Improving LinkedIn Lead Generation in 4 Easy Steps

How B-to-B Marketers Can Improve Leads with LinkedIn

http://adage.com/article/btob/b-b-marketers-improve-leads-linkedin/297386/

According to this recent Ad Age article, many ad sponsors shy away from LinkedIn due to the perceived low ROI and conversion rates from the popular career social networking site. However, the author presents 4 key issues and focal points that allow advertisers to maximize their LinkedIn ad ROI, resulting in customer acquisition costs that can be only half of that which is offered by other competing content providers.

1.       Measure the right part of the acquisition funnel

LinkedIn offers less broad-based customer targeting capabilities than some other content producers. The right marketing strategy is to focus on a narrow target segment. By measuring lead qualification at a lower part of the funnel, advertisers can realize significant acquisition cost savings in leads generated per x ad dollars spent.

2.       Build the right post-click experience from LinkedIn

Emphasis needs to be put into making the landing page as highly relevant and non-generic to the target audience as possible. This is because a lot of potential leads will get upset if they find non-specific information or a generalized product landing page. The idea here is that the conversation started by the ad itself needs to be continued and expanded upon in the landing page, to give the potential customer a highly relevant and informative search experience.

3.       Make better use of the data LinkedIn provides

This specific advice is given based on the fact that a lot of advertisers are not using the lead generation tools that LinkedIn provides via its tools for advertisers. Hence, customer targeting isn’t being done optimally and thus the response rate drops and acquisition costs climb. LinkedIn already provides a lot of relevancy and segmentation controls from information provided by members in their profiles; this information is available via selections in the tools, but advertisers are sometimes mis-targeting by not honing in on the appropriate customer segment.

4.       Know what to do with the other 80%

By optimizing the lead generation funnel, this author suggests that 20% conversion rate is possible on LinkedIn. He also proposes a strategy for keeping the other 80% of the users that did not convert, by retargeting them on other sites they visit and extending the conversation. By retargeting based on user behavior, the advertiser can have additional opportunities to convert some of the 80% that did not originally.