I once heard that mystery novelists will sometimes write the ending of their book first, then go back and work through the rest of the story. This only makes sense — it tends to be much easier to chart a path when you know exactly where you’re going.
This was largely the impetus behind our redesigned Objective-Based Advertising (OBA) experience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. You begin with what you hope to accomplish, and then build your campaign around it from the start. Advertising on LinkedIn has always been focused on driving specific business results, but now the process is more intuitive and seamless for users. Our new LinkedIn Objective-Based Advertising Guide takes you through all the details.
In the spirit of working backwards, let’s examine a few practical business scenarios and ensuant outcomes, with a look at how you’d set up your LinkedIn campaigns accordingly through OBA.
Connecting Objectives in Campaign Manager with Outcomes
Please note that these are all hypothetical situations conceived to reflect common challenges faced by brands and marketers. These outcomes are not guaranteed, but rather, what your company can achieve through a successful campaign.
Scenario: “Our growing young startup needs to gain more visibility with people in a specific audience that probably aren’t familiar with us.”
Objective: Brand Awareness
Outcome: Your Sponsored Content with striking imagery draws many impressions and clicks, growing your following and priming members to move down the funnel.
Scenario: “We have a complex product, and we need to explain how it works to the market.”
Objective: Video Views
Outcome: Your creative and clever demo video piles up views and your sales team starts to see more inquiries rolling in.
Scenario: “We’re placing a heightened emphasis on our LinkedIn content strategy and want to strengthen our foundation by increasing Page followers.”
Objective: Engagement
Outcome: Your personalized Follower Ads hit the mark and drive substantial growth in your Page’s community, boosting the efficacy of your organic efforts going forward.
Scenario: “We want to leverage our whitepaper to produce new qualified opportunities for the sales team to pursue.”
Objective: Lead Generation
Outcome: Visually appealing imagery draws attention to your Dynamic Ads, leading to many downloads. Lead Gen Forms make it easy for members to quickly access the whitepaper, while you gather robust prospect information, enabling sales reps to tailor their outreach based on job function and seniority.
Scenario: “We just redesigned our company website and hope to maximize its visibility with a targeted audience.”
Objective: Website Visits
Outcome: With a rotation of ads featuring strong creative and precise targeting, your Dynamic Ads deliver excellent click-through rates and a significant increase in quality traffic to your website.
Scenario: “We’ve optimized our landing page for conversions, now we just need to drive targeted traffic there.”
Objective: Website Conversions
Outcome: Taking a direct approach with Sponsored InMail, you drive an audience of decision makers to your page. With Conversion Tracking turned on, you’re able to keep a close eye on results and further optimize your landing page through testing.
Scenario: “We’re running a contest on our LinkedIn Page and we’re hoping to boost participation to the max.”
Objective: Engagement
Outcome: Sponsored Content points relevant members to the contest post, which surpasses expectations for likes, comments, and shares. Initial buzz leads to viral traction, extending the value of your campaign beyond its paid reach.
Scenario: “We’ve got an upcoming webinar and we want to maximize sign-ups.”
Objective: Lead Generation
Outcome: Your Sponsored InMail campaign features compelling teasers for the webinar, leading to numerous registrations, and the sales team is supplied with a bevy of quality leads.
Take the Mystery Out of Your Ad Campaigns
The Objective-Based Advertising revamp is designed with clarity in mind, so you can envision the ending of your ad campaigns before you even get started. The eight examples above illustrate how — with the right targeting and creative — you can pursue a broad range of marketing goals on LinkedIn without ambiguity.
For a full rundown of details and best practices tied to each objective in the new Campaign Manager experience, download the LinkedIn Objective-Based Advertising Guide now.
