LinkedIn Ads rolls out new features to enhance retargeting capabilities

Over time, as LinkedIn’s ad platform has grown, so have the advertising opportunities for marketers.

The platform is unique in the way that it’s professionally focused, and that B2B marketers don’t have to ‘cut through as much noise’ of B2C ads or personal connections’ updates to reach their audience. 

Advertising on LinkedIn has traditionally cost a bit more than other platforms, which, in my opinion is attributed to the type of of information available — like role type, company, and industry. Facebook, for example, offers more data around preferences and likes. 

But, with all of the updates that LinkedIn has recently made to its platform, especially within the last 3-4 years, the cost has made it more and more worth it for the right companies with the right goals. 

In the last few months, when COVID-19 has caused an influx in virtual/video conferences, LinkedIn has been quick to launch product updates that enhance these virtual events. Last month, LinkedIn launched polls and live video-based events. 

Other recent updates to the platform have focused on warmth and human connection.

Now, LinkedIn is putting more focus on its ads platform. Company leaders have just announced added retargeting capabilities to their platform. 

Specifically, the two new features allow retargeting based on: 

1. How much of a video ad a prospect has watched
2. Prospects who’ve submitted a lead generation form

The new features in detail

Abhishek Shrivastava, the senior director of product for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, noted that because the majority of LinkedIn advertisers are focused on B2B, they need more ways to continually interact with prospects due to the fact that sales cycles for B2B tend to be longer and include more decision makers. 

The intent behind these retargeting features is to help marketers have more touch points in the longer sales cycles, effectively helping to close more deals. 

One of the new features lets users retarget people based on how much of a video ad they've previously watched. Specifically, this means that there can be unique messaging to people who have watched 25% as opposed to 75% of a video.

This allows marketers to provide more customized experiences and targeted messaging to make more of an impact. 

ManyB2B businesses use forms to capture and collect user information, and LinkedIn is now allowing for another touch point for these companies to reach prospects. 

Advertisers will be able to target those who've opened or submitted a lead gen form. This is a very standard way to retarget users, and is great to see that this capability has been added to LinkedIn. 

What this means for marketers

TechCrunch reports “LinkedIn has already been testing these capabilities with a few advertisers, including TOPdesk, which says it has increased conversions by 20% while lowering the cost per conversion by 24%.”

These new retargeting features are aligned with the overall increase in platform engagement since the COVID-19 crisis began.

For those who have seen more engagement on LinkedIn in the past few months, you have the opportunity to maximize your virtual efforts with these new retargeting abilities. There are many new ways to craft messages and retarget based on your continually-evolving marketing plans. 

While these aren’t groundbreaking retargeting features — other platforms already offer similar functionality — this is a new and effective way for those who have a solid network on LinkedIn to reap the benefits of hyper focused retargeting.