LinkedIn is up there as one of most important social media and publishing platforms for B2B social media marketing. For marketers like us at Efecktive it’s peerless when it comes to getting a business in front of the right professionals and decision makers.

But (and it’s a big but) there’s over 360 million people using LinkedIn and plenty of those are only looking for jobs, recruiting or flogging something dodgy – and there’ll be a few in the mix that have no idea why they’ve got a profile.

So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Well the chaps and chapettes have very handily introduced LinkedIn Sponsored Updates which allow you to promote your content so it exclusively appears ‘natively’ in the feed of your target audience.

In a nutshell, you get your message out to the right people across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices, and because it’s so targeted you also ensure that your budget is well managed and only creates high-quality leads.

Sounds good doesn’t it! Well it is and we’ve put together six tips to consider when using sponsoring your LinkedIn updates.

1. Decide what success looks like and set a goal

Decide what metrics you are going to use to measure success and set targets against them. This could be anything from gaining new followers, increasing your presence through impressions or creating a certain number of leads.

2. Know and target your audience

When using the LinkedIn Sponsored Updates you can narrow your audience and who will see the update by job title, industry, location, seniority, field of study, degree of study, and specific skills.

If you’re not 100% sure who your audience or think you’re being too narrow the Audience Expansion feature helps you get your updates in front of people who share similar attributes with your core targets.

3. Content is vital

Once you get in front of your desired audience you have to engage them with the right content that is relevant to them and represents your best work. Spend a plenty of time thinking about what your audience will want to see, how they will want to see it presented and what would make them click on your content.

4. Images are super vital

This one’s simple and doesn’t need explaining – include an appropriate, high quality image. Always.

5. Budget against Goals

LinkedIn allows you to spend your budget in two ways – you can spend by cost per click (CPC – you’re charged every time someone clicks on your post) or cost per impression (CPM – you’re charged for the number of people who see your update). Which one you choose depends on your goals, if you want to boost brand awareness then CPM is likely the way to go but if you want high quality leads then stick with CPC.

When using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates you can also set a total campaign budget, daily maximum spend, and campaign running time.

6. Measure performance and tweak

Once you’ve got your LinkedIn Sponsored Updates up and running use the platform’s analytics tool to make sure you’re reaching the right audience and your money’s being well spent. You can track the performance of your sponsored posts in real time with impression and engagement metrics.

If it’s not quite right, then change it until you’ve fine-tuned your strategy.

With the Sponsored Update tool at your disposal, it’s clear that LinkedIn is a powerful digital marketing platform worthy of consideration and investment. Give it a bash and if you get stuck give us a shout and we’ll sort you out with an Efecktive campaign that really delivers.