How to drive traffic with LinkedIn Ads: step-by-step campaign setup

Affiliates mention the existence of LinkedIn when they join a team or want to find information about a company. Few people consider the social network as a source of traffic because there is no relevant information on the public profile. Today, we’ll talk about working with LinkedIn, delve into the peculiarities of the advertising account, and analyze the cases of marketers who have successfully generated leads from the social network.

 

Material sourced from Palai.media

 

Placement specifics

LinkedIn is a platform for professional networking, primarily used by people looking for jobs and companies to build connections within their teams.

 

One of the main features of this social network is the high percentage of users from developed Western countries. Consequently, these are relatively well-off individuals who can make purchases or place bets at the bookmaker's office.

 

According to recent studies, LinkedIn's audience comprises 930 million users. On average, 3 new users register on the site every second. The platform's CEO plans to gather an audience of 3 billion in the future

 

 

More than 60% of the site's users are aged 25-34. In many verticals of affiliate marketing, this forms the core of the paying audience that webmasters focus on. Every week, more than 61 million people search for jobs using LinkedIn.

 

Many consider the social network a boring and peculiar project, but it generates income. According to statistics, in 2022, the platform earned $14 billion. This is 26% higher than the figures for 2021.

 

 

How to launch a campaign step-by-step

LinkedIn provides an advertising platform that can be used to launch campaigns. It has many features, but those with experience in Facebook advertising should find it relatively easy to navigate the settings.

 

Please note that advertising on this social network is generally expensive. Performance metrics can vary significantly in each case, but experienced webmasters mention that a CPC of $1 is the minimum. This is due to the high percentage of users from tier-1 countries.

 

 

CPA examples

To start advertising, you need to set up a business account - a regular profile won't work. A profile for advertising can be created in a few clicks. The system will ask you to specify the account name and link it to your organization's page.

 

 

After saving the information, the LinkedIn Ads dashboard will open automatically, where you can manage campaigns. Let's create an ad set step-by-step to see how challenging it is.

 

1. On the first step, choose the relevant element: a campaign, a campaign group, or an account.

 

 

2. Next, specify the objective: brand awareness, lead generation, website visits, conversions. The last two formats are better suited for arbitrage.

 

 

3. Next, specify the objective: brand awareness, leads for business, website visits, conversions. The last two formats are better suited for arbitrage.

 

4. On the fourth step, choose from the available ad formats: image, carousel, video, text, dialogue.
5. In placements, you can turn off the LinkedIn Audience Network and set exclusions for specific interest categories.

 

 

6. In the spend settings, you can select a daily budget, a total campaign spend limit, or both. Optimization strategy options include maximum delivery, cost, and manual control. Please note that the system suggests a bid of over 4 euros.

 

 

After adding creatives, you’ll need to link your bank card and wait for moderation. Until the payment ID is successfully verified, the account will be in “Hold” status.

 

For testing, we linked a “White” card from Monobank. The system accepted it without any issues, and the “Hold” status quickly changed to “Active”. To avoid double conversion when deducting money, it's better to link a currency card.

 

 

For testing, we specified Ukraine as the GEO and removed a few irrelevant interest categories. The system shows a maximum monthly spend of 1500 euros. For this amount, they promise up to 270 000 impressions and 1900 clicks. The maximum CPC is 0.99 euros, but in practice, the figures can be significantly higher.

 

The performance of campaigns depends on the combination quality, creatives, and competition in the auction. For example, if you don't specify age and gender, irrelevant users may visit your site. We recommend setting goals for website conversions, not just visits. Algorithm optimization will take some time, but in the end, your traffic won't go to waste.

 

Campaign and ad set moderation takes up to 24 hours, but they are usually reviewed faster. The rules state that there is a prohibition on gambling, 18+ content, and nutra, but most likely, LinkedIn moderators won't be able to uncover a well-set cloaking.

 

 

The situation with first whites in the social network is relatively light. You can even get a welcome bonus of $100 through a special form. Requests are processed within two days, and they often receive a positive response. First whites can be considered a form of fraud, but the credits can be used for testing various offers.

 

We also want to add that when it comes to traffic generation, it's better to buy accounts with an age and a contact base. Without trust, creating a LinkedIn page is difficult, and it's necessary for adding advertising campaigns. You can purchase them on marketplaces like Z2U and AccsMarket.

 

 

Cases from marketers

For classic arbitrageurs, LinkedIn is not a mainstream source, so not many people test it. However, foreign marketers have long mastered the social network's advertising dashboard and regularly publish cases. Let's look at a few of them.

 

An AI startup promoted artificial intelligence services for businesses using LinkedIn. The company offered a free book on supply chain management (SCM). As a result of the campaign, the social network started bringing in 40% of qualified leads, and the ROI was three times higher than from other sources.

 

 

The next case from Kate Spade New York shows that the social network is suitable for promoting products. They advertised a smartwatch that helps solve daily tasks.

 

 

The campaign results exceeded expectations: 143 000 unique views, a 2,44% engagement rate, a 1,78% CTR, and the brand's subscriber count reached 5000.

 

The last case relates to Design Pickle, a company that provides graphic design services. In creatives they used phrases like “Save $37 000 on designer services”. The CTA worked perfectly - 463 registrations, and 64 users purchased premium subscriptions. The total profit was $1,8 million.

 

 

It's possible to argue that LinkedIn Ads may not be suitable for arbitrage, but it's important to remember that, apart from gambling, dating, and nutra, there are other verticals. LinkedIn's audience can be suitable for white hat niches, essays, real estate, info products, crypto, and offers related to issuing credit cards.

 

 

To build an effective funnel, it's recommended to analyze examples of creatives from spy services like ADSEARCH or PowerAdSpy. The cost of paid plans typically ranges from $4 for 3 days of access to $40 for a monthly subscription.

 

 

LinkedIn is a specific but effective source for white-hat verticals. The majority of the audience is interested in more than just jobs, including investments. Therefore, you can start by working with obvious verticals such as cryptocurrency and investment offers, then expand your horizons as you test your campaigns.