Social media marketing is one of the best ways to generate sales, gain new leads, and build an audience. And, if you’re in the B2B business, it only makes sense that you advertise on LinkedIn. LinkedIn advertising is a great tool if you want to build visibility in your niche and target the types of business you want to engage with specifically. LinkedIn also offers many different ad types that provide all sorts of possibilities for advertisers. Let’s take a look at how you can make the most of B2B advertising on LinkedIn.

Choose the Right Ad Type

As we mentioned, LinkedIn offers different ad types and some might be better than others depending on the nature of your business and your objectives. Sponsored content ads, for instance, are perfect if you want to build brand awareness and authority. Sponsored InMail ads allow you to reach users directly via their inbox with sponsored messages that look just like regular messages. You also have text ads that work like pay-per-click ads which will appear on the site’s sidebar. You should also know that you pay for these ads on a CPM basis if you think it’s a better option.

You can decide to focus solely on one of these ad types, or all of them at once. Sponsored content ads can be used to generate leads while sponsored InMail can be used to create ultra-specific ads for your hottest leads. It’s up to you to test different formats and find which ones are the most effective for you.

Choose the Proper Format

In addition to picking ad types, you also have to choose the right format for your ad. Text ads only allow you to add text, but sponsored content ads allow you to use a carousel, video, or a single image. Do not underestimate the power of your images either as LinkedIn found that a good pic could almost double your click-through rates.

You also have things like follower ads that can be used specifically to get more followers for your LinkedIn profile. These can be used in sponsored content or sponsored InMail ads. Spotlight ads can be used to increase conversions as they allow you to send people directly to a product page. These are available on sponsored content ads only, however. LinkedIn allows you to post lead generation forms through sponsored content ads as well.

Always Test Drive Content Ads

Before you post a sponsored content ad, test it on your company page first. This will allow you to tell which updates are getting the strongest reactions. You can then use the best-performing ones and test them across various metrics whether it’s engagement, website visits, or conversions.

LinkedIn ads can be a very powerful tool for B2B businesses if used correctly. The best way to get better results is to constantly try new approaches and techniques, so test as much as you can until you find a winning formula.