When it comes to social media, LinkedIn is a bit of a dark horse. And because it serves a very particular purpose, it is ideal for connecting with other industry leaders and brands.
If you compare LinkedIn to Facebook, you’ll note that the user numbers aren’t as impressive. But the professional network has an edge over its competitor thanks to the fact that its members browse the platform with more precise intent.
So, instead of passively scrolling, people on LinkedIn invest time on the platform and are actively seeking content that inspires, educates, and allows them to be great at what they do.
According to DemandWave’s report on B2B digital marketing, LinkedIn comes out on top as the number one social network for generating leads.
NewsCred Insights published a study that notes that CPN through LinkedIn sponsored updates has been 75% less than the CPN from Google AdWords.
Additionally, around 60–65% of leads generated through LinkedIn are of medium to high quality, whereas Adwords only pulls in 20–30% medium to high-quality leads.
“I think the favourites for quality leads are website, inbound calls, and paid social, specifically sponsored updates on LinkedIn…” – Michael Greeves
Types of videos on LinkedIn
Videos on LinkedIn can be categorized into 4 types: embedded videos, LinkedIn native video, video ads, and live video.
Let’s look at each briefly below:
Embedded videos
Many brands and users upload videos to a video hosting platform, such as YouTube and Vimeo, and then share the link on LinkedIn. This is essentially what embedded videos are all about.
LinkedIn native video
Although embedded videos are fine, native videos tend to perform better because the algorithm prioritizes it. Native videos tend to boost in-feed engagement and have a far greater reach, too.
Live video
This feature is not available for everyone automatically and you must apply to be able to live stream. Check out our post on how to start live streaming on LinkedIn if you’d like to learn more.
LinkedIn video ads
Because we’re focusing on video ads on LinkedIn in this post, this is where we’ll go into much more detail. LinkedIn video ads are sponsored video advertisements that appear in LinkedIn’s feed.
When it comes to LinkedIn video ads, you can sponsor videos you have already uploaded on your page or upload new ones.
Video content, in general, tends to fare much better than static advertisements. This holds true for Facebook, too. In this post, we highlight exactly why that is the case.
As we mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is great for lead generation, brand awareness, event registration, and thought leadership.
In addition to that, video ads on the platform can prove to be beneficial at every stage of the buyer’s journey. This is possible because of the audience you can reach with targeted ads.
LinkedIn video ads can be up to 30 minutes in length. Longer than the 10 minutes you get for LinkedIn native videos.
You can set up a new video ad campaign via LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager if you have the permission to post Direct Sponsored Content or are the page admin and have the status of Viewer or higher.
To set up video ads on LinkedIn effectively, you’ll find the following information useful:
1. Identify your objective based on the buyer’s journey
First of all, you’ll need to figure out at what stage of the buyer’s journey you want to target your audience (Awareness. Consideration. Decision. Loyalty).
Once you recognize that, you’ll be able to produce a LinkedIn video ad that fits the bill. You can also measure your campaign’s success rate and tweak it for better results in the future.
The companies that are finding success through Sponsored Content on LinkedIn are mixing it up. You, too, can get intuitively better at it with a bit of trial and error.
One piece of advice here is crucial: you mustn’t just talk about how great your brand is; instead, focus on helping your audience. Switch the “always be closing” mindset to “always be helping”.
This approach will help you earn your audience’s trust.
2. Grab and sustain your audience’s attention
The first 10 seconds of your video need to have the right sort of information to get your audience intrigued and hooked.
After the 10-second mark, attention spans start to drop. Use compelling visuals, graphics, and storytelling techniques to hold your audience’s attention.
In this post, we talk about the 7 story plots that advertisers can make use of along with some tips for increasing user engagement with video content.
3. Appreciate the sound of silence
Normally, people tend to watch videos on LinkedIn with the sound off. Keep that in mind when you’re creating video ads on LinkedIn. Add captions and text so that the main message of your video remains clear.
4. Consider the length of video ads on LinkedIn
You can post video ads on LinkedIn that are between 3 seconds to 30 minutes long. According to the social network site, video ads under 15 seconds tend to perform best.
If you want to tell a more detailed brand story or describe more complex products or services, then experiment with longer videos. You could also try running a split test to see which video length works best for you.
5. Formatting and specifications
To check out all the latest video specs on LinkedIn, click here.
How to create video ads on LinkedIn
With a strategy set, you can now set up your video ad campaign via LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
Follow the steps below to find out how:
1. Create a video ad campaign
Sign in to Campaign Manager.
Click the correct account name and campaign group name. (if you don’t have an account or campaign group name, click Create account and then Create campaign group.)
2. Select your advertising objective
These are your options for advertising objectives:
- Brand awareness
- Website visits
- Engagement
- Video views
- Lead generation
- Website conversions
3. Choose your target audience and pick Video Ad from the format section
You can select your audience using the targeting facets.
4. Set a budget, schedule and then bid
Finish the Budget & Schedule and Bid (more on bids below)
Click Next and Save.
5. Review and launch
Go over everything you’ve entered. You can click on the Previous button on the bottom of the page if you want to review or edit certain sections of your campaign again.
If you’re satisfied, hit Launch Campaign.
Your campaign will start running as soon as it gets approved.
What are bids and which one should you select?
Bidding on LinkedIn works as a second-price auction. This applies to all LinkedIn advertising products.
In a second-price auction, the winner (highest bidder) only has to pay the minimum amount needed to beat the second-highest bidder.
The above holds true regardless of how high your bid was. LinkedIn selects the auction winner based on two metrics: the bid and the bidder’s previous relevance score (CTR, comments, member feedback, likes, shares).
Bid methods
Depending on your objective, you can choose one of the following bid methods:
- Cost Per Click (CPC)—for lead generation
- Cost Per Mile (CPM)—to increase brand awareness and get more website visits
Important things to remember if you want to win a LinkedIn Auction:
- Go for competitive bids
- Focus on achieving high CTR
- Make sure you produce engaging video content
Analyze your video ad campaign’s performance
Once you’ve successfully run your campaign, you can analyze it, learn from it and tweak things as you go forward.
The metrics you’ll be able to view will depend on the objective and ad format you selected while you set up the campaign.
Video ad metrics to analyze
- Plays: How many times a video starts to play
- Views: The video must be 50% on screen and must play for 2 seconds or more or the person should click on the CTA for a ‘view’ to register.
- View Rate: views multiplied by 100
- eCPV: Estimated Cost Per View.
- Views at 25%, 50%, or 75% Denote how much of your video was watched and at what point the viewer skipped.
- Completions: Shows how many times your video was watched up to 97-100% of its length.
- Completion Rate: A percentage that is equal to completions divided by views.
- Full Screen Plays: Shows how many times your video was viewed in full-screen mode.
Examples of video ads on LinkedIn
Philips – Seamless Care
Philips’ 28-second ad highlights how their medical equipment is making it possible for doctors to run a better diagnosis and in turn improve the lives of the kids admitted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Talk about getting to the core of something. the company’s slogan ‘Innovation and You’ shows how people can use its technology to move forward into a brave new world.
GE – Dustin Sharber: Research Engineer
GE’s spot does a number of great things:
- It gives us an intimate look into the life and motivations of a passionate GE engineer.
- You get to see the collaborative and innovative culture at the company.
- Shows you how awesome following your passions and interests can be.
You’ll notice how the ad does a great job of humanizing a massive corporation by focusing on one individual and his story.
If you were wondering how a company can leave an impact in a short amount of time using the power of storytelling, you just found a great example.
Cisco – The Network. Intuitive.
Peter Dinklage sure knows how to make an impression. Cisco’s short 44-second spot feels like the opening to an epic movie. The vibe’s there, and you know it.
The message Cisco wants to deliver is clear and is delivered succinctly: a network that takes in all of the information that’s available and uses it to strengthen itself against threats.
Vodafone Ready for Business
When you hit play, you’ll follow a young serial entrepreneur, Ben Towers, and discover how Vodafone helped him along his incredible journey. It’s a short and sweet commercial and wraps up in just 35 seconds.
The video helps to position the telecommunication company as a driving-force behind fledgling business-minded individuals and how they can accelerate or improve their efforts by adopting the technology the company has to offer.
Vodafone also wants to shed light on generational diversity and hooks you with this enticing caption: “Discover the secret to generational diversity from business mogul, Ben Towers”
Best practices for video ads on LinkedIn
- Your video content should be clear. Make the ad headline and text descriptive yet short so your target audience can grasp the message quickly.
- Clearly establish your CTA so the viewer knows exactly what to do next.
- Define your target audience thoughtfully and make sure your selection isn’t too narrow.
For companies and brands that want to invest in B2B marketing, video ads on LinkedIn could prove extremely beneficial because they allow marketers to reach a professional audience in a compelling way.
Taking advantage of Sponsored Content and video ads on LinkedIn, you can drive more traffic to your blog; boost your brand; get more engagement, and increase ROI.
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Source: motioncue
