You might have mastered Facebook advertising, have a few Google Ads on the go and even dabbled in Promoted Tweets. But have you considered running a LinkedIn ad?

While LinkedIn isn't the biggest social media platform, it's one of the most engaged and also the most popular for professionals in Australia.

This means your ad has a better chance of being seen by the right people, and the good news is LinkedIn ads are easy to set up. Here's how to get started.

1. Choose your ad

There are two ways to advertise on LinkedIn. Either through creating an ad that will appear in the News Feed, or a Sponsored Post. A Sponsored Post means your post will reach a wider audience, similar to Promoted Tweets on Twitter.

You begin by logging into your LinkedIn account and clicking on the Business Services tab, then choosing Advertising. 

2. Build you campaign

Let's say you're going to create an ad. First you have to name your campaign and create a headline.

You then select whether you want your ad to appear as text or video. If choosing text, we suggest adding an image. LinkedIn ads with images get on average 20 per cent more clicks.

The next step is choosing your destination, deciding whether you want customers to be redirected to your website or LinkedIn profile.

3. Variations

This is the fun bit. LinkedIn allows you to create up to 15 variations on your ad, so you can see what looks and performs best.

We suggest trying out a few different images and text to appeal to a wide range of customers.

4. Targeting

Now you must decide which of LinkedIn's 259 million members are going to see your ad. You begin by selecting your region and area – for example Australia can be broken down into capital cities. 

From here you select which companies and professionals to target, either based on name, category or job title. 

You can also dig down deeper and target your ad based on additional data such as school and age groups.

5. Buy it up

Now comes the money. You can select how much you want to pay per click and set daily budget limits for the campaign.

You can also set the length of time you want the campaign to run and opt to turn on Lead Generation, which lets users opt in to be notified directly by you.

You're now good to embark in the brave new world of LinkedIn advertising!

To learn more visit linkedin.com. 

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