" />Inspired by our work with a client on a recent campaign, we wanted to share some social media best practices to think about before jumping into a paid social media strategy. While paid ads can be incredibly effective when done right, it’s all too easy to dive in without doing the appropriate groundwork, leading to wasted budget and missed opportunities.
As part of our organic and paid social media support, we provided detailed guidance to ensure our client’s efforts didn’t just start well, but had staying power. Before beginning a LinkedIn advertising campaign, make sure your profile is in order and you have optimised everything as much as possible from an organic perspective.
Here’s what we suggest any organisation does before starting their next LinkedIn campaign.
Optimise your LinkedIn Company Page before launching ads
Before you start setting LinkedIn ads live, make sure your Company Page is ready for new visitors. A campaign might bring thousands of eyes to your profile, but if your page looks inactive, underdeveloped, or inconsistent, you’ll be paying to drive traffic to a dead end.
Start with a content audit. Is the imagery high-quality and on-brand? Is your organisation’s description clear, up to date, and compelling? Are there recent posts that give a good sense of who you are and what you do? Visitors should be able to land on your page and instantly understand your mission and values.
Encourage employee advocacy to boost organic reach
While the plan might be to send traffic to the Company Page, it’s also worth engaging your employees on LinkedIn too. They can be some of your biggest advocates and what they’re sharing on their personal profiles should chime with what you are sharing on the central organisation page.
Visitors to your Company Page can navigate their way to your individual employees, so make sure their organic presence is in line. To do this, ask your employees and associates to follow the LinkedIn Company Page, list the organisation as their employer, and share and engage with company content regularly.
Doing these simple things extends your reach and builds trust. The old adage applies – people trust people. So, when your people get involved, your organisation feels more credible.
Strengthen your senior leadership team’s presence on LinkedIn
As with the previous point, individual employees’ profiles are as important as the central Company Page, after all, your organisation is a sum of its parts. Visitors to the Company Page will also want to do their research and due diligence on who is in charge. It’s important for senior leaders and public-facing team members to have professional, up-to-date LinkedIn profiles that reflect the organisation’s key messages.
If someone is speaking on behalf of the organisation, their presence should reflect the professionalism and values of the wider brand.
Build a consistent stream of content before starting a paid social media campaign
Paid campaigns shouldn’t compensate for a lack of organic content, they should complement a healthy, active page. Ideally, you want to post 2–3 quality posts per week in the lead-up to your campaign. This shows visitors that you’re active, credible, and worth following.
You can repurpose content from your blog, newsletters, PR team, case studies, and other social channels. You don’t reinvent the wheel, just polish existing content for the right audience if you’re tight on time or resource.
Use a mix of LinkedIn content types to engage your audience
Your LinkedIn feed shouldn’t look like a sales pitch. Use a variety of content types to increase engagement. Strike a balance between content such as organisational updates, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, and even create a campaign teaser before you put budget behind its promotion.
Choose your pinned post carefully. This will be the first thing many visitors see, and first impressions count.
Grow your organic following on LinkedIn before a paid media campaign
Paid ads work best when there’s already a foundation to build on. People are 61% more likely to convert if they are exposed to organic and paid content, according to LinkedIn’s own research.
Encourage employees and existing followers to invite their LinkedIn connections to follow the page. Share your page on your website, newsletter, and other social media channels to establish an audience. This cross-promotion can be effective as you’re asking an existing audience to follow you on other platforms.
Increase your visibility through proactive LinkedIn engagement with others
The LinkedIn algorithm rewards activity. Rumour has it that engaging with five posts a day gives greater prominence to your own content as you’re deemed an active user. This, therefore, forms a key recommendation for any client wanting to elevate their content. Spend time responding to comments, liking and commenting on relevant posts, starting discussions, using the LinkedIn Polls feature, and generally being part of the wider conversation in your industry and among your peers. Don’t just be a broadcaster, give back.
Set up tracking with the LinkedIn Insights Tag and UTM links
Measurement and evaluation are important. It lets you see what is and isn’t working. Before you push the button on an advertising campaign, trial tracking links. Use UTM-tagged URLs on organic content as a test. UTM links can be created easily with free online tools, which will let you track traffic and conversions in Google Analytics.
Secondly, install the LinkedIn Insights Tag on your website. This pixel helps with retargeting and conversion tracking and allows you to gather more accurate campaign performance data once the paid campaign is live.
Doing both of these things will help you understand what’s working and what’s not, so you can tweak campaigns.
Benchmark your current LinkedIn performance
Before running ads, audit your current LinkedIn performance. Make note of your follower count, average post engagement, click-through rates, and website traffic from LinkedIn. This will help you set realistic goals and measure your campaign’s impact effectively.
Tailor your LinkedIn content for a professional audience
LinkedIn isn’t Instagram. The tone, topics, and style need to suit a professional audience. More importantly, your target audience, the decision-makers, the people who will follow further or buy from you. This doesn’t mean being dry or formal, but it does mean focusing on relevance. Make sure your business’s tone of voice is reflected on the platform.
Running a LinkedIn advertising campaign without first preening your organic feed isn’t advisable. It will result in worse outcomes and waste ad spend.
By focusing on your organic presence first, activating your employees, existing community, and followers, and tailoring your content and tracking strategy, your campaign has a much stronger chance of success.
Want to chat about getting your organisation LinkedIn-ready? Contact us for help with your LinkedIn social media strategy.
- Share this
