<Sub/Tweet> Evaluating LinkedIn’s New B2B Lead Generation Ad Type
By: Joey Vara
Tags: Lead Generation, B2b Lead Generation, Paid Social Media, B2b Marketing, Linkedin Marketing

It’s been a few months since LinkedIn released its long-rumored lead generation form ad unit, allowing B2B social marketers to streamline user experience and leap ahead in the advertising funnel.

I myself have leveraged this new ad type a number of times already and have some thoughts to share — hopefully you’ll find some points to take and apply to your own campaigns.

Customize Form with Your Brand’s Privacy Policy

Since LinkedIn’s lead gen product has been introduced much later than that of Facebook, the professional network had the opportunity to learn from other’s early shortcomings. In doing so LinkedIn has allowed marketers to include their own brand’s privacy policy within each form. This may seem to be an unimportant detail but it really is the difference maker for whether clients would approve the use of the LinkedIn lead generation ad type to begin with. When introducing a client to this new concept, be sure to make this a lead-off point.

Auto-populating forms — better than your average site form!

That’s right — LinkedIn’s lead generation ad type comes equipped with info auto-population capabilities! Just list the kind of information you’d like to receive in the specified form’s settings and users will be able to submit the form with one click/tap after reviewing. This is obviously a major plus that will persuade many marketers to move their B2B lead generation efforts off their website to LinkedIn.

Set expectations with clients before using this ad type

If brands have been exposed to the Facebook lead generation ad unit in previous campaigns, it’s possible they’re expecting the same CPAs from the LinkedIn counterpart. For that reason it’s important to set realistic expectations in regards to what this new ad type can accomplish on LinkedIn.

This has just as much to do with the nature of B2B paid social audience targeting as it does effectively planning and managing a lead generation campaign. On average, I’ve seen CPCs as high as $13.00 and CPMs around $44.00 on LinkedIn. Accordingly, average cost-per-lead values on LinkedIn can be astronomically higher and will vary based on your project budget and target audience. The one question you need to keep asking yourself is: How and where can we find the value in a LinkedIn lead generation campaign? Each advertiser’s answer will be different, but it will usually involve finding a balance between campaign reach, message resonance, and how you intend to use these leads in the future.

Most imporant — I’m seeing improvements

Despite my cautioning above regarding the budget it takes to make the new LinkedIn lead generation ad type, I’ve already seen improvements in performance. My campaign cost-per-lead values have decreased on average and I’m able to scale and pace campaigns using this new tool. Accordingly, I have found myself beginning to allocate more budget to campaigns using the lead generation form.

These improvements in ad type performance are the result of LinkedIn users becoming more familiar and comfortable with the lead form. They have seen the form materialize more often than before (thanks to marketers ramping-up their use of the product) and many more now feel more comfortable interacting, resulting in an increase in form opens, form completions, and conversion rates across the board.

More CRM integration coming soon

Marketers can currently export leads generated from given campaigns in order to send along to clients or upload themselves to certain CRMs. There are automation tools out there to make this process easier and more streamlined. I recommend Zapier. In coming months, I expect LinkedIn to offer more in terms of connectivity with advertiser CRMs that may eventually deem these third-party services unnecessary.

Don’t trust me? A/B test for yourself

When this product was first released I was skeptical as well. So I set up a simple test — run simultaneous lead generation campaigns on LinkedIn:

> One regular sponsored content update campaign optimizing for website visits to a branded page with a form.

> One regular lead generation form campaign.

With equal budgets and the exact same creative and copy on the sponsored content updates for each campaign, as well as the exact same audience targeting parameters, run for at least three weeks and observe. Keep in mind, I ran this test back in early April 2017, so the results may be even more noticeable for you. You should find reason to begin to at least assign a portion of your B2B lead generation budget to using the form product. In my opinion, it’s already worth a full campaign budget and significant consideration for 2018 planning.

Had a similar/different experience? Leave a comment!