Video Ads On LinkedIn: What’s Their Deal?
For the majority of Americans, LinkedIn is merely a way to know which friend from college still has your email. But apart from junking up your inbox, did you know that LinkedIn actually has a purpose? Beyond that, it offers a rather robust video advertising platform. This leads us to ask: what’s the deal with video ads on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn calls itself the world’s largest professional network on the internet. This means that while other social networks focus on building social relationships/selling handbags, LinkedIn is focused on making professional connections. Its goal is to build you a professional network that can help your career. Over the years, companies have started to use it as a recruiting tool. On the network, you can make connections, join groups, get skill endorsements and even recommendations.
What Are Video Ads On LinkedIn?
LinkedIn video ads are a Sponsored Content ad format that is more focused on a “professional audience.” Basically, “are you a business person? Then you’ll love this business product or service!” These show up on the main feed of your LinkedIn profile. These videos help build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website and generally collect leads through calls to action. Video ads on LinkedIn can be up to three and a half minutes, but generally, based on your goal, should be pretty brief.
How to make successful video ads on LinkedIn
1. Know your objective – Before you even start thinking about your videos, you have to know why you’re making a video. There are a few different objectives that you might want to consider:
a) Improve Awareness – If your goal is to improve your brand awareness, you have to inspire prospects to want to investigate you. This is an opportunity to use your video to show off your brand. Just make sure it’s attention-grabbing and that it gets people curious.
b) Consideration – Use this as an opportunity to truly educate prospective clients. Why is your company the best? This also allows you to position yourself as a leader in your industry. You’re the best and everyone should know that you’re the best.
c) Convert On Leads – Close the sale. Tell people why they need your product/service. Provide them with even more context about why you are great and encourage them to take action. Convert, baby!
2. Execute your objective – Now that you’ve found your objective, you can actually make the videos. Here are some best practices to keep in mind based on your objective.
a) Improve Awareness – Don’t give everything away. Think of this as a teaser trailer that gets people excited for a movie. As such, keep the video ads on LinkedIn brief, maybe 5-30 seconds. Remember this is to show off your brand, so the real goal is to drive up views on the video
b) Consideration – Here, potential customers should already be interested in you and want to learn more. So teach them! Since these are info-heavy videos they can be a little longer, like 30-60 seconds. These will showcase your work, so maybe consider a case study or product reveal. Now, your goal should be to drive people to your website.
c) Convert on Leads – This one is all about the sale. You have to lay out exactly why someone should be a client. These are often 60 seconds or more. So, give context as to the benefits of you. Collect those leads.
3. Only measure success based on the objective – Yes, we’re talking about the objectives again. We’ll try to be quick about it. Once you pick an objective, you should only measure your success based on the metrics associated with it. So…
a) Improve Awareness – High impressions, views, and view rates
b) Consideration – view rates, clicks, and plays
c) Convert Leads – conversion rates, leads, and cost per conversion
4. A/B test – Now that we know the metrics we’re looking for, we can test our ads. Make different versions of the same video ad on LinkedIn and run them concurrently to refine them. After you get results, you can tweak things like content, video length, audio, subtitles, description copy, headline and the post-click landing page. Even small adjustments to these can produce huge results. This will show you what’s working and what’s not. Only test one thing at a time, though so you can know exactly what is producing the change.
5. Tell a story – As with all marketing, storytelling is an essential skill. It allows you to connect with customers on a human level and create a message that feels earnest. Video ads on LinkedIn allow you to remove a barrier between you and your audience. You can put yourself right in front of the camera and speak directly to them. Our brains are hardwired to recognize and like stories, so use storytelling to make a relatable tale for your audience. Grab their attention in the first few seconds of your story and they’ll stay with you throughout.
6. Humanize yourself – I love stats as much as the next faceless corporate drone, but humans make decisions. Making things personal will almost always be the most effective. So, if you own your brand, make a personal greeting. Introduce yourself! You can also showcase your brand and say why you do what you do. Humor and personal stories also humanize your company. Since you’re making video ads on LinkedIn, you’re able to utilize the personal nature of video. People are looking at your face and making a connection. Just make it count!
7. Caption – This is a more technical one, but throughout digital media (video ads on LinkedIn are no different), captions are king. They allow people to engage with video content even if they’re in somewhere where having the sound on is inappropriate. You want people to watch your ad even if they’re in a very boring work meeting right?
Congrats! You’re Now The Leading Expert For Video Ads On LinkedIn
Video ads on LinkedIn are a small part of the larger marketing world, but that doesn’t mean they should go ignored. If you are the number one LinkedIn video ad warrior, you’re already miles ahead of the competition. So go forth, warrior! To the battlefield of LinkedIn. Should you need a companion, reach out to KARMA jack Digital Marketing to guide you through treacherous seas.
