An in-depth guide on the must-have capabilities and infrastructure required to drive real ROI from LinkedIn’s targeted ad platform.
As a marketing consultant who has managed over $500,000 in LinkedIn paid ads spend, I’ve seen far too many businesses dive in before properly laying the foundation for success.
Don’t make the same costly mistakes! Use this comprehensive checklist to audit if your organization has all the pieces in place to capitalize on LinkedIn’s immense advertising capabilities.
Laser-Focused Demographic Targeting
One monumental advantage LinkedIn grants B2B marketers is the ability to engage professional audiences with precision targeting based on:
- Job titles
- Seniority
- Companies
- Location
- Groups & interests
- And more
But you must first deeply understand your ideal customer profile (ICP) across all those attributes. Who exactly is your perfect prospect? What seniority level? What specific roles or titles? What firmographic details can further qualify accounts?
If you can’t clearly define your target demographic with LinkedIn’s robust targeting data, your ads will completely miss the mark. Do thorough audience research and buyer persona development before deploying campaigns.
Quality Score of At Least 7
A key performance indicator measured by LinkedIn is the Quality Score for each ad running from 1-10. Anything under 7 signals poor relevance between your messaging, landing pages, and target audience.
Boost low scores by:
- Crafting specific ad copy tailored to each audience segment
- A/B testing multiple ad variations
- Ensuring landing pages tightly match ad messaging
- Fine-tuning target parameters
Quality Scores above 7 indicate strong alignment that yields better campaign results in terms of CTR, conversions, and cost per outcome.
Mature Lead Management Systems
Easily the biggest mistake I see time and again is companies running LinkedIn ads without first implementing mature lead capture, scoring, and sales processes to capitalize on any interest generated.
Before even launching campaigns, ensure you have:
- Lead capture formson every landing page with clear value exchange
- Defined lead scoring rules and levels of civilian
- CRM to store lead datawhile enabling reporting on campaign origin
- Workflows to contact, and nurture prospects based on level of readiness
- Staffing to handle lead follow-up at scale
Ads should drive targeted prospects into a seamless funnel optimized to convert their initial interest into closed revenue.
Seasoned Campaign Managers On Staff
Managing a few small, basic ads is far different than executing sophisticated enterprise-level LinkedIn advertising. Success at scale requires in-house experts skilled in:
- Managing significant budgets across multiple simultaneous campaigns
- Understanding bid strategies (CPC vs CPM)
- Optimizing based on cost per lead (CPL) and conversion rate
- Creating and A/B testing ad variations
- Interpreting campaign analytics reports
- And more
Have multiple confident LinkedIn marketers on hand to architect, oversee, optimize, and govern expansion.
Realistic Budget Forecasts
Every business must have an accurate LinkedIn ads budget designed to achieve your target return on ad spend (ROAS). Depending on factors like offer, price point, and industry, it may take:
- $5,000 in spend to generate 100 marketing-qualified leads
- $10,000 to drive 250 free trial sign-ups
- $15,000 for 50 product demos
intimately understand your typical cost per outcometo right-size budgets that yield a profitable ratio of spend to pipeline revenue. Start conservatively then scale up carefully.
Only with the above core components firmly in place can your organization fully reap the ROI potential of LinkedIn advertising. Run through this exhaustive checklist to expose any capability gaps or infrastructure weaknesses to address in advance.
With mature elements in place, you possess the framework to capitalize on these powerful ads and significantly move the revenue needle.
