Maximising Your ROI with LinkedIn Conversation Ads: A Complete Guide
3.00/5In today’s digital landscape, where every business strives to cut through the noise and connect with the right audience, LinkedIn has emerged as a powerhouse for professionals and brands alike.
LinkedIn’s recent launch – Conversation Ads, was created in response to more than 2.5 billion messaging app users. Also, the increased focus on conversational marketing played a key role in the development and introduction of this new ad format.
Now, the question is, are LinkedIn conversation ads worth spending time and effort on? Well, we say – Yes!
LinkedIn conversation Ads present remarkable opportunities for businesses interested in engaging, converting, and building meaningful relationships with their target audience.
So, whether you’re a seasoned marketer seeking to enhance your LinkedIn advertising prowess or a business owner venturing into the realm of conversation-driven ads for the first time, this guide has got you covered. By the time you reach the end, you’ll be equipped with a comprehensive understanding of LinkedIn Conversation Ads. Armed with actionable strategies to maximize your return on investment and achieve your business objectives.
Get ready to unlock the full potential of LinkedIn ads as we embark on this journey together. Let’s dive in and pave the way for conversations that truly make a difference.
1- Understanding LinkedIn Conversation Ads
1.1- What are LinkedIn Conversation Ads?
LinkedIn Conversation Ads is a powerful advertising format. They allow you to engage with your audience in a more personalized and interactive way. Unlike traditional static ads, Conversation Ads create dynamic conversations with your target audience. Doing so enables you to nurture relationships and drive meaningful interactions with them.
Conversation Ads are more than just one-sided messages. They enable you to initiate a conversation with business decision-makers and professionals using LinkedIn Messaging via mobile devices and desktops. Conversation ads leverage the power of LinkedIn’s messaging platform. They offer a seamless and convenient experience for users.
By incorporating interactive elements such as multiple-choice questions, prepopulated responses, and custom call-to-action buttons, Conversation Ads encourage active participation from your audience.
The prepopulated responses that your audience obtains on making a selection are predetermined and based on the decision tree you generate.
Conversation ads are charged based on CPS or cost-per-send and can be accessed under four objectives in the campaign manager, including –
- Website visits
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Engagement
- Website conversions
For using the Website Visits campaign objective, it is imperative to have a minimum of two CTA buttons that lead to your landing pages.
When it comes to the Lead Generation campaign objective, you must feature at least one CTA button that opens a lead gen form. Remember, you can link only one lead gen form per ad creative.
1.2- The Format and Design of Conversation Ads
LinkedIn Conversation Ads are designed to grab attention and initiate engaging conversations. They typically consist of a compelling opening message followed by a series of conversational interactions. These interactions can include questions, response options, and subsequent messages based on the user’s input.
Visually, Conversation Ad is clean and straightforward. This allows the focus to remain on the conversation itself.
Just ensure that the ad’s design aligns with your brand’s identity while maintaining a professional and polished appearance. Also, note that clear and concise copywriting is key, as it plays a crucial role in driving the conversation forward and generating responses from the audience.
1.2- How Conversation Ads Work
The magic of Conversation Ads lies in their ability to simulate a real-time conversation between your brand and the audience. Once a user engages with the ad, they are guided through a series of questions and response options that steer the conversation in a desired direction.
The data collected from the user’s responses can be used to personalize subsequent messages and provide tailored recommendations or content. This level of customization fosters a deeper connection with your audience, as they feel understood and valued by your brand.
By leveraging the deeper insights gathered from these conversations, you can optimize your marketing strategies, refine your targeting, and deliver more relevant content to drive conversions and maximize ROI.
2- Strategies for Maximising ROI with LinkedIn Conversation Ads
2.1- Setting goals for your Conversation Ads campaign
Before launching a Conversation Ad campaign, it’s crucial to define clear and measurable goals. Identify what you want to achieve with your ads, whether it’s generating leads, increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or nurturing relationships. This is because setting specific goals allows you to track the success of your campaign. You can also make informed decisions based on data-driven insights.
For instance, if your goal is to generate leads, you can set a specific target number of leads to be generated through the ad campaign within a defined timeframe.
2.2- Planning and targeting your target audience
Effective planning and audience targeting are vital for the success of your Conversation Ads. Understand your target audience’s demographics, professional interests, and pain points to craft customized messages that resonate with them. Employ LinkedIn’s targeting options, such as job titles, industries, company size, and geographic locations, to reach the right individuals who are most likely to engage with your ads.
Suppose you are promoting a software product for small businesses. You can target your Conversation Ad specifically to professionals in IT and business management roles within small and medium-sized enterprises.
2.3- Crafting effective Conversation Ads messages
Compelling and engaging messaging is the key to driving meaningful interactions.
Craft your Conversation Ad messages with a conversational tone, keeping them concise and focused. Address your audience’s pain points, offer solutions, and provide value throughout the conversation. Use compelling questions and response options to drive engagement and encourage users to continue the conversation.
For instance, if you provide project management software, your ad could highlight how it helps streamline workflows and improve team collaboration.
2.4- Choosing the right Call-to-Action (CTA)
A well-crafted Call-to-Action (CTA) is crucial for guiding your audience towards the desired action. Whether it’s downloading an eBook, signing up for a webinar, or requesting a demo, the CTA should be clear, compelling, and aligned with the conversation flow.
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Find an agency!The CTA should create a sense of urgency or offer an enticing incentive to encourage users to take the next step. Besides, selecting a compelling CTA can significantly impact click-through rates.
For example, if you’re promoting a webinar, use a CTA like “Register Now” or “Reserve Your Spot” to encourage immediate action.
2.5- Measuring Success with LinkedIn marketing analytics
To maximize ROI with Conversation Ad, it’s essential to monitor and analyze the performance of your campaigns using LinkedIn’s robust marketing analytics tools. Track key metrics such as click-through rates, engagement rates, conversion rates, and cost per conversion. They can allow you to gain insights into the effectiveness of your Conversation Ads.
Also, remember to identify patterns, trends, and areas of improvement based on the demographic and performance data collected. Lastly, adjust your targeting, messaging, and CTAs accordingly to optimize your campaign performance. Using LinkedIn’s analytics, you can further measure the performance of your Conversation Ads campaign.
For instance, if you find that a particular ad has a high click-through rate but low conversions, you can modify the messaging or CTA to improve conversion rates.
3- Examples of Successful LinkedIn Conversation Ad Campaigns
Listed below are our top three picks for LinkedIn Conversation Ad Campaigns –
3.1- Case study 1 – CISCO
CISCO – a well-known network systems provider, employed conversation ads for needs-driven nurturing.
CISCO started by connecting with the data centre buyers to determine their priorities and then connected them with the right content stream, thereby generating leads at a more than 14.6% rate.
The challenges faced
- The data centre solutions of CISCO serve a wide range of buyer needs through a variety of product lines that modernise, automate and secure the data centre.
- The huge marketing problem the industry giant faced was of connecting the right buyer to the most appropriate solution, given it is challenging to determine the buyer’s exact need on the basis of the data alone.
The solution
- CISCO, along with its agency DWA Media designed a LinkedIn Conversation Ads campaign that enabled the potential customers to provide their data centre requirements – automation, security or modernisation.
- The conversation ad then proceeded to guide the buyers across different choices for every stage of the funnel – registering for webinars, speaking to a product specialist, downloading eBooks, booking demos and watching expert video talks.
- This targeting strategy initiated by DWA Media and CISCO evidently reached suitable data centre buyers, thereby retargeting them towards the data centre website of CISCO.
The result
- Using LinkedIn message ads experience for reaching target audiences, CISCO was able to generate an open rate of more than 62% using conversation ads and a more than 7.6% click-to-open rate.
- This campaign ended up producing leads at a rate of more than 14.6%, with CPL (cost per lead) remarkably below CISCO’s target.
3.2- Case study 2 – Hiredly
Previously known as WOBB, Hiredly is a leading hybrid recruitment platform that connects quality talent to the right job.
Their objective behind using LinkedIn’s Conversation Ads was to –
- Enhance the quantity and quality of leads generated
- Deliver personalised message to the target audience to boost conversion and engagement rates.
The solution implemented –
- Hiredly used LinkedIn Conversation Ad to target HR professionals using personalized outreach at scale and then proceeded to pair these ads with pre-filled lead gen forms to effortlessly collect the leads.
- Hiredly then proceeded to broaden their extremely detailed targeting by including key decision makers, including Founders and CEOs – all while sizing up the bid with the aim of having a better chance at winning the ad auction.
The result –
- Little did they know their changes led to a 120% increase in lead volume without hampering the lead quality.
- Currently, Hiredly has a 70% MQL-to-SQL conversion rate for leads that originate from LinkedIn.
3.3- Case study 3 – Ui Path
Ui Path, based in New York, is a leader in Enterprise #RPA Platform.
Their objective behind using LinkedIn Conversation Ads was –
- To generate more leads for its RPA or Robotic Process Automation solutions.
- To deliver a greater experience to the visitors visiting the site and are interested in the solution but did not get converted during the past customer acquisition campaigns.
The solution Ui Path implemented –
- Using Matched Audiences, Ui Path proceeded to retarget their non-converted website visitors while using LinkedIn’s new Conversation Ad format as a marketing route.
- They were successful in reaching their target audience members through Conversation Ads as a part of the LinkedIn messaging experience.
- Using Conversation Ads’ easy-to-personalise calls to action, the enterprise RPA platform invited suitable customers to review their research on RPA, try the platform, gain added information on solutions offered and contact sales representatives for a customised offering.
The result –
- Using Conversation Ads, Ui Path was able to generate at the rate of 67%.
- Simultaneously, Ui Path’s CTR or Click Through Rate to their landing page went up by 25% while the campaign was still on.
Our final thoughts
It is evident from the blog that by adopting conversation ads, you tap into the power of interactive storytelling and capture the attention and interest of potential customers like never before. The ability to guide prospects through a customized journey, sparking meaningful conversations along the way, opens up a world of possibilities for building trust, nurturing relationships, and ultimately driving conversions.
So go forth with confidence, armed with this complete guide to LinkedIn Conversation Ads. Unlock the full potential of this powerful advertising tool, engage your audience in meaningful conversations, and watch your ROI soar. The possibilities are endless, and your success awaits on the LinkedIn platform.
And if you believe that an expert at your disposal would make the process of using LinkedIn Conversation Ads effortless, scan through Sortlists’ archives to find a perfect match!
