Why is LinkedIn advertising worth the extra cost?

May 15, 2019

LinkedIn advertising is more expensive because the return is higher. Much higher.

By Maureen McCabe

In the competition for digital marketing dollars, Google and Facebook are clearly in the lead. Advertising Revenue:  Google $224B in 2022, while Facebook pulled in $55B. Given these numbers, it would be easy to dismiss LinkedIn’s measly $5.3B as not worth your consideration.

But as a B2B marketer, LinkedIn Advertising should be the FIRST place you spend your digital marketing budget for these three reasons:

1. LinkedIn advertising targets the way B2B marketers need to target.

LinkedIn lets you target by job title, degrees, skills, years of experience, group affiliations, and connections. Google can’t do this. Facebook can, but you can never count on a Facebook profile to have that kind of information in it. Not so with LinkedIn, where its purpose is to tell the world what you do and demonstrate why you’re good at it.

875 million members, unknown how many are daily users. $14.5 billion in revenue in 2022, an increase of 26.2% year-on-year

The 61 million LinkedIn senior-level influencers who use LinkedIn regularly (40 million of whom are in decision-making positions) certainly let the world know what they do, which means you can find them.

Think about that as a B2B (business-to-business) marketer for a second. If you were relying on traditional B2B lead gen methods like cold-calling and networking, how long do you think it would take to get in front of the decision-maker?

And unlike other social media platforms where these decision-makers spend time (or, more aptly, waste time) on LinkedIn, they’re “investing time.” It’s where they evaluate potential hires, keep up with the concepts shaping their industry, and develop professionally using services like LinkedIn Learning. This is why the average LinkedIn session lasts well over six minutes. That’s an eternity to be in front of a prospect.

2. LinkedIn’s sidebar advertising will change the way you think about your company.

In-feed sponsored content or video, similar to newsfeed updates on Facebook, is more effective than sidebar advertising, which is similar to AdWords ads in that they have higher click-through rates. Also, sidebar ads only appear on desktop or laptop screens (not mobile), so reach is somewhat compromised. And considering that 57% of LinkedIn traffic comes from mobile devices, sidebar advertising might not seem like a worthwhile investment.

But the benefit of adding a sidebar campaign to your marketing mix is that it forces you to come up with (or pay someone to come up with) a tight elevator pitch: a 25-character headline and 75-character body.

It’s not easy, but it’s extremely useful. Being able to articulate your value prop so succinctly will make you a better networker, a more confident presenter, and a more prepared elevator rider.

3. You’ll have far less competition for eyeballs on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over 500 million active users, but (and this is shocking) only 3 million users share content on a weekly basis. That means less than 1% of the LinkedIn population is shaping what the community thinks. Yes, there’s plenty of room for you.

And because of the relative lack of competition, you’ll be seen as a trendsetter on LinkedIn. This kind of positioning bodes well for securing leads.

And about the higher price…

Hyper targeting to a specific role, help with every aspect of marketing your business and the ability to seriously stand out. Put together, it’s worth the extra cost.

Of the four major social networks, the median CPC is the lowest at $0.51, while that for LinkedIn Ads is the highest at $5.61. But that’s not to say you have to spend poorly. We’re experts in finding you ways to save money on marketing above and beyond ad spend.

Not advertising on LinkedIn yet? McCabe Marketing can help.

Don’t you have the time to create a winning LinkedIn strategy? McCabe Marketing can help when you request a free consultation.

We make it easier for you to justify the cost of LinkedIn advertising by creating quality messages, A/B testing them, and going with what works.

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