LinkedIn remains an essential tool in your ABM toolbox. It's a great social platform for professionals - which means critical members of your target audience will likely be found there. However, it also boasts a robust ad system with analytics capabilities. You can post content, serve ads, track engagement, send connection requests, and directly interact with potential customers, all from LinkedIn, making it an excellent discovery tool and an effective mode of communication.
Integrating LinkedIn into your ABM strategy is a smart idea. But is there a way to ensure you're showing ads to the correct accounts? And how do you decide when it's the right time to move from serving ads to making a connection request?
We're here to take the mystery out of how to align LinkedIn with ABM goals. Read on to learn more!
Getting Started With LinkedIn
Before jumping into LinkedIn, there are a few steps you need to take first. Taking some time at the outset will set you up for success in the long run.
Ensure You Have a Company Page
Even if your goal is to get your sales representatives to reach out to prospects once they become hot leads, you’ll want a company page that contains all of your company details. Make sure all the basics are up-to-date and in place, including:
- Banner images
- Logo
- Company information
- Your About section
- Contact details
Setting Up a LinkedIn Campaign Manager Account
You will need both a LinkedIn company page and a Campaign Manager account to run campaigns on LinkedIn. However, it's essential to know at the outset that LinkedIn's Campaign Manager can take up to 72 hours to select the approved audience. You'll have to plan ahead and set up your ads at least three days before you want the campaign to begin.
If you use an ABM tool like Propensity, typically, you can connect your ABM platform to your LinkedIn Manager Account to help you track LinkedIn campaign results seamlessly. You can learn more about Propensity and how to launch LinkedIn Campaigns here.
Use Your Buyer Personas and Account Lists for Audience Targeting
Whether or not you use an ABM tool, if you have created buyer personas and account lists, be sure to upload them to the Campaign Manager. This makes it easy to target the correct audience when running the LinkedIn ad portion of your ABM campaign.
Getting the Most Out of Campaign Manager
Once you’ve set yourself up for success by updating your company page, creating a Campaign Manager Account, and uploading your persona and account lists, it’s time to make the most out of every campaign. Here’s how:
Use Intent Signals to Enhance Your LinkedIn Ads
When you build your account lists, you'll choose intent signals related to your brand or offering. When accounts reveal their intent, you can use that information to create compelling marketing visuals and language that speaks directly to that audience's unique interests and curiosities. The content you create should be about adding value for the prospect, so remember to create ads that showcase how your product or service solves problems or position your brand as a thought leader for optimal ad results.
Track Interactions on LinkedIn
You can measure the level of interest or engagement of your target accounts by tracking:
- Clicks
- Likes
- Follows
- Shares
- Comments
- Etc.
Understanding what messaging works in terms of engagement will help you tailor your social selling approach to help you connect more effectively while creating content that resonates.
Once your sales team is connecting to hot accounts via LinkedIn, you'll also want to track:
- Connection requests sent
- Connection requests accepted
- Messages sent
That way, you'll know who you connected with, the percentage of accepted connection requests, and how many messages are sent/responded to. Following these KPIs will help you recognize if your outreach is being embraced or if your connection approach needs refinement.
Learn as You Go and Compare Campaigns Over Time
If you want to compare campaigns over time, you're in luck! LinkedIn allows you to do so while measuring one campaign's performance against others - right from your reporting dashboard. On LinkedIn, you can view the percentage change for various ad metrics (including total spend, impressions, and clicks). That way, you'll be able to:
- Compare and contrast ad performance
- Visualize the impact of new strategies
- Find opportunities for future optimization
- Uncover potential angles for new campaigns
You can even export your findings right from LinkedIn. Find out more about how to compare ad performance here.
When Sales Should Connect With Leads Via LinkedIn
ABM is all about relationship building, so it's inadvisable to start your ABM journey by sending a LinkedIn connection request to every lead on your account list. First, you'll want to warm up your accounts via various marketing activities, including:
- Programmatic ads
- LinkedIn or Facebook ads
- Email campaigns
- Direct mail
- Etc.
Only once leads within your account list have had time to engage with your brand and have shown a variety of intent signals should you pass the lead to sales to have them reach out directly via LinkedIn. Part of your ABM strategy will be to decide what intent signals to look for, what actions to monitor, and how many actions would move a lead from cold to hot before sales takes over the outreach. Monitoring LinkedIn activity via your Campaign Manager will give you the clues you need to decide who's interested and when to follow up.
Why Wait for Signs of Engagement
When you play the long game and wait for signs of engagement with your brand (like clicking on an ad or commenting on a LinkedIn sponsored post), you're not only letting the prospect express their interest in your offering, you're giving sales a tangible reason to reach out and follow up! By watching intent signals and nurturing engagement, you're providing your salesperson with an "in" they can use to begin a broader conversation about your product or brand.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is a valuable alley for organizing and running your ABM campaigns. When used with other campaign tools (such as programmatic and Facebook ads, email, direct mail, and more), it helps you build the visibility and credibility you need to catch the attention of accounts within your ICP (ideal customer profile).
LinkedIn has the added benefit of having a powerful backend ready to reveal all kinds of secrets about your target accounts. Using Campaign Manager, you can track engagement, compare campaigns, and know precisely when to pass leads to sales for direct outreach and social selling. So, don't be afraid to add LinkedIn into your overall ABM strategy! You'll be rewarded with rich analytics and a powerful ad tool to supercharge your ABM marketing campaigns.