LinkedIn is a powerful platform that has been around for a few years now. It has established itself as the go-to platform for building professional connections and B2B marketing. The platform has several ad types to choose from that can help drive valuable leads and set companies up for massive business success.
That being said, if you are looking for a different approach to B2B marketing, then Thought Leader Ads might be something you should consider. This post will focus on what LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are, the pros of using them, some considerations to keep in mind and best practices to use them effectively. Let’s dive in!
What Are LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads?
LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are sponsored posts that a business can use to target a specific audience. However, instead of being advertised through a company page, they are promoted by an employee or someone related to the organisation — investor, partner, etc. This drastically deviates from how traditional advertising works on the platform.
With other LinkedIn ad formats, the advertisements are run through a company page that appears as sponsored content. They display somewhere in the user’s feed and it is usually easy to spot as some form of marketing. However, with thought leader ads, an individual is coupled with the ad resembling a normal user post.
The only key difference that a thought leader ad has over a regular content post is that it will show a small promoted label under the person’s name. This is what makes this ad type so unique and sets it apart from other formats. It blends in with the rest of a user’s feed.
The intention of this is not to deceive, but to create a more personal and authentic experience that fosters trust with potential prospects. LinkedIn thought leader ads still promote something, but they do it in a more sophisticated way making the whole process feel more natural instead of a sales pitch.
Instead of selling a service or product, companies use them to share valuable insights. They help to build authority and position a company or individual as a leader within their industry. By employing thought leader ads, organisations demonstrate their expertise and build credibility with their target audience.
Benefits of LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
LinkedIn thought leader ads have several advantages that make them a good choice for companies looking to enhance their brand’s credibility and engage with key decision-makers. Here’s a quick look at some of them:
1. Increased Engagement Potential
LinkedIn thought leader ads have increased engagement potential. When you take everything into consideration, these ads often spark intriguing and meaningful conversations. This encourages users to interact with the ad and share their own opinions and insights. All of this increases the overall engagement of this ad type.
2. Builds Trust And Credibility
Thought leader ads help to build trust and credibility with a brand’s audience. This is one of the main benefits of using this ad type. It shows the people behind your company and humanises the organisation. People are more likely to trust a company’s messages and engage with them if they see they come from a real person.
3. Does Not Go For The Traditional Sales Approach
Another primary benefit of using LinkedIn thought leader ads is that they forgo the traditional sales approach. They are not trying to sell a service or product but instead, promote the brand’s expertise. This makes them great at connecting with users on a deeper level, helping to build genuine relationships.
4. Taps Into Employee Influence
Another useful benefit of LinkedIn thought leader ads is that they harness employee influence. In other words, they tap into that individual’s authority and business connections. This makes them a great choice for CEOs or other company employees who have already built up a reputation on the platform.
Things to Take Into Consideration
While LinkedIn thought leader ads have many benefits that can positively impact companies, there are a few components they need to keep in mind. Here is a quick rundown of some of them:
- Tied to personal profiles: While the fact that the ads are tied to a person’s account is considered a benefit, it does invite a small hiccup. The ads are tied to an employee’s profile, meaning if they were to leave, that ad would become unusable.
- Not that applicable to small or new businesses: While thought leader ads are a great way to build credibility with an audience, they might not be that suitable for small/new businesses. Especially if the businesses do not have other channels set up that bring them traffic. This can make it challenging to run these types of ads if their marketing budget does not allow for it or if they don’t have employees with expansive networks they can utilise.
- Works better as a holistic approach: LinkedIn thought leader ads are essentially just posts that you advertise to an audience. They are not designed to sell a product or service, and as such, they generally don’t result in sending large traffic to a website. Thus, it is better to combine these ads with other LinkedIn ad types to have a more well-rounded marketing strategy.
- Older posts may not be eligible: LinkedIn thought leader ads only work with recent and relevant posts. Therefore, LinkedIn suggests only using posts that you have created recently as content older than six months might not be eligible.
How to Choose the Right Thought Leadership Topics
While you can create thought leader ads around any topic, it is better to take a more tailored approach that will have the most impact on your audience. Here are a few tips and suggestions on what you can make your content about:
1. Know Your Target Audience
The best way to find topics for LinkedIn thought leader ads is to look at your target audience. Think about what their needs are, the challenges they undergo, possible pain points and the interests they have. Focus your posts around these topics as this will resonate the most with your audience.
2. Industry Trends
Another great idea is to focus on different trends that go on in your industry. If something new arises within your sector, share your personal opinion about how that will affect the industry. Or provide tips that people can use to navigate this new occurrence that is taking place.
3. Unique Selling Point
Businesses could also create LinkedIn thought leader ads about their unique selling point. In other words, the factors that separate them from their competitors. Remember not to make the post too salesy as this would take away from what these ads are really about. Instead, aim to promote your unique selling point that comes across in a way that is authentic and trustworthy.
4. Personal Insight And Experiences
Another great topic idea is to create thought leader ads about personal experiences. For instance, the company can talk about a case study they did or highlight a client success story. The main idea is to share experiences that your target audience would find valuable.
5. Provide Long-Term Value
The last one is more of a tip than a topic suggestion. Try to create thought leader ads around content that will provide long-term value. While you want to cover different trends within your industry, you also want to cover subjects that are still relevant after these trends have toned down.
Try to think about challenges that are not time-sensitive and run thought leader ad campaigns about them. In other words, look for topics that have lasting appeal.
Best Practices for Effective LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
Now that you know which topics to cover with your LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads, it’s time to look at a few best practices to make your campaigns more effective.
1. Choose The Right Thought Leaders
When running these types of ads, businesses will want to ensure they choose the right thought leaders. They want to pick someone who genuinely represents the brand and has credibility within the industry. Thought leaders should have relevant expertise and a professional presence on the LinkedIn platform.
2. Create Content That Provides Value
You will want to avoid using content that focuses on selling the reader something. Instead, your thought leader ads should be about providing valuable insights that potential prospects will find useful. The content should feel personal and authentic. Doing so will help the brand to connect with audiences on a deeper level helping to build strong relationships.
3. Utilise The Most Impactful Posts
A common mistake that businesses make is to promote posts that were popular in the past. Instead, the smarter approach is to promote content that had an impact on readers and that has proven that it can generate leads. Doing this will help increase the effectiveness of your thought leader ad campaigns.
4. Use Thought Leader Ads in Retargeting Campaigns
LinkedIn thought leader ads work particularly well for retargeting campaigns. The way it works is that instead of targeting users who are unfamiliar with the brand, you can go after users who have heard of the company before. For instance, you could use a different LinkedIn ad type to introduce the company and increase awareness.
This ad type would then focus on a cold audience. You could then use thought leader ads to retarget those same users who chose to interact with the business with the first ad type. This way your thought leader ad campaigns will carry more weight helping to increase the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.
In addition, as interactions — clicks, comments, etc. — are trackable, you can use them as part of your retargeting audience. This will allow you to target those users in additional retargeting campaigns helping to increase further engagement.
5. Implement Visual Elements To Quickly Grab Attention
Thought leader ads support images and GIFs. Adding this visual component to your ad campaigns can help them stand out and quickly capture the attention of users.
Strengthening Your Brand With LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
LinkedIn thought leader ads position themself as an effective way to increase credibility, build deeper connections and highlight expertise. By combining LinkedIn advertising abilities with influential company personnel posts, they can help to build strong relationships with potential prospects and nurture trust, ultimately leading to enhanced engagement as well as brand loyalty.
If you are interested in how Snowball Creations can help you leverage LinkedIn advertising to elevate your brand, fill in the contact form below to get in touch! Our team is ready to help you maximise your marketing efforts and unlock new opportunities for growth.