Direct Correlation Between Ad Spend and Lead Volume

Quell has launched a number of sponsored content programs for clients on LinkedIn over the past several years, and the benefits to every one of them have been immediate and directly proportional to the investment made. Of course, good decisions need to be made upfront on the overall goals, content development, audience segmentation, and creative execution, but when that campaign is launched on LinkedIn, the engagement from those targeted LinkedIn members invariably translates into sales prospects.

Whether the strategy is to create awareness, provide thought leadership content, drive webinar attendance, or increase registrations to an in-person event, LinkedIn provides a platform where that sponsored content blends almost seamlessly with the organic posts populating B2B decisionmaker’s newsfeeds. Putting the right content in front of the right decisionmakers at the right time translates into engagement and sales pipeline. Shocking, we know, but even in this era of increased marketing accountability, the consistency and reliability of LinkedIn across a wide range of B2B clients has been revelatory.

Ability to Microtarget B2B Decisionmakers and Influencers

The quality of data on LinkedIn is unparalleled, for the simple reason that it is 100% provided by the individuals themselves. Name another B2B data source where the business professionals have a vested interest in providing complete, accurate and updated information – it doesn’t exist. Whether it is advancing in their current position or positioning themselves for a future role, the 575 million business professionals worldwide on LinkedIn are constantly seeking ways to add to their profiles and to use the platform to do their jobs better.

For companies wanting to market to their individuals, this wealth of data provides many different ways of cost-effectively reaching their specific audience of decisionmakers and influencers – 17 of them, in fact. Selection criteria include company information (Name, Industry, Size), job-specific information (Title, Function, Seniority), education (Member Schools, Fields of Study, Degrees), geography (Location), professional interests (Groups, Skills), demographic (Member Gender, Member Age, Years of Experience), and other information (Company Followers, Company Connections). The upfront audience segmentation and ongoing testing of various segments are perhaps the most critical components of developing a successful LinkedIn sponsored content strategy.

Consistent Lead Flow

Every sales and business development person has been faced with the task of dealing with a large number of leads from a trade show, a direct marketing campaign, a special promotion, or some other marketing activity. The typical result is some effort to stratify these leads by revenue opportunity, with some prospects getting immediate attention and others getting little if any follow-up. Invariably, some leads don’t get the attention they need and never have an opportunity to progress into the sales pipeline.

LinkedIn campaigns, on the other hand, are structured as either CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) bids against a daily budget, which can be set as low as $10 per day.  Under either bid model, delivery is extremely consistent from day to day, leading to a fairly consistent stream of impressions, clicks and conversions. This gives your sales and BD folks an opportunity to give each lead the time and attention it deserves, which can shorten the sales cycle and increase your pipeline.

Ability to Add New Campaigns and Audience Segments Easily

Typically, we will launch a single campaign with a new client just to validate that their primary audience can be targeted successfully on LinkedIn and that they can generate an acceptable level of engagement. These are often time-limited campaigns to promote a webinar or in-person event using existing registration pages. This is often the quickest way to get a LinkedIn sponsored content campaign underway, although conversions typically cannot be tracked using the LinkedIn Insight Tag if the registration pages are hosted on a third-party platform. Other successful campaigns have used “evergreen” content such as quick reference guides, case studies, infographics and other thought leadership content to drive conversions by directing users to content-specific landing pages and forms.

Once an initial campaign has been setup, the LinkedIn Campaign Manager provides many tools to setup additional campaigns and organize them into Campaign Groups for purposes of performance tracking, website demographic tracking (if the LinkedIn Insight Tag has been installed on the client’s website), managing account assets, and billing. One of our favorite features is the ability to save audiences as templates that can be brought up and reused with modified selection criteria for testing different audience segments.

Market Directly to Your Competitor’s Prospects and Customers

For companies looking to gain market share from their competitors (and who isn’t?) the Company Connections selection criteria offers a unique way of getting their message in front of a competitor’s prospects and customers. This allows you to target the first-degree connections of employees at any company with more than 500 employees. While the first-degree connections for any given employee likely include a diverse group of individuals including friends, family, former coworkers and others, by overlaying this selection with additional criteria (using the Industry, for example, of your company and your competitor), you can refine the audience to just first-degree connections of those employees in your industry, likely netting a very high proportion of that company’s customers and prospective customers.

Interested in hearing more about our clients’ results with LinkedIn sponsored content? Contact us today to identify the best content strategy for your goals.