Vanessa Vallejo

Senior Account Manager

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Aline Gorey

Content Strategist

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

G e t t i n g t h e M o s t f r o m S p o n s o r e d C o n t e n t

LinkedIn Webcast I 1st April 2016

Today’s Agenda

Overview of sponsored content 1

Setting up for success: targeting best practice 2

Live demonstration of Direct Sponsored Content 3

Direct sponsored content: six tips for A/B testing 4

5 What’s coming in 2016

Overview of Sponsored Content

LinkedIn Sponsored Content Targeted ad placements that deliver content in the feed across all the devices.

Where does Sponsored Content appear on

LinkedIn?

• 15 content slots on the desktop

home page

• SU’s appear in the LinkedIn

newsfeed

• Frequency cap of 2 Sponsored

updates per company page, per

day for each member*

* Please note that this is subject to change

a

The Anatomy of a Sponsored Update Intro Text (include CTA and url)

90 characters

Description Text (customisable and not

visible on mobile)

max 230 characters

Headline (bolded)

Max 70 characters

Customisable Image

1200x627 px best

Company Logo

Company Name

2 Ways to Publish: Sponsor existing updates, or post

directly to the personal feed of your target audience

Personalise Customise your message for each target

audience

Test A/B test variations of your content to

optimise performance

Control What gets published on your Company

page locally or globally

2. Direct Sponsored Content

(newsfeed only)

1. Sponsor Organic Company Updates

(company page)

Validate Post organically to gain insight into

performance of update before putting

budget behind it

Increase reach Reach your organic follower base in

addition to your target audience

Direct Sponsored Content appears in the LinkedIn feed, without

appearing on the Company Page

Great for localised

language targeting

A/B testing

headlines, images

or CTAs

Must have page

DSC admin

access

Sponsor

content directly in

your target

audience’s feed

Setting up for Success:

Targeting Best Practice

Connections

500+

Company

Name

Sainsbury’s

Industry

Retail

Company Size

5,000+

Gender

Male Education

King’s College

London

Geo

London, Uk

Groups Finance today

Job Title

Finance Director

Seniority

Director

Function

Finance

Skills

* Target 4 facets max: Function (Finance), Seniority

(Director+), Company size (5,000+) and Geo (UK)

Powerful Targeting Based on 1st Party Data

Targeting Best Practice

Audience size minimum = 100,000

Engagement increases with broader audiences More clicks leads to increased virality and visibility of your campaign

The buyer’s journey is too complex to target niche audiences

E.g. 45% of IT Decision Makers are not in the IT Function

Use your click data to inform campaign optimisations

Consider Jeff Senior Manager in the

IT Function based in an

Enterprise company

…

in the UK

Targeting

Seniority

Function

Company Size

Geography

Audience Size

Niche

Manager+

IT

1000+

UK

101,000

Targeting Niche Broad

Seniority Manager+ SIC+

Function IT IT, Eng, Ops, Cons

Company Size 1000+ N/A

Geography AUS AUS

Audience Size 32,000 824,000

Broad

Senior IC+

IT, Eng, Ops, Cons

1000+

UK

895,000

3 Tips for Effective Targeting

Target a minimum audience size of 100,000 and consider less

senior roles that influence the buying decision

Optimise to what works best using real-time click

demographics

Target a maximum of 4 facets: function, seniority, company size,

and geo. E.g. ‘IT Manager+ 500+ UK’

1

2

3

D I R E C T S P O N S O R E D C O N T E N T

D E M O

D I R E C T S P O N S O R E D C O N T E N T :

S I X T I P S F O R A / B T E S T I N G

Why A/B Test?

Optimise to the best performing updates

Learn more about your audience

Improve campaign ROI

A/B test with Direct Sponsored Content

Relevance = Strong CTRs

A/B Test your headline and description text

A/B Test images

38% CTR*

lift

Lesson #1: Be Concise

156% CTR*

lift

Lesson #2: Less content, more variations

120% increase in CTR

Lesson #3: Invest In Strong Images

Processed 60,000x faster than words

Pair links / photos

Use infographics / big + small

Leverage videos and Slideshare

Lesson #4: Optimise for Mobile

Ensure intro copy is fewer than 90 characters or

eliminate it all together

Get to the point / don’t bury the hook

Have a clear CTA

Consider mobile landing page and UX

L

Tip #5: Test different image sizes

Large images work best for:

• Brand campaigns

• Graphs

• Images with an emotional

impact

• Infographics

Thumbnail images allow

advertisers more space to

explain content you are

promoting and state CTA.

Always include a link to

the landing page in the

intro text as if you don’t,

you’re missing out on an

extra clickable link

Tip #6: Have a Strong Call to Action

Make an Announcement!

Call to Action

Ask a Question ?

Run 3-4 unique updates per target audience. Frequency cap: members see up

to 2 unique pieces of content per advertiser every day.

Rotate in 1-2 new updates weekly. Prevents content from becoming stale and

allows for updating content strategy based on what works.

Less content, more variations. Republish best performing content with new

copy and images.

1

3 2

Key Takeaways

Split test, learn, repeat 4

P R O D U C T R O A D M A P F O R 2 0 1 6

C o m i n g i n 2 0 1 6

Conversion tracking Autofill

Boost mobile conversion rate by populating lead forms using LinkedIn data

*currently in beta