Using LinkedIn Matched Audiences for B2B Marketing

In case you need some data as to why LinkedIn is a valuable B2B platform, here are a few key stats:

• 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn
• 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content
• 79% of B2B Marketers say LinkedIn is an effective source for generating leads

LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences provides three new capabilities:

1

Website retargeting

Website Retargeting allows you to create target audiences from your website visitors and then nurture them on LinkedIn. Imagine being able to capitalize on past website visitors through Sponsored Content. Your firm can stay top of mind and acquire leads at a cost much lower than other retargeting platforms. With LinkedIn being a large B2B market, you would most certainly see a return on your investment. With LinkedIn’s pilot program, participants saw a 30% increase in click-through rates (CTR) and a 14% drop in post-click cost-per-conversion.

So how does it work? It starts with adding a JavaScript snippet to your website. Once you have that in place, you can start to set up your website audience segment in LinkedIn. It will prompt you to set up the name of your audience and you can specify the URLs of the pages that people have to visit in order to retarget. For example, you may want to retarget to people that visit your Contact page or Service/Product pages. These are people that are likely to be further down the sales funnel and more likely to convert from a retargeting campaign. For step-by-step instructions on how to get set up, you can download the LinkedIn getting started guide.

2

Account targeting

Account Targeting allows your firm to target specific companies that are your target list. You can upload a CSV file of company names and LinkedIn matches it against nearly 12 million target companies in its database. By targeting accounts rather than individual leads, it allows you to cast a wider net and potential to deepen engagement with target accounts and multiple decision makers. This tool could also help support your firm’s overall Account-Based Marketing strategy. It also allows you to target specific professional demographics to ensure you reach the people that make the buying decisions. With LinkedIn’s pilot program, participants saw a 32% increase in post-click conversion rates and 4.7% drop in post-click cost-per-conversion.

3

Contact targeting

If you have specific leads you want to target, you can upload your list of email addresses and serve ads and relevant content to those contacts. With LinkedIn’s pilot program, participants saw a 37% increase in CTR with Contact Targeting.

Currently LinkedIn integrates with Marketo, Oracle Eloqua and LiveRamp so you can connect those lead databases directly with LinkedIn. If you connect your contact management platform, then your lists will automatically populate on LinkedIn through an API.  For best results, it’s recommended to have at least 10,000 emails contacts in your database to use this method. Larger lists will have better match rates. For step-by-step instructions, you can download the LinkedIn getting started guide.

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LinkedIn Matched Audiences is a great B2B tool to nurture leads that you have generated from your website. In the end though, it all comes down to content. In order to get that first set of leads and build your database, you need quality content and a solid content marketing program in place to attract and generate leads.