With more than 560 million users, according to its website, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms on the Internet. In my opinion, it’s also one of the best platforms for business-to-business (B2B) marketers to advertise on.

At Scorpion, we market our services to law firms, hospitals, home services companies and other related business types. By advertising on LinkedIn, we get access to decision makers at companies we want to talk to, and as a result, it has become a valuable channel for our corporate marketing team to source qualified leads for sales.

Based on our experience, here are four of the easiest ways you can help your business with LinkedIn Ads.

1. Target specific, professional audiences and decision makers.

LinkedIn’s advertising capabilities allow you to use filters like industry, company size and job title to target specific types of individuals — ideally, the individuals most likely to engage with your brand, service, product or message. By targeting these specific professionals, you can mitigate waste on ad spend and maximize the power of your marketing dollars.

To target the right professionals, think about who your ad needs to reach and which professional categories they fall into (e.g., attorneys, directors of human resources, chief financial officers at small companies, etc.). For example, if you’re running an ad for your commercial plumbing business, you may want to target LinkedIn users with job titles like “director of facilities operations” or “director of maintenance” to reach the professionals most likely to hire a plumbing contractor for their company.

Having said that, don’t over-target either, as doing so can lower your reach. Use no more than two to three targeting options at a time. And in terms of audience size, don’t be limited. LinkedIn recommends targeting audiences of at least 50,000 people for sponsored content and text ads, and at least 15,000 for sponsored InMail.

By advertising on LinkedIn, you’re getting your brand and your message directly in front of the decision makers who have the capacity or decision making power to pay for your products or services.

2. Promote your content.

LinkedIn allows you to distribute your content to professionals inside and outside your industry using sponsored content. With this, you can promote your articles, e-books and other forms of digital content to LinkedIn users directly.

Why does this matter? Because increased content exposure helps you to establish your business as an authority that can be trusted and respected.

To get the most traction from you sponsored content, you should:

• Use the targeting features, such as skills and job titles, to show your content to the types of professionals you want to reach, rather than a general audience.

• Produce content that will appeal to the specific audience you’re targeting (research-rich white papers for marketing directors versus quick-read articles for busy CEOs).

• Use a strong call to action to guide the user to the next step of downloading your content (e.g., “Download this e-book to learn the top 10 advertising tips for growing your customer base”).

• Respond to all comments on your sponsored posts to boost engagement with prospects and encourage dialogue.

3. Turn LinkedIn users into new leads.

Need people to complete a lead form, watch a webinar or claim an offer? You can use sponsored InMail to speak directly to users who match your “ideal” criteria. Craft a personalized message, and then send it straight to their LinkedIn inbox.

You can also use text ads, which can run on a pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) model, to broadcast your unique offers and opportunities to specific users across LinkedIn. These ads allow you to increase the visibility of your company’s offers, which can (ultimately) lead to more business.

LinkedIn also offers lead gen forms which are pre-filled with the LinkedIn user’s profile information. This is a win for marketers since lead data is likely accurate and high quality, and it is a win for users because now they don’t have to spend the time filling out all the fields in a contact form.

4. Recruit new employees.

Even though LinkedIn is one of the largest social networks for professionals, many people fail to realize its potential for employee recruitment.

I’ve found LinkedIn to be an ideal place to source new employees for two reasons. The first reason is you’re able to reach the exact types of professionals you need by using the targeting options mentioned earlier, including job title, experience level and skill set. The second reason is the majority of your prospective candidates are likely already active on LinkedIn.

To make your recruitment ads more appealing to potential candidates, use headlines that capture attention, images that reflect your company culture and selling points that highlight the benefits of working for your company — competitive pay, full benefits, a pleasant work environment, etc.

Using LinkedIn Advertising To Win In Your Industry

Whether you’re looking to generate new business, build a stronger workforce or make improvements to your marketing efforts, LinkedIn is a social platform that I would recommend looking into. It’s an ever-growing network that’s helping all types of businesses win in their industries. If you haven’t yet implemented LinkedIn advertising into your digital marketing plan, now is the time to start.

Article written by: Corey Quinn