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Dynamic Ads on LinkedIn allow you to engage prospects with right-rail ads automatically personalized for each individual based on their profile.

Choose your Dynamic Ad format based on your objective

There are several ad formats under the Dynamic Ads family:

• Follower ads: expand your audience and acquire more followers for your LinkedIn Company or Showcase Page

• Spotlight ads: share thought leadership, best practices, insights, and valuable content with your target audience.

• Job ads: get more applicants for your job postings.

Best practices for creating Dynamic Ads

•  Capture your audience’s attention with visual personalization:
1.  Check the box to enable your target audience’s profile photo to appear in the ad. Remember, this is unique to each prospect.
2.  Select pre-set templates that include macros to have each member’s name and company appear in the text of the ad.

•  Include one clear message and call-to-action on each Dynamic Ad.
•  For follower ads, exclude existing followers from seeing your ad to ensure you’re gaining net new prospects. You can do this on the targeting page.
•  For spotlight ads, try uploading a custom background image to add more visuals to your ad.
•  Refer to LinkedIn Dynamic Ad specs while planning to make sure that your ad is formatted properly.

Create your Dynamic Ad campaign

Log in to Campaign Manager to create a campaign.

1. Select your objective
2. Select one of  the following ad formats: spotlight ad, follower ad, or job ad
3. Build your ad

Learn how to set up Dynamic Ads campaigns and choose the right format for you, and read how to set up your bid, budget, and more.

Follow best practices for LinkedIn advertising

Make the most of your campaigns with general tips for creating effective ads:

 •  Be descriptive in the main ad headline and text. This will help your audience understand your message.
 •  Feature a clear CTA (call to action), so your audience knows how to act on their interest.
 •  Be specific with ad targeting, but not so specific that you narrow your audience. Choose location and two other targeting criteria to start, and follow ad targeting best practices.
 •  Get more LinkedIn advertising tips to maximize results from your Dynamic Ad campaign.

Test and optimize your Dynamic Ads

Each brand has its own path to success. Increase your ROI by testing the tactics that work best for your Dynamic Ads campaigns.

Try the following tests to get started. For clear results, test one variable at a time. This will help you understand the factors that affect your campaign results. See how the LinkedIn marketing team has tested Dynamic Ads.

Test the ad copy:
•  When your audience sees a Dynamic Ad in the LinkedIn desktop, there can be an ad headline and/or ad description included in the copy.
•  Try including only an ad headline for a simpler message, or A/B test different phrasing in the same campaign.

While the ad allows for copy in more than one place in the ad, including only an ad headline is an option to create a simple, clean message.

Test the type of central image you feature:
•  When your audience sees a Dynamic Ad in the LinkedIn desktop experience, there will be a square image near the center of the ad.
•  Try featuring different images here, like a company logo, custom icon, or photo, and optimize based on which performs best.

While the company logo is the default image, featuring a customized image is an option that can lead to increased engagement.

Test the image layout:
•  Profile photo: Enable the individual’s profile photo to be pulled into the ad, next to the central image you choose (i.e. company logo by default).
•  Custom background image: Include a larger image in the background of the ad instead of the profile photo.

While enabling your prospects’ profile photos is an effective way to drive strong engagement, including a background image instead is an option to show more of your brand.

Measure success based on your objective

You’ll be able to view reporting directly in Campaign Manager, the advertising platform on LinkedIn, to see the results of your Dynamic Ads campaigns.

To view reporting, go to the Performance tab in Campaign Manager. You can also export and download your campaign metrics.
•  For follower ads, check the reporting to see a breakdown of new followers gained by campaign.
•  For spotlight ads, utilize third party impression tracking powered by Doubleclick to monitor how your ad is being seen.

To measure lower funnel success of a Dynamic Ad overall, use LinkedIn’s Conversion Tracking tool. This will enable you to measure the number of leads and other valuable actions that your ads generate.

For more tips and ideas, download The Secret Sauce: How LinkedIn uses LinkedIn for Marketing.