ads, sponsored updates can be targeted to reach a specific audience. But unlike ads, they are more visible to any in-network audience and appear less commercialized. 

Making Outbound Efforts More Inbound

What we know today is that broadcast messaging isn’t as powerful as targeted campaigns. When paid advertising first emerged, marketers threw loads of money into campaigns to reach as many people as possible. But bombarding the wrong audience with ads or content that isn’t relevant to their wants, needs or interests doesn't effectively generate leads.

The beauty of marketing within social channels is — we have access to an abundance of information, willingly provided by users, that we can use for targeting. Instead of interrupting the wrong people with irrelevant ads, targeting helps marketers connect their ads with people actually interested in the product or service being advertised, which delivers value to the user. 

Giving value to get value… That is the inbound way. 

Why Use Sponsored Updates for Content Lead Generation Campaigns?

The ultimate marketing goal is to deliver the right content offer to the right person at the right time in the right place. Sponsored updates facilitate this by using persona criteria to reach the most relevant audiences and deliver content on the user’s feed (where they are already looking for it and expect to find it). Furthermore, sponsored updates are the only way to reach mobile users “at scale” as well as gain impressions on desktop, tablet and smartphone feeds. 

Getting the Most Out Sponsored Updates

As with all marketing campaign strategies, there are numerous “best practices” you should follow to produce the most compelling and successful sponsored updates. The first step (of course) is to create a valuable content piece; something that answers a question, excites your readers or informs them. Next, transform content into captivating sponsored updates using the HubSpot Ads Add-on, which enables you to easily build campaigns from the comfort and familiarity of your marketing platform. As you create your sponsored updates, follow these guidelines:

1. Formatting

Audiences are and will always be visual creatures, which means strong imagery is only going to enhance the effectiveness of your sponsored updates. You can sponsor a link to an external piece of content, which is ideal for driving traffic to an external landing page for lead generation. But be sure to use a visually appealing thumbnail image and customize the title and meta description to peak your target audiences interest. 

In some instances, imagery may be the most compelling part of the preview, in which case, you’ll want to use an image that takes up the full real estate of the news feed. You can do this by adding a link within the text area and attaching an image instead. 

2. Targeting

The Ads add-on provides unique parameters (unlike other advertising platforms) that can be set to target very specific individuals, including:

• Job title: category, function and seniority level

• Company: name, size and industry

• Specific skills (by name) audience members are likely to have

But remember, if parameters are too tight, you may only reach a small audience, and if parameters are too liberal, you may reach people who don’t value your content, which is a waste of money. Determining the right audience size depends entirely on what your goals are for the campaign. To begin with, decide whether you want to target followers or non-followers. LinkedIn recommends a minimum audience size of 300,000 members for sponsored updates. 

Note: LinkedIn does not provide retargeting capabilities directly within the platform, however, it does work with other retargeting platforms like AdWords and Adroll to retarget visitors who interact with targeted campaigns and click over to your website. 

3. Budgeting  

Next, figure out how you’d like to pay for your sponsored updates. You have two bid types: 

• Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) is ideal if your goal is to raise awareness. You set the max amount you’re willing to pay each time your update is shown. 

• Cost-per-click (CPC) is ideal if your goal is to inspire readers to click and consume content. 

CPC provides the most value because each click is an action (a visit to your website). In other words, CPC is not only a way for marketers to set and monitor their budget, it provides an important metric to measure advertising spend and collect information.

Budgeting also involves deciding how much to bid. LinkedIn will provide you with a minimum and suggested bid amount. If you bid above the minimum, you increase your odds of winning in auction. As of quarter 3 of 2014, the average CPC bid amount was $5.97. LinkedIn’s minimum bid amount is $2.00.

4. Duration

Finally, you need to set your campaign budget and duration. Establish a daily budget to pace the overall spend over the duration of the campaign. Remember, social action is completely free in LinkedIn, which means if someone likes, shares or comments on your sponsored update, you reap the benefits without any cost. 

Setting Goals and Measuring Impact

What’s incredibly useful about HubSpot’s Ads Add-on is that it measures which clicks actually convert into leads and customers for each ad, instead of focusing on click metrics alone. The ads actually tie directly in with your existing marketing efforts, creating a more seamless flow of information, and the add-on provides a single, simple view of paid media ROI (down to the keyword). 

Let's say you’re using LinkedIn’s sponsored updates to direct traffic back to a landing page, and you already know from your MP that this landing page converts (on average) 20% of visitors. With this information, you can estimate the number of content forms you can expect from the campaign. 

If you set a budget of $2,000 for your LinkedIn content lead generation campaign, and your average CPC is $6.00, you can estimate receiving about 333 clicks to your landing page, and roughly 67 form submissions, content downloads, etc., from highly targeted, qualified audience members. Figuring out whether this outcome is worth your ad spend will depend on your lead-to-customer ratio and the average loan-to-value (LTV) of that customer. 

The point is — all the data you need to make these decisions is hosted within the same platform, enabling marketers to harness the power of paid advertising in an easier, more familiar environment without needing outside help.