If you have a business that provides services to other business, you will find that advertising on facebook isn't so simple for you. You will create a campaign and an ad, which is the fun part of advertising. When you get to the targeting, you'll find a problem. Let's assume that your main target is small businesses in your country. How can you filter such group of people in facebook? If you want, for example, restaurant owners to see your advertisement, it's not enough to state "restaurant" or "food" as an interest. It will bring your message to the people that eat in restaurants and only few of them will be the restaurant owners.
So, you have to be creative and try to think about other B2B services that may be present in facebook.
For example, Office Depot fans may be small business owners, the alternative medicine groups and pages often assemble professionals in this field, etc.
Fortunately, during January 2011 LinkedIn, the largest business social network, released a new advertising platform. Is there a right place to advertise B2B?
How does it work?
Most features of LinkedIn Ads are familiar from other services.
First, you create a campaign and an advertisement. Then, you define the target audience, pricing and budget, and at the end you have to provide the payment method to LinkedIn.
What is different and good?
LinkedIn Ads is a refreshing advertisement platform. It solves the problem I've described above.
Despite of it, unfortunately, there are more con's than pro's you'll find there.
Targeting
It is real business to business advertisement. The targeting is great. You can choose companies by name, category or even by size and job titles, including the seniority. There are also LinkedIn groups targeting and the standard geography, age and gender targeting.
Unlike the Facebook advertising targeting experience, it is very simple to target the appropriate audience. You can easily chose the decision makers positions in any company you need and you'll get to the right people.
Interface
The interface is clean and easy to use. It saves a lot of time.
Generally, LinkedIn communicates with the customers in a very clear way. If your advertisement is rejected, you'll receive an email with the precise explanation as to why. It takes less than 15 minutes to fix the problem and get your ad approved.
Different and not so good
The ad length
The title length is 25 characters max, which is in most cases enough, although the start-up I was one if its founders "Audiogate Technologies Ltd." would have to be left without the "ltd"part, which is a minor problem. The length of the creative part is more problematic - it takes a while to come up with acceptable creative limited of 75 characters. The funny part is that the creative must be at least two lines, so you can't be too short. If you have a logical explanation for it, please let me know - I haven't found one yet.
The price
The lowest possible offer you can make is $2 for click, while the recommended pricing reaches easily $3.1 My experience shows that it is more than twice of what Facebook charges.
If we make few convergence rates assumptions, the customer acquisition cost may reach from tens to hundreds of dollars, which may not be attractive for many businesses.
Language support
English is currently the only supported language. Although we can assume that most of LinkedIn users are comfortable with English, it is much more convenient and effective for local businesses to express themselves in their native language.
In my opinion, the language support is the most important improvement needed for LinkedIn Ads, if LinkedIn is interested in markets outside the US and the UK.
The account activation fee
There is $5 fee for the ads account activation. You'll survive it, but it isn't clear enough in the process and it may surprise you. It is not the best way to start doing business with LinkedIn.
Nice one for the end
After the campaign starts, you can find your ads at the top of the page and at the right side ads box. It is really nice to see how the advertisement looks when it's for real.
Summary
The bottom line of every advertisement platform is the efficiency and ROI. The high pricing of LinkedIn has to be translated into success, otherwise all good features are worthless.
If you have experience with both LinkedIn and Facebook advertising, you're welcome to share it here. I'll start: Facebook was more efficient in projects I was involved in.
So, you have to be creative and try to think about other B2B services that may be present in facebook.
For example, Office Depot fans may be small business owners, the alternative medicine groups and pages often assemble professionals in this field, etc.
Fortunately, during January 2011 LinkedIn, the largest business social network, released a new advertising platform. Is there a right place to advertise B2B?
How does it work?
Most features of LinkedIn Ads are familiar from other services.
First, you create a campaign and an advertisement. Then, you define the target audience, pricing and budget, and at the end you have to provide the payment method to LinkedIn.
What is different and good?
LinkedIn Ads is a refreshing advertisement platform. It solves the problem I've described above.
Despite of it, unfortunately, there are more con's than pro's you'll find there.
Targeting
It is real business to business advertisement. The targeting is great. You can choose companies by name, category or even by size and job titles, including the seniority. There are also LinkedIn groups targeting and the standard geography, age and gender targeting.
Unlike the Facebook advertising targeting experience, it is very simple to target the appropriate audience. You can easily chose the decision makers positions in any company you need and you'll get to the right people.
Interface
The interface is clean and easy to use. It saves a lot of time.
Generally, LinkedIn communicates with the customers in a very clear way. If your advertisement is rejected, you'll receive an email with the precise explanation as to why. It takes less than 15 minutes to fix the problem and get your ad approved.
Different and not so good
The ad length
The title length is 25 characters max, which is in most cases enough, although the start-up I was one if its founders "Audiogate Technologies Ltd." would have to be left without the "ltd"part, which is a minor problem. The length of the creative part is more problematic - it takes a while to come up with acceptable creative limited of 75 characters. The funny part is that the creative must be at least two lines, so you can't be too short. If you have a logical explanation for it, please let me know - I haven't found one yet.
The price
The lowest possible offer you can make is $2 for click, while the recommended pricing reaches easily $3.1 My experience shows that it is more than twice of what Facebook charges.
If we make few convergence rates assumptions, the customer acquisition cost may reach from tens to hundreds of dollars, which may not be attractive for many businesses.
Language support
English is currently the only supported language. Although we can assume that most of LinkedIn users are comfortable with English, it is much more convenient and effective for local businesses to express themselves in their native language.
In my opinion, the language support is the most important improvement needed for LinkedIn Ads, if LinkedIn is interested in markets outside the US and the UK.
The account activation fee
There is $5 fee for the ads account activation. You'll survive it, but it isn't clear enough in the process and it may surprise you. It is not the best way to start doing business with LinkedIn.
Nice one for the end
After the campaign starts, you can find your ads at the top of the page and at the right side ads box. It is really nice to see how the advertisement looks when it's for real.
Summary
The bottom line of every advertisement platform is the efficiency and ROI. The high pricing of LinkedIn has to be translated into success, otherwise all good features are worthless.
If you have experience with both LinkedIn and Facebook advertising, you're welcome to share it here. I'll start: Facebook was more efficient in projects I was involved in.
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