I had a chance recently to roll out my first set of LinkedIn Sponsored Posts. The setup process was incredibly easy but more detailed than what you typically do with a Facebook Sponsored Post – you select the update you want to sponsor (you can do them in bulk), set your budget, and then set your targeting.
What impresses about the Sponsored Posts interface? For one thing, they tell you how closely the ad audience matches your targeting, which is very useful (and makes it easy to refine your targeting for future ads):
All of that is well and good, but here’s the real meat and potatoes. Look at the Clickthrough Rates:
For the same time period, the click through rates (CTR) on standard pay per click ads on LinkedIn achieved a 3% CTR. The sponsored posts landed a 53% rate for the same offer, just in a sponsored post format.
And then look at the Cost Per Click:
For the same time period, the cost per click (CPC) on standard pay per click ads on LinkedIn was 18.69 per click, while the sponsored post was a mere5.01 per click, a savings of 73% for every dollar spent on advertising.
The evidence from this trial suggests very strongly that you should give LinkedIn Sponsored Posts a try for your social media promotions and see if it performs as well for you!
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Wow, thanks for this Chris. I’m wondering what will happen when that “new feature smell” wears off.
Yes, John and Chris, I was wondering the same thing about it being new. People aren’t used to seeing this new format, so they aren’t as apt to ignore the sponsored updates as they might be several months from now, or however long it takes for each person. Firms also have to decide whether a $5 cost per prospect is worth it based on their conversion rate and prices of their services. This might still be an absurd cost to some, but not to many others. I think a bit of trial and error is in order, but including valuable content to give away is going to be crucial or people will roll their eyes, and lose faith in the whole concept.
I’m not sure that your 18+ CPC for your LinkedIn CPC ads reflects a normal rate for most advertisers. In my experience with successful LinkedIn campaigns across a number of verticals, I’ve never had an average CPC above3.50. That would put me 30% cheaper than the minimum bid for a sponsored update. I’m not questioning your average CPC or even the strategy behind it. I’m just saying that I don’t think saying sponsored updates run 73% cheaper than LinkedIn’s traditional CPC ads is completely accurate given the typical advertising experience on Linked.
Ditto for your CTRs. The average CTR for Linkedin CPC ads is around a quarter of a percent (maybe a little higher).
Maybe I’m missing something (or maybe your campaigns are phenomenally awesome), but I would caution that most marketers won’t have the experience you had with LinkedIn.
Also when you’re getting those CTRs (3%!) … I’m guessing the the quality of each click through is poor even at 18 each – or maybe the high CTR is from really tight granularity, which would lead to high quality CTRs … but still not enough to justify18 each. Would have been nice to get more details on the campaign itself.
Jeez. I would have thought that LinkedIn would come around from a few years ago and lower their cost for advertisers. Maybe those prices are OK for companies but still too high for individual marketers. Thanks for sharing the info. Chris!
It’s really a useless conversation to go into the specifics of to fix any
of these particular elements in PPC or landing pages etc…there are so
many ins and outs to online marketing nowadays the most important thing
you can do as a business owner is start working with a company that really
knows what they are doing, has solid communication, and is able to work
with you to make sure key metrics are being measured and more customers are
being sold your products at the end of the day. Honestly this stuff
changes everyday, I tried to keep up with it for a while, but i ended up
working with John over at results driven marketing after one of my friends
referred me to have them setup some remarketing for my shopify store. Real
smart dude, if its any help to anyone else call them at 325-446-1507 since
they helped out my biz a lot and I’m always willing to pass along a
referral to someone who takes pride in what they do.
CTR is just dog shit. This is throwing good money after bad. What really matters is the increase in revenue to the company paying for the ad. That often does not increase appreciably, if it really did a company’s revenue would grow exponentially.