Master Guide To Create LinkedIn Ads in 2024

LinkedIn is one of the effective marketing platforms for B2B marketing. If you are looking for awareness, lead generation or promoting content in B2B space, then Linkedin is the channel to go with. 

In this article, I will take you through different formats of LinkedIn ads, how to create them and what are the effective targeting methodologies to go with for driving success from your LinkedIn ads. 

So let’s get started!

Different Types of LinkedIn Ads

Sponsored Content Ads

Sponsored content ads are linkedin page posts which you can promote on linkedin network. These ads can be a single image ad or a video ad or a carousel ad. 

You can use sponsored content ads, if your objective is to drive engagement for content pieces on your LinkedIn page 

Below is an example of how sponsored content ads look like in the Linkedin news feed.

LinkedIn Sponsored Ad

In Mail Ads

In mail ads are ads which reach users’ message box on LinkedIn. These are direct ads to their inbox.

These ads have higher conversions because they are directly in the users inbox with a higher percent of open rate. Below is an example of in mail ads.

LinkedIn In Mail Advertising

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Text Ads

Text ads are text based ads which appear on the top or on the right hand side of the screen. These ads include a headline, description and an image. 

Below is an example of a text ad.

Linkedin Text Ads

Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are ads which appear on the right hand side of the news feed. These ads are targeted on linkedin with a profile picture of the user and address them by their name.

Below is an example of a dynamic ad.

LinkedIn Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads in LinkedIn

Linkedin dynamic ads include job, content, follower & company spotlight ads.

Direct Sponsored Content

Direct sponsored content ads are ads which you can run directly without posting them on your LinkedIn news feed. It looks similar on the news feed as sponsored content ad. 

Below is an example of a direct sponsored content ad.

LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Ad

These are the different types/formats of ads, which you can consider while advertising on LinkedIn.

Now, before we get into creating a LinkedIn ads campaign, let’s understand how to create a LinkedIn ad account. 

How To Create a LinkedIn Ad Account?

Step 1:

Log in to your linkedin account and click on advertise as below from the work option.

How To Create LinkedIn Ad Account

Step 2: 

The next step is to to click on create account as below

Create LinkedIn Ads Account

Step 3:

Now fill in the information of your account including account name, currency and define a company page as below

Creating LinkedIn Advertising Account

You will then see that you account is created as below

LinkedIn Ads Account Creation

Now you account is ready and you can start creating Linkedin ad campaigns 

How to Create a LinkedIn Ads Campaign?

Step 1:

Log in to your LinkedIn ad account 

Step 2:

Click on create campaign as below 

How to Create LinkedIn Ads Campaign

Step 3

Now the next step is to select the objective of the campaign. There are different types of objectives you choose from as below:

  • Brand Awareness
  • Website Visits 
  • Engagement 
  • Video Views
  • Lead Generation 
  • Website Conversions
  • Job Applications

Objective In LinkedIn Ads

Let’s understand each one of them!

Brand Awareness – If you want to create awareness about your product or service on linkedin, you can go with this objective. 

The objective type is ideal if your business is new in the category and you want to tell users about your business. 

Website Visits – Website visits objective type can be used if you are looking to drive visitors to your website or landing pages to tell them more about your business. 

Engagement – Engagement objective type can be used, if you are looking to promote your content to your audience on linkedin. 

If you want to increase followers of your company page, engagement type is the ideal option you should go with. 

Video Views – Video views objective type can be used, if your objective is to promote a video on Linkedin network. 

Lead Generation – Lead generation objective type can be used, if you are looking to generate leads for your business. In this campaign objective, if a user clicks on the ad, a form open there itself with users information populated in the form fields. Users are not directed to a website or a landing page.  

This objective type is widely used across business to generate more prospects for business. 

Website Conversions – Website conversions objective type can be used, if your objective is to generate conversions on website or drive actions which are valuable to your business. 

In order to track conversions on your website through Linkedin campaigns, you need to set up an insight tag. 

Job Application  – Job application objective type can be used by companies to recruit people for various profiles in their company. 

So these are the different objectives in LinkedIn ads. 

In this article I am going to create a lead generation campaign for a Real Estate brand, in order to show you different settings, options and targeting in Linkedin ads. So I am going ahead with Lead Generation 

Step 4

The next step is to select the location in which you would like to show your ads in. So I am selecting the locations below for my campaign.

Location Setting in Linkedin Ads

Step 5

The next step is language selection. You can select the language basis the country you are in. I am selecting as english for my campaign.

LinkedIn Ads Language Setting

Step 6

Next step is setting up a target audience. Target audience are the people who you would like to reach out to. You need to make sure that you target decision makers on linkedin who would be interested in going for your products or services. 

There are multiple targeting audiences options to choose from, to target your audience on Linkedin and these options are further divided in multiple sub options as below 

Different Targeting Audiences in LinkedIn Ads

  • Company
    • Company Connections 
    • Company Follower of 
    • Company Industries
    • Company Names
    • Company Size 
  • Demographics
    • Member Age 
    • Member Gender 
  • Education 
    • Degrees
    • Fields of Study
    • Member Schools
  • Job Experience 
    • Job Functions 
    • Job Seniorities
    • Job Titles
    • Member Skills
    • Years of Experience
  • Interest and Personae 
    • Member Groups
    • Member Interests

Let’s understand each one of them 

Company 

With the help of company audiences targeting option you can target audiences by company connections, company follower of, company industries, company names and company size

Company Connections This will help you to target 1st degree connections of employees of the company you select. This targeting will only be applicable if the company has a minimum of 500 employees.

If you want to increase visibility of your business, you can use this, because the 1st degree connections of the employees of the company you select would also be within the same industry. 

Company Follower Of Through this option you can target followers of your company page. In order to make this option work, your account must be connected with your company page.

If you want to retarget the audience who is connected with you on Linkedin page, you can go with option. 

Company Industries – With the help of this option you can reach users within certain industries by using the primary industry of the company the user is employed with. 

This is useful if you want to reach out to maximum users with the industry of your company.

Company Names – You can reach out to users you have listed the company name as their employer.

This is useful if you want to target competitor company employees for recruitment. 

Company Size – With the help of this option you can target audiences basis company size. Company size is defined as the number of users listed on the linkedin company page. 

If you are trying to generate leads for your business, one of the specs considered is company size because this also gives you an indication whether the company can go with your product or service pricing or not. 

Demographics

With the help of demographics you can target users through age and gender. It’s useful if you are hiring candidates, but not useful for generating leads for products or services which you offer, as age and gender won’t make much of difference here. 

Education 

With the help of education audiences you can target users by their degrees, fields of study and member schools. 

Degrees With this option under education, you can target users who have a specific degree or by college or by university or any other learning institution eg: Stanford, Wharton or Symbiosis.   

This targeting is useful if you are looking to hire candidates from specific universities or with specific degrees 

Fields of Study – With fields of study option you can target users with the major area of study. 

Again, this is useful for hiring candidates or consultants. 

Member Schools – With this option, you can marketing to users from different schools, colleges or universities. 

So, for my targeting I have added Job titles as the targeting parameter because, it’s a real estate property and I want to target top management professionals.

Job Titles Targeting in LinkedIn

You can use multiple audiences for targeting your campaign depending upon the target audience for your business. 

Next thing is add more attributes (OR)+ 

OR Targeting in LinkedIn

With this option you can add more audiences parameters, so that if one parameter does not match but the other matches, then your ad is eligible to trigger. Let’s take an example and understand this.

I have added Job Titles as my target audience, so now if I say OR and add job seniorities, then my add is eligible to trigger if any of the targeting parameter matches. Below is an illustration. 

How Does OR Targeting in LinkedIn Work?

The next thing is narrow audience (AND)

LinkedIn AND Audience Targeting

With narrow your audience option, you can use a combination of two or three different targeting parameters to target. In this case all the targeting parameters used should match, only then the ad is eligible to trigger. 

For Eg: Let’s say if I am using three targeting parameters including job titles, job seniorities and company names. Now my ad will only trigger if all the tree parameters match together. Below is an illustration.

How Does AND Targeting Work in LinkedIn

Next thing is exclude option in targeting

How to Exclude Audiences in Linkedin

With the help of exclude audience option, you can exclude audiences from your targeting methodology. 

Step 7

Next is audience expansion.

LinkedIn Audience Expansion

Never go with audience expansion because Linkedin will target more people who are similar to your audience automatically. 

Step 8

Next thing is to define ad format. As my campaign is an in mail ad campaign, I am going with the mail ad type.

LinkedIn Ad Format Option in LinkedIn Ads

Step 9

Next is placement, which includes Linkedin audience network. Linkedin audience network includes placements connected with Linkedin to advertise. So for my campaign objective type, this is not applicable, so I am skipping this and moving ahead. 

Linkedin Ads Placement Selection

Step 10

Next step is to define the budget and schedule for your campaign. I am defining as below, you can define as per your campaign budget.

Linkedin Ads Budget & Scheduling

Step 11

Next is conversion tracking. 

Conversion Tracking in Linkedin

For lead generation campaign conversion tracking is not required, but if you are using website conversions as the objective, then you should set up conversion tracking before starting the campaign. 

Step 12

Next is to add the creative of your ad

Create Linkedin Ad

Step 13

Define the sender & message for you ad copy

How to create ad copy in LinkedIn

Now add the call to action, landing page URL and upload the banner creative. 

Call to Action in Linkedin

Step 14

Next step is to define the lead generation form as it’s a linkedin lead generation campaign. You need to define below aspects

  • Form name,
  • Language
  • Offer headline
  • Offer details 
  • Privacy policy and 
  • Policy text

How to Create Lead Generation Ads In Linkedin

Post that define the lead form questions, which is lead form fields on your lead form. It’s the information which you would like to capture of your customer. 

You can also add custom questions based on your business and custom checkboxes.

Linkedin Lead Form CreationNext is confirmation option where you need to define thank you message, landing page url and thank you message call to action 

LinkedIn Lead Generation Ads

Once you have entered all the information, you can see the preview on the right hand side. Below is how my lead generation form looks like 

Linkedin Lead Generation Ads Campaign Creation

Now say create and your ad is created!

Your ad will go in review and will be live once approved!

Conclusion

LinkedIn lead generation ads are very effective ads if you are looking to generate leads for your business. The success of the campaign will depend on the targeting methodology which you have used in the campaign. Create Linkedin lead generation ads today and grow your business!