LinkedIn and Twitter provide unique advertising opportunities for those who wish to target messages towards those audiences within these networks. If you’re buying online display for lead generation, you should consider social media advertising opportunities. Below is a basic primer on the options for larger businesses who wish to take advantage and test these channels.
I’m not going to discuss self-serve pay-per-click ads, as they are self-explanatory. Rather, I will review the larger-scale options, purchased on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) level.
Targeting
Ads can be targeted towards very specific audiences. You can target LinkedIn ads by
- Job function
- Seniority
- Location
- Company Size
- Education
- Interests
- Groups
Units
Three display units are available.
- 300 x 250 rectangle
- 160 x 600 skyscraper
- 728 x 90 leaderboard
Plus, a text link is available as well. Here’s an example of one; note the premium placement on top of the page, rather than the bottom right for self-serve ads.
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Partner Messages
Another option is a custom email, called a LinkedIn Partner Message that can be sent to a specific target audience via email. LinkedIn members receive a partner message once every 60 days. Typical open rates are 15-25%. Pricing is based on cost-per-recipient. Below is an example.
Twitter has a number of unique marketing opportunities. Depending on your goals is best to experiment and see which options perform best, whether your goal is to build followers, engagements, or clicks to your landing pages for lead generation. Here’s the basic Twitter advertising primer:
Promoted Accounts
Promoted Accounts are listed first under the “Who to Follow” recommendation sections on Twitter. The goal for these ads is quite simply, build followers quickly. “Who to Follow” offers users suggestions on who to follow. Your promoted account ad appears here as well targeting users most likely to be interested in your product. Targeting occurs 3 ways:
- Interests determined by accounts currently following you
- Interest-based keywords
- Geo-targeted- country and metro area options.
Pricing is based on a cost-per-follow; so in essence, competitive bidding occurs. Here are a couple of examples of promoted accounts, including one for Romney.
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Tweets are amplified tweets that show occasionally either in your timelime or search results. Promoted Tweets in search reach users who are looking for specific interests. Tweets in timelines can target your followers who may miss your regular tweets, and can also target non-followers who are similar to your followers. Promoted Tweets can also be targeted geographically. Promoted Tweets are ideal for sharing content, building awareness, or lead generation by offering a promotion.
Pricing is based on CPE, or cost-per-engagement, so you only pay when someone retweets, replies, or favorites the tweet. Impressions are free. Below are two examples of promoted tweets.
Promoted Trends
Promoted Trends appear on the trend section of Twitter. Ideal for building mass awareness of a message or launching a product or event, Promoted Trends get fixed position on a first-come basis once a day within the trend section. Users can tweet about the Promoted Trend by including the terms in their Tweets. Here’s an example of a Promoted Trend:
Analytics
Twitter advertisers get their own analytics to monitor their promoted accounts and promoted tweets so performance can be measured.
There you have it; a quick summary of marketing opportunities on LinkedIn and Twitter. General best practices:
- Have a compelling message; ideally with a call-to-action for lead generation
- Have clear goals in mind- conversion rates- cost-per-conversion, cost-per-click.
- Bring audiences to specific landing pages to optimize conversion and lead capture
- Utilize Google’s URL builder to tag URLs within analytics for more granular measurement.
- Test and optimize.
If you’d like to learn more about these opportunities and how social media marketing can work for your business, please contact me to discuss strategy.
Republished with author’s permission from original post.
