Using a wide range of creative content for your LinkedIn Ads can make the difference between exasperation or top-of-mind positioning of your brand with your targets. This article takes a closer look at the subject of content strategy on LinkedIn Ads, a central element in the success of your LinkedIn Ads. global LinkedIn Ads strategy for B2B.
I'm going to tell you how to develop impactful communication that captures the attention of key decision-makers and influencers. To do this, we'll first talk about the strategic approach to LinkedIn Ads content strategy in B2B and then analyze the different types of content available to us.
Developing a LinkedIn Ads content strategy for B2B
The different objectives of LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads distinguishes 3 main target families on its platform:
- Visit brand awareness To expose your brand to as many people as possible and create a lasting impression in the minds of your target audience.
- Visit consideration of the solution This is designed to engage users who are already familiar with your brand or product, and encourage them to find out more about what you have to offer.
- Visit conversion Designed to encourage users to take a specific action that directly benefits your business.
The objective and content of the campaign will depend on the target prospect's stage of maturity:
- When the prospect has never been exposed to the brand, we speak of cold hearingit will then be exposed to discovery content (generally high profile and highly regarded).
- If the prospect has already interacted with the brand's content, we speak of hot audience or remarketingin this case, it will be exposed to nurturing content (lead warming - column generally taken into consideration) to conversion (conversions column).
Frequency of exposure to advertising content
💉 A reminder: In the previous guide I explained that selling in B2B is not the same as selling in B2C: the sales cycle is generally (much) longer.
Where B2C e-commerce can be expected to transform the first cost, B2B customers will have to be exposed to much more content to create the necessary trust.
➡️ In B2B there is a need for more "points of contact".. Sometimes it takes dozens of touches before the user actually considers the solution as a good opportunity to solve his problem and contacts the company.
Added to this, remarketing audiences are often limited in size; to integrate a remarketing audience, a user must interact with the content, which is generally not the majority of people exposed to discovery campaigns.
➡️ A person in a remarketing audience will therefore be exposed to your ads more frequently.. Since the audience is smaller.
This means that varying B2B content is of paramount importance;
- Discovery phase firstly to A/B test and engage as many people as possible in its remarketing audiences.
- But above all, in the remarketing phaseto avoid remarketing audience fatigue and provide ongoing value right up to the point of conversion.
To conclude this first part, we understand thatA varied, quantitative and qualitative approach to producing content for LinkedIn Ads is essential. to hope to perform.
But what content should you offer?
How do you know when to use them?
If only there were a list detailing all this!
What LinkedIn Ads content should you use to talk about your solution?
🥶 The cold layer:
Talking about your solution to the cold layer initiates a first point of contact, and in a way "sorts out" interesting target people from those who don't respond.
At this stage, the target is at the beginning of their buying journey, often in the discovery or awareness phase. They may not realize they have a problem, or they may be at the very beginning of their search for potential solutions.
In this case, the aim is to offer relatively short, high-impact content, and redirect people to content that introduces them to the service for the first time (the start of a long series!).
🥵 The hot layer / remarketing :
However, this doesn't mean that content presenting the solution isn't interesting for remarketing - quite the contrary! Content that refers to the solution is essential for comprehensive communication with warm audiences.
Here, we always use short, impactful content, with new marketing angles, to provide more details on the solution without tiring the audience.
Talking simply about service
The strategy here is based on creating content that highlights the key features, unique benefits, or value propositions of your service. The aim is to arouse the viewer's interest and curiosity, so that they want to learn more.
For a cold audience, the CTA should be simple and non-committal, such as "Learn more" or "Find out how". This reduces the friction to take action, inviting the viewer to click on the ad for more information without feeling pressured to make a deeper commitment, such as a purchase or subscription.
Example: An ad presenting the key features of CRM software.
Highlighting the problem
Highlighting a specific problem that your target audience is experiencing not only attracts the attention of new prospects (cold layer), but also proves effective in remarketing strategies to re-engage those who are already aware of your brand or service (hot layer).
This approach can be used to highlight the specific challenges your audience faces and how your service offers a relevant solution.
Content should start by highlighting a common problem or challenge in the target industry, so as to resonate with your audience's lived experiences. To be effective, it's crucial to understand your target audience's pain points and reflect them accurately in your ad.
Example: "Do you spend hours trying to optimize your e-commerce without seeing any tangible results?"
Make a before/after comparison
This approach showcases the tangible impact and benefits of your solution by presenting a direct contrast between the initial state (before) and the final state (after) the adoption of your service or product.
The content must clearly illustrate the transformation or improvement achieved thanks to your solution. This means showing a "Before" state with which your audience can identify - a problem, a challenge, or an inefficiency - followed by an "After" state that presents the solution provided, the problem solved, or the improvement achieved.
Example: Before and after using your solution.
Demonstrate
By showcasing a demonstration of your solution, you provide prospects with concrete proof of its value and effectiveness. Whether through a demo video or an invitation to a live demo, this strategy helps turn interest into purchase intent by providing prospects with the information and confidence they need to take action. It's a powerful conversion tool, particularly effective with audiences who are already aware of your solution but haven't yet taken the step of buying.
Example: Demo request
Talk about the opportunity cost of not working with you
The aim is to highlight the tangible benefits and improvements that your audience misses out on by not using your product or service. These could be benefits such as saving time, money, improving efficiency, or reducing risk. The aim is to create a sense of urgency and necessity around your solution, clearly showing what is lost by not taking action.
Content must clearly and convincingly communicate the opportunity costs associated with not using your solution. This can be achieved by presenting data, statistics, or testimonials that illustrate the concrete benefits lost.
Example: Saving time using the Pennylane solution
What LinkedIn Ads content can build social proof?
Why trust you more than someone else? This question is particularly valid when you're selling a service at a relatively high price.
🥵 Addressing the warm layer:
The person is aware of their problem, aware of your existence, and you need to prove that your company is trustworthy so that they'll consider working with you.
Here are the contents to promote on LinkedIn Ads to build a maximum of social proof; Once the click is obtained, we'll redirect the surfer to content oriented towards social proof: Testimonial, customer case study, landing page with lots of reviews, etc...
Case studies
Case studies are a powerful tool in the nurturing process, as they offer tangible social proof and demonstrate the practical application of your solution in real-life scenarios. By highlighting successful collaborations with well-established brands, you can not only reinforce the credibility of your offering, but also leverage the awareness of these brands to increase your own. This approach helps prospects understand the real value of your solution, and motivates them to take action, armed with concrete evidence of the benefits they can expect to achieve.
Example: Adobe Experience Manager x Danone case study
The celebrations
Content celebrating your company's successes is an effective way of forging emotional links with your audience, showing not only your brand's achievements, but also enhancing relationships with your customers and partners. By sharing these moments, you create a positive, dynamic brand image, attracting new customers while reinforcing the trust and loyalty of existing ones. This strategy can effectively complement your LinkedIn Ads content mix, adding a human and engaging dimension to your communication.
Example: Letsignit celebrates strong growth
Customer testimonials and reviews
The strategic use of customer testimonials and reviews in your LinkedIn Ads can significantly boost prospects' trust in your brand, offering compelling social proof of the quality of your offering. By choosing the right format and showcasing authentic stories and reviews, you can improve the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and encourage prospect engagement at every stage of their customer journey.
Although closely linked, the testimonials and opinions are nuanced:
- Customer testimonials are generally more in-depth, detailed recommendations, often presented in the form of personal stories or case studies. They highlight a customer's specific experience with your product or service, highlighting how it solved a problem or improved their situation.
- Customer reviewsCustomer satisfaction surveys, on the other hand, are often shorter and take the form of ratings or comments on your product or service. They provide an overview of customer satisfaction, and can touch on different aspects of your offering, from product quality to customer service.
💡 The video format is particularly effective for testimonials, and can also be interesting for presenting customer reviews in a dynamic way.
Example: Spliit x Bigblue - Customer testimonial
Example: Axonaut sponsors the review of one of its users.
LinkedIn Ads content to position yourself as an expert
You may be trustworthy, but is your solution right? Is it up to scratch? Here again, in the context of a high-priced solution, you'll have to break down this objection if the prospect is to consider calling on you.
🥵 We also address the hot layer:
The person is aware of their problem, aware of your existence, and you need to prove to them that your solution is the best one to solve their problem.
Content allows you to establish your position as an expert, redirecting clicks to high value-added content (blog article, YouTube video, podcast, etc.).
Blog posts
Publishing and promoting articles on LinkedIn Ads is a good strategy for building trust and authority for your brand. This content will have a particular impact on your warm audience. This audience, already familiar with your brand or interested in your field, can be even more engaged thanks to rich, targeted content that deepens their understanding and interest in your solutions.
Informational video podcasts
By featuring meaningful discussions and expert perspectives, you enhance the perception of your brand as a leading authority in your field, while engaging your warm audience in an interactive and visual way.
Video podcasts allow viewers to see and hear the speakers, creating a deeper, more personal connection. It's an effective way to generate sympathy, build trust, and establish a loyal community around content.
Webinars
LinkedIn offers the possibility of organizing and hosting a webinar.
It's an ideal format for educating your audience in a fun and interactive way, by answering participants' questions live.
Presenting a webinar to your warm audience will create proximity and sympathy for your company, while positioning you as an authority figure in the field.
LinkedIn Ads allows you to promote the event.
💡 Specifying that there will be no replay of the webinar increases the attendance rate.
Promote a post employee
You can highlight the posts of your company's employees with LinkedIn Ads.
It's a great way of asserting your expert status, especially in remarketing, to people who have just discovered your company.
This technique is little used in France, yet it's both an excellent way of recycling organic content to enrich and vary your remarketing advertising panel, and an effective way of showcasing your company's experts.
I've put together a little carousel guide on how to do it:
LinkedIn Ads content to develop your community
Are you familiar with the 95-5 rule? The idea is that most B2B buyers aren't in the market today. More than 95 % of your potential buyers aren't ready to buy today, and are generally not mentally open to learning more about your product, its features and details.
Developing your community on LinkedIn and other platforms with LinkedIn Ads will maximize the reach of your future marketing actions.
This content is generally redirected to pages with a community engagement objective (join a group, newsletter, YouTube channel, Social account, etc.).
Sponsoring your LinkedIn company page
On the right-hand side panel, you can display an insert to sponsor your company's LinkedIn page. Here again, this is an excellent way to develop your community on the platform, especially if you use this type of content for remarketing: people who have visited your site from another source (Google, for example) can be encouraged to join your LinkedIn company page, thus offering superior exposure to your organic and sponsored content.
There are several possible calls to action: in the previous screenshot, the ad prompted the user to follow the page. Here are all the predefined options. Note the ability to set a custom title and insert macros to generate personalized advertising content for each recipient.
Newsletter sponsorship
The idea of this ads is to promote an image whose call to action will be to join your newsletter. There are two possible scenarios:
- The newsletter is hosted outside LinkedIn, in which case it will be redirected to the registration landing page.
- The newsletter is hosted on LinkedIn. There is no Ads format dedicated to sponsoring a newsletter (as in the case of the page or webinar).
💡 The trick then is simply to redirect to your newsletter's sign-up button directly on LinkedIn. An example to understand (click to view) https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7138565868464115712
🤔 How do I find this link? On LinkedIn on the "Share" > "URL option" button on your newsletter page.
Lead magnet content on LinkedIn Ads for immediate lead generation
Much rarer, some users are already almost ready to make a purchase. This may be the result of your previous marketing actions, or it may mean that you're positioned in a market that's mature enough for the prospect to have had a chance to educate themselves on what they can do to solve their problem. He's now in the phase of evaluating alternatives, the phase that precedes the buying decision.
At this stage, lead generation strategies can prove effective. On LinkedIn Ads, this means targeting a highly qualified, intentional audience (generally remarketing), offering them downloadable content in exchange for their contact details.
Once the prospect's contact details have been obtained, they will be contacted by our sales teams, who will qualify their needs and guide them through the purchasing phase.
📝 It's worth noting that lead gen strategies can also be used on a less qualified, or even cold, audience. The risk, however, is to generate a large number of low-quality leads, more interested in the resource offered for download than the service offered by your company. Nurturing is therefore essential.
Guides - White papers
These resources provide rich, in-depth content that helps readers better understand complex subjects.
Checklists
Particularly appreciated for their simplicity and ease of use, these resources enable prospects to quickly audit their current practices and identify areas for improvement.
Templates and other tools
These resources, such as document templates, project management spreadsheets and informative infographics, help users save time and optimize their work processes. By customizing these tools to meet the specific needs of your audience, you demonstrate not only your expertise but also your willingness to provide concrete help.
