LinkedIn advertisers are getting three new updates: a lookalike audiences targeting feature, interest targeting that leverages Bing search data, and more than 20 B2B audience templates. The company says it has been testing these new features over the last few months and that they will be available to all advertisers over the next two weeks.
New lookalike audiences. The new lookalike audiences allow advertisers to target LinkedIn members that have the same traits as the advertiser’s “ideal customer” based on their similarity to the advertiser’s existing customers, website visitors and target accounts.
LinkedIn said the new lookalike audiences targeting feature will help marketers reach more high-converting audiences at scale, and that beta users were able to improve their campaign reach by five to 10 times.
“We used interest targeting on our brand awareness campaigns and we are extremely satisfied with the results so far,” said Matt Campbell, multi-channel marketing specialist for SAS Institute.
The lookalike audiences also work for account-based strategies, making it possible to target ads to companies that match an advertiser’s “ideal” customer profile, same as individuals.
Interest targeting using Bing search data. After launching interest targeting in January, a feature that lets advertisers target ads by a person’s interests on the platform, LinkedIn is now expanding its interest targeting capability by integrating Microsoft’s Bing search data. Advertisers will be able to target members based not only on their professional interests on LinkedIn, but also the professional topics and content they engage with on Bing.
LinkedIn (which is owned by Microsoft) said it is implementing this feature in a way that respects member privacy.
Predefined B2B audience templates. To save time, LinkedIn advertisers now have more than 20 audience templates: predefined B2B audience targeting profiles that include characteristics such as member skills, job titles and groups. The templates can be activated with a single click, cutting down the amount of time it takes to set up a campaign.
Why you should care. With more than 600 million members, LinkedIn’s platform offers a wealth of opportunity for advertisers wanting to reach a B2B audience. The company has recently focused its efforts on rebuilding its Campaign Manager ad platform to include an objective-based workflow and meet the needs of marketers managing high-volume ad campaigns. This latest update reinforces LinkedIn’s commitment to building out its ad offerings to scale with the growing needs of its advertisers, and fine-tuning its targeting measures.
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