October 8, 2021
The Ideal QA Process in Digital Advertising
LinkedIn as an advertising platform has developed dramatically over the last five years. The platform regularly continues to add functionality and integrations that B2B marketers love, especially when it comes to Account Based Marketing (ABM). In the guide below, I will go into detail on how how to use ABM for LinkedIn Ads, as well as provide some creative uses of the LinkedIn tools available to take your B2B game to the next level.
Matched Audiences
Matched audiences is a tool in LinkedIn Ads that allows you to upload lists of audiences to the platform. These lists can either contain emails and names or company names. If you are running an ABM program on LinkedIn, you should use matched audiences to upload your target accounts to the platform so that you can specifically target your high-quality prospects.
If you want to get more advanced with your matched audiences, you can segment the account list by industry, company size, or opportunity stage before uploading to the platform. This will allow you to split out your targeting by the most important factors. You can also segment the list by industry using the LinkedIn demographic tools available inside of the platform itself. Segmenting out the audiences on LinkedIn is important because it allows you to customize your advertising to the different wants and needs of your target accounts. For instance, you don’t want to advertise the manufacturing benefits of your product or service to a construction company.
CRM Integrations
If you are running lead gen ads on LinkedIn, you probably have your CRM directly integrated into the platform to send leads directly into your CRM. This is a great step, but did you know you can take it further by having your CRM pump audiences back into LinkedIn?
Using solutions like Marketo, you can send audience segmentations directly into the LinkedIn Ads platform to be used in your targeting. This is a great option for nurture audiences that aren’t necessarily ready to be touched by the sales team, or if you have email lists sorted by industry or company size. Typically with this strategy, you should tier the campaigns by funnel stage — this way, you can use separate messaging for the ABM nurture leads who have already been marked as opportunities vs the standard qualified leads that come in. This technique allows you to push leads down the funnel more efficiently.
ABM Tools and Partners
There are dozens of ABM tools and integrations being used in B2B marketing today, and LinkedIn is a part of many of them. We have seen a lot of different tools being used, from G2 Crowd intent lists to Bombora Surge data to Terminus account prioritization tools. Each of them has its own benefits and comes with an associated cost. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for ABM marketers, so we recommend assessing multiple platforms and consulting with your agency or others about their experience with the platforms. Just be aware that many of these can come with hefty licensing fees, so make sure you have a plan to evaluate the value you are getting from the tools before you begin using them.
There are many different ways you can use LinkedIn for your ABM efforts, and every advertiser will have different targeting strategies based on their goals and situations. As long as you make sure to take the time to set up your campaigns optimally to your particular situation, LinkedIn can be a successful platform for your ABM strategies.
Aren’t sure where to start with setting up your ABM campaigns? Contact our team for additional help.
