LinkedIn Ads: Targeting Methods For an Increased Business Audience

Image credit: Eric Cuthbert @ Flickr
Image credit: Eric Cuthbert @ Flickr

The process of reaching specific companies, industries, or even specific buyers can be tricky. PPC search ads have their limitations, and you can target all the specific keywords you want, but you can’t guarantee who is on the other end of the computer. LinkedIn ads offer far more flexibility and customization in terms of reaching out to the right audience.

If you want to make sure your LinkedIn ad targets just the right business audience, make sure you’re using all the targeting methods you can. Here’s what you need to know about using each targeting method to reach out to groups as broad or specific as you want.

Consider Geo-Targeting First

Is your product or service something you can only provide to particular audiences? If you don’t want to ship a product internationally, you can limit it to your own country, or if you want to reach people in a particular city or metro area, you can target them. It’s amazing how specific you can get with geo-targeting. Most ad networks have this kind of geo-targeting, but in combination with other targeting, you can get a surprisingly targeted audience.

Use Industry Targeting Next

Once you have chosen a location, use industry targeting to reach out to people who work in specific industries. If you want to only reach out to government managers, those in the education field, or people in the arts, you can easily do so. You can also choose specific sub-industries. There’s a limit of ten industries for one ad, but you can create more than one ad. You probably shouldn’t be targeting more than ten industries anyway, if you want relevancy.

Choose Companies (Name and Size)

You can target your ad to those who have worked or are working at specific companies if you’re trying to remind people to update their software offerings, hire you again as a consultant, or come to a conference. You can also choose companies by size so you exclude major corporations or small businesses, depending on your goals. For those interested in big business contracts or, conversely, those unable to facilitate workshops for a thousand employees, this will be an integral targeting method.

Job Titles Provide More Targeting

Are you looking for people in management roles, the marketing department, or those who are currently underemployed as interns or basic tech support employees? Reach out to people in the exact roles you want by targeting job titles. This could be useful if you have an offering that is targeted to people in a specific stage of their career or who have certain decision-making powers.

Target Members of a Group

You can target your ad to people who belong to particular groups. As groups are an integral part of LinkedIn, being able to target those who have specifically identified themselves as, say, financial accountants or software engineers is very useful. Group members are likely to be interested in certain related topics, so you can call them to action in your ad text.

Demographic Targeting

If you have a product or service aimed specifically at women, people in a specific stage of life, and so on, you can target particular demographics using LinkedIn ads. This might be useful if you’re looking to get an idea across that would be better-received by people in a particular demographic.

All the targeting options available for LinkedIn ads make it hard to avoid targeting the exact people you want! It’s much more likely you will get your ad in front of the people who are most interested in your services if you use these targeting options properly. Take the time to think about your ideal customer, who they are and what they will list on their LinkedIn profile, and target them for the best possible results from your campaign.

Guest article written by: Michael Keeler is a business website marketing consultant. His articles mainly appear on business marketing blogs. Learn more about [tp lang=”en” only=”y”]clear internet coverage[/tp][tp not_in=”en”]clear internet coverage[/tp], click on the link.

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