Setting Up a LinkedIn Campaign

November 05, 2023

Setting Up a LinkedIn Campaign

The first social platform I wanted to explore was LinkedIn. Why? LinkedIn has 310 million active users per month and a total of 900 million profiles [1]. Moreover, according to Klientboost [2], "7 out of 10 professionals describe linkedIn as a trustworthy source of professional content." Clearly, LinkedIn is the place to be for a business searching to make other business connections.

According to ChatGPT, LinkedIn would make a great advertising center for:

B2B Companies: Since LinkedIn is a professional network, B2B advertisers can find a concentrated audience of business professionals and decision-makers.
Recruiters: Companies looking to hire can target ads based on job titles, skills, and industries to find suitable candidates.
Educational Institutions: Universities and online course providers can promote their programs to professionals interested in further education and skill development.
Event Organizers: Webinars, conferences, and professional events can be marketed directly to interested professionals.
Marketers: For those looking to build brand awareness in professional circles, LinkedIn offers a platform to target ads to industry-specific audiences.
Technology Vendors: They can find leads among IT professionals and tech companies who may be interested in new software, tools, and solutions.
Consulting Services: Consultants can target businesses in need of their services, from management to financial advising.

nuCaffeine serves both consumers and businesses as nuCaffeine products can be used as raw material in production. Some examples of how nuCaffeine is being used include: energy drinks, caffeinated gummies, CBD drinks, caffeinated water, tea refreshers, smoothies, etc. Because LinkedIn allows for highly targeted advertising (based on users' job titles, industries, and professional interests) it would be a good starting point to find leads for the B2B side of the business.

To create a LinkedIn campaign, you must be an administrator or have permission to run ads by. the business page owner. Since I created the account, I was able to go through the steps to create an ad.

Select the "For Business" button on the top menu. Click on "Ads."

The dashboard looks similar to all other advertising platforms I've used in the past (Meta, Amazon, TikTok). So it is very straightforward and user-friendly... so far. After setting up my Ads Manager account, I moved to create a new campaign.

ChatGPT has created a succinct summary of the steps you need to follow to create a LinkedIn Ad:

Get started with Campaign Manager: If you don't already have an account, you'll need to create one. This platform allows you to set a budget, choose your campaign goals, and manage the timeline of your campaign.
Choose your objective: Define what you want to achieve with your campaign—awareness, consideration, or conversions. This will shape the rest of your campaign setup.
Select your targeting criteria: Use LinkedIn's targeting tools to define your audience based on various attributes like company size, job title, and more to ensure higher engagement and conversion rates.
Choose your ad format: Decide between Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Dynamic Ads, and Text Ads, each with different features and benefits.
Set your budget and schedule: Decide on your budgeting model (CPS, CPC, or CPM) and set your bid, daily budget, and campaign duration.
Set up your ad creative: Create compelling ad creatives and consider making multiple variations for testing and optimization.
Measure and optimize your campaign: Once your campaign is live, use the analytics in Campaign Manager to track its performance and make adjustments to improve results.

I was surprised by how specific the targeting criteria can be! You can choose one of LinkedIn pre-made templates OR, customize your target audience. Meta does not have the capacity to dig this deep into your advertising targeting. You can select industries, job seniorities, job functions, and even job titles! Note: you cannot select both job functions AND job titles in your criteria.

The rest of setting up the ad was easy and straightforward. It is important to note you should optimize your graphics for the function and placement you select to advertise. LinkedIn has 3 main options to choose from[3]:

Horizontal/Landscape: Minimum of 640 x 360 pixels, maximum of 7680 x 4320 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200 x 628 pixels and an aspect ratio of 1.91:1.
Square: Minimum of 360 x 360 pixels, maximum of 4320 x 4320 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200 x 1200 pixels and an aspect ratio of 1:1.
Vertical (mobile only): Minimum of 360 x 640 pixels, maximum of 2430 x 4320 pixels, with recommended sizes of 628 x 1200 pixels (aspect ratio of 1:1.91), 600 x 900 pixels (aspect ratio of 2:3), and 720 x 900 pixels (aspect ratio of 4:5).

I decided not to run this campaign as LinkedIn requires a minimum of $310 budget.