Is LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Content Worth It?

Everybody’s favorite work-appropriate social media platform, LinkedIn, is stepping up their advertising game. Previously, it was impossible to target your ads to specific demographics without first posting it to your own feed. Basically, if you wanted to figure out what ad performed best, you’d have to feel comfortable spamming your poor followers with basically the same ad. And that don’t fly in the white collar LinkedIn world.

Fortunately, LinkedIn decided to improve on this by creating a new type of advertisement category called Direct Sponsored Content, where you can create ads, target them at specific demographics, and test their performance without ever having to post the ad to your own feed. Which is great! Especially since the phrase “poorly targeted marketing strategies” is to Blue Corona what “Voldemort” is to the wizarding world in “Harry Potter”.

But is LinkedIn’s Direct Sponsored Content good for every business? Let’s find out!

What’s Good About Direct Sponsored Content

One of the best things about LinkedIn is the pure availability of the data. Because of LinkedIn’s position as a professional network, the average profile typically has more information on it than Facebook, which means more demographics to target, which means better performing ads. This makes LinkedIn a great marketing tool for targeted ads. While the membership is much lower than other social media platforms, the percentage of active users is significantly higher, which leads to fewer false-positives when looking at your number of followers.

So if you’re looking for an advertising investment that can be well-targeted directly toward your target audience, LinkedIn seems to be the leading candidate. However, it might not be the best choice for all businesses.

What’s Bad About Direct Sponsored Content?

Over the last few years, LinkedIn has carved out a niche as the primary marketing tool for B2B campaigns. While it’s become extremely valuable in that world, for B2C marketing, it falls short of its peers. So, like anytime you make a marketing investment, you have to know your platform. It’s foolish to market to your target demographic when your target demographic isn’t in attendance. It’s the reason that the VMAs had roughly 42,000 feminine hygiene ads.

LinkedIn is used almost exclusively for professional advancement—not for traditional social media purposes. If you offer a professional service that can benefit a corporate decision maker’s business, LinkedIn is perfect for you. If you’re not in that line of business, we’d probably steer you toward Facebook marketing instead.

Want Help Running a LinkedIn Direct Sponsored Content Campaign?

If you need help setting up a LinkedIn marketing campaign, contact Blue Corona today! We can get your marketing campaign off the ground and performing in no time.