LinkedIn has expanded its B2B advertising offerings with Thought Leader Ads.
LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
If you thought influencers were just for dancing on TikTok or looking pretty on Instagram, think again.
No longer relegated to clothing or beauty brands, influencer marketing has become a lucrative business-to-business (B2B) advertising strategy, too. In fact, there are whole B2B digital marketing agencies who specialize in this area, but you don’t need to pay a big retainer fee for your business to benefit from the huge reach of influential people online.
LinkedIn has launched the full version of its Thought Leader Ads platform, which lets brands and companies pay to boost posts by respectable leaders in their industry with the author’s permission. This expands the reach of the post far beyond the brand’s organic network, elicits engagement, and can result in brand awareness lift and lead generation.
Here’s a quick primer to get you started promoting your business effectively:
What is an example of a B2B ad?
B2B ads can take many of the same forms as B2C (or DTC) ads, except that they target other businesses rather than consumers, like:
Paid media placements, which include sponsored Google links, display ads in publications, social media ads, TV commercials, and billboards; or:
Influencer marketing, in which a brand pays someone with a large following on a social media platform to tout their brand or product.
A popular example of a successful B2B advertising campaign was Slack’s “So yeah, we tried Slack” campaign, an entertaining video series in the mockumentary style of “The Office” in which fictional characters described how they’d incorporated Slack into their workflows. The campaign was funny and irreverent, standing out from the often-boring crowd of B2B ads, while presenting solutions to the target audience’s pain points.
Which platform is best for B2B advertising?
The best social media platform for your B2B brand really depends on where your target audience is looking for solutions and where you can shine in format-specific content. Answers will vary, but we find LinkedIn to be the most commonly effective platform for reaching decision makers at businesses who are seeking business-related information.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions (its advertising platform) lets you set a budget, select goals, target audiences by specific job title or industry, and analyze real-time data to optimize your campaigns with control. LinkedIn’s use of first-party data for precise targeting makes it an excellent choice for B2B advertising.
In 2024, LinkedIn has taken over many of the functions that Twitter/X used to serve like information-sharing and people-connecting in a more professional environment than the more fun, personal platforms like Instagram or TikTok. However, LinkedIn far outperforms the other platforms in terms of advertisers’ confidence in brand safety and return on investment (ROI).
What is a LinkedIn Thought Leader ad?
Starting in July 2024, LinkedIn gave advertisers the power to amplify posts from independent creators, ushering in a new chapter of influencer marketing. LinkedIn’s new product, Thought Leader Ads, allows anyone to boost an organic post, provided they receive permission from the author. This opens up new opportunities for marketers to amplify their reach and execute more personalized and humanized campaigns.
Facing a slowdown in growth, LinkedIn wants to challenge prominent players like TikTok and Instagram, capitalizing on the social media power trend of turning creators into brand ambassadors. Despite eMarketer's predictions that LinkedIn will capture only 4% of the market (equal to $4.5 billion in marketing revenue) the platform’s foray into influencer marketing demonstrates an ambitious vision for future growth. After launching on a limited scale last year, Thought Leader Ads is now positioned to fuel LinkedIn's expansion, using its 1 billion-member base to drive growth.
LinkedIn’s venture into influencer marketing may present a refreshing alternative to traditional ads, often perceived as repetitive and generic. As this trend takes shape, brands should prepare to capitalize on the opportunity to connect with their target audiences more personally.
And look out for LinkedIn’s new AI-powered advertising tool, Accelerate, to be released in the fall of 2024! We’re here for anything that makes the path to prominence a little bit smoother.
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