If you’re a serious marketing manager, you should already know about LinkedIn.

Endorsements. LinkedIn Business Groups. Job Position Targeting.

People are not on LinkedIn to socialise. They’re there to network.

It’s serious business. (pun-tastic)

Cause Effect saw that LinkedIn was on Facebook advertising themselves.

Waiiiiiit. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s very smart of them.

LinkedIn and Facebook are not competitors. A lot of professionals who are on Facebook for social reasons are also on LinkedIn for business.

Cause Effect saw their ad and thought we can go ahead and improve it!

Let’s not waste any time and start right away.

What’s Wrong With The Ad? 

Let’s be honest. LinkedIn is an amazing service and social media platform. Maybe their LinkedIn ads are a lot better. This ad cannot work on Facebook, though.

Why?

The ad doesn’t even try to persuade you.

Message

“Exceed your marketing goals with LinkedIn ads. Get started with $50 in ad credits.”

What do LinkedIn ads do? What makes them special?

What are ad credits?

This ad relies too much on LinkedIn’s reputation. Instead of improving LinkedIn, it can turn people away.

Image

The image is the standard of great advertising… 20 years ago.

Attractive ladies in advertisements should make people click, right?

No. Attractive ladies are everywhere. They’re in banner ads. They’re in 80% of Facebook ads.

You can use attractive images. Just make sure they’re relevant.

Headline

Attract New Customers

How? Why? Should the word attract be used here? Why not get?

“Get New Customers & Powerful Leads”

Doesn’t that sound better and more impactful?

Description

Surprisingly, LinkedIn saved the best for last. The world’s largest professional network. Really?

Substantiate your arguments. People want to believe their claims, but LinkedIn needs to do more than claim.

How would we change that?

Ad Variation 1

LinkedIn needs a little snap!

The ad needs to grab attention. It needs to be relevant and believable. Take a look at our first variation.

Did this ad catch your eye?

Yeah, we know we didn’t prioritise the $50 in ad credits. We did it on purpose.

Instead of focusing on telling everybody we’re giving away $50 in ad credits in bold and large fonts, we made it more valuable.

Why? If they’re giving $50 in ad credit away, this means they’re targeting a new target market.

They need to explain LinkedIn more to people who are not familiar with it.

Make it seem more appealing. Start a relationship the right way. Seduce them first.

Message

“Focus your ads to specific job titles” talks about a specific feature of LinkedIn advertisements.

It’s a feature that has high value to new marketers.

“We’ll even give you $50 to start”  That sounds confident and a little mysterious. Let people find out how that works when they click on the ad!

Image

That’s definitely not a “photo frame picture”.

The image communicates perfectly what the feature does.

Reach The Man In Charge.

Simple and straight to the point.

That’s what you need to reach people on Facebook.

Link Headline

You Need Professionals. They’re On LinkedIn.

We differentiated LinkedIn from Facebook in this ad.

This targets new marketing managers who want to get more out of their ads.

Link Description

Targeting takes on a new meaning at LinkedIn. When you’re advertising on a “competitor’s” platform, you need to set yourself apart. Click now to get better leads! Better than who?

Facebook!

Ad Variation 2

If you’re a marketer, you already know Facebook, Twitter and Instagram has a higher reach and more users.

MORE USERS shouldn’t be in LinkedIn’s ads.

Based on the services and features, a more accurate USP will be “THE RIGHT USERS”. Let’s do that.

Message

“You want interest from people that matter to your business.” (Who?)

Potential suppliers. Qualified potential clientele ( good leads). (How?)

Take $50 from us and start your future with LinkedIn Advertising. (OOH $50)

Anticipate the potential customer’s questions and thought process. That helps you talk to them more efficiently.

Image

“Get The Right People Interested“. How? Through your computer.

Just a touch of good ole drama.

Remember how we talked about the right people earlier? There it is.

Deliver your messages with flair.

Link Headline

“We’re Important For Your Business”

LinkedIn is a prominent social media platform for businesspeople. Act like it. Use that reputation.

Create peer pressure and standard for how others should perceive you.

Don’t play like a newbie when you’re a veteran.

Link Description

What are you waiting for? You can be better. Click now!

Short. Snappy. Make the potential customers feel like they need LinkedIn. Push them to click one last time. It can’t hurt.

Ad Variation 3

It can be hard to target bigger and more established companies sometimes.

You need to craft the messaging carefully. Focus the ad more.

Message

“It’s hard to market a B2B business, isn’t it?”

There you go. Target a niche business. B2B.

“Stop worrying and target to the exact….”

Talk about a specific feature. Done.

“Unsure? We’ll even throw in $50 to start”

Relate to the client. Incentivise them.

“We’re that confident”

Assure the potential customers.

We did say you need to craft the message carefully, right?

Image

“Turn $50 to $500,000!”

Businesspeople love numbers. Minimise their risk of trying it out and show them a possibility.

What would they lose in trying the service? Nothing.

You just have to make sure they know that.

We put the targeting visual on a map. This should also interest companies with a larger base or those thinking to expand.

Link Headline

“Advertising Built For B2B”

Look. Why did we do that?

Make the potential customers think the product is designed specifically for them.

Link Description

Stop limiting yourself. We decided to add a little more attitude in the link description to make them focus on it. Stand out a little more.

Ad Variation 4

Sometimes marketing managers are not driven. They’re not looking at driving sales. Their motivation lies career advancement. What’s the fastest way to push their buttons?

Message

“Take your company to the top and take credit for it.”

Let the users picture themselves in a victory pose. Generate better quality in traffic and leads for your business through LinkedIn Advertising.

Not more. Better.

Image

Look at that. Gratefulness. The boss is happy with you.

Reinforce it with the copy: Your Boss Will Love You

Minimise their risk: Here’s $50 credit to start!

Make the image count.

Link Headline

“Have You Tried LinkedIn Advertising?”

Make it seem like the potential customer is one of the rare few who is not on board this new trend yet.

Link Description

We answered our own question in the headline so there is a progression. Make it easier for them to read the whole ad.

We also created an urgency in the CTA.

Conclusion 

So that was the same LinkedIn Facebook advertisement transformed and improved by Cause Effect.

What do you think?

Did you like it?

Did you agree?

Tell us what you think on Facebook!

We hope LinkedIn doesn’t take offence. We’re only trying to illustrate how their ads can be better. We think a great business such as themselves can benefit greatly from advertising properly on Facebook.

We would love to discuss LinkedIn’s digital marketing needs better with them if granted the opportunity. We’re very active on LinkedIn as well.

Check out our other articles as well. We’ve published a beginner’s guide to content marketing and some others case studies.

If you’re interested to get in touch with us, shoot us an email (click the button below) and let’s talk over coffee!

We hope you liked the article! Send us suggestions on what we should write about next!