LinkedIn Spotlight Ads In 2024: Are They Worth The Investment?
Should you invest in LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?Â
In this article you'll learn:Â
- The pro's and con's of LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
- How much LinkedIn Spotlight ads costÂ
- Examples of LinkedIn Spotlight ads
- 3 LinkedIn Spotlight ad strategiesÂ
By the end of this article youâll know if this ad type makes sense for you.
Letâs dive into it! đ
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Contents
- What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
- LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs
- 4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight AdsÂ
- 4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight AdsÂ
- 3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing
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What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
Spotlight ads are only seen on desktop devices and use a combination of your audience's LinkedIn profile data such as photo, company name, and job title to dynamically change based on the user.Â
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LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs
When creating a spotlight ad youâve got the following options:
- Ad headline = 50 charactersÂ
- Company name = 25 characters
- Company Image = logo or image in JPG or PNG that is < 2 MBÂ
- Background Image (optional) = 300x250 in JPG or PNGÂ
Iâd personally recommend not adding a background image as it removes the ad description, and the users profile photo will not be shown, which defeats the purpose of this ad type đ
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4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight AdsÂ
Reason 1: 74% Lower Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)
After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average CPM of $5.23, 74% lower than single image ads.Â
Reason 2: Increased Ad Recall
Spotlight ad placements are very âlow keyâ and unintrusive.Â
They only appear on Desktop and are served on the right side of the newsfeed.Â
Given an average CPM of $5.23 and subtle placement you can rack large frequencies > 20 without negatively impacting your audienceâs experience.Â
The combination of high frequency and low impression costs = greater potential ad recallÂ
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Reason 3: Low Creative Effort
Spotlight ads only require an image that is < 2MB making it an EXTREMELY low creative effort.Â
Compare this to formats like single image, carousel, or even video ads.Â
If you want more exposure without a ton of effort theyâre an easy addition.Â
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Reason 4: Flexible Bidding Strategies
Spotlight ads allow you to multiple bidding strategies depending on your campaign objectives.Â
- Maximum delivery = LinkedIn will automatically adjust your bids for the most exposure
- Cost cap = set a target cost per landing page clickÂ
- Manual bidding = set a specific bid per landing page click
With each of these bidding strategies you have flexibility to test and leverage the one that allows you the greatest exposure for the lowest cost.Â
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4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight AdsÂ
Reason 1: 83% higher average CPC prices
After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average cost per click of $7.93, 83% higher than single image ads.Â
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Reason 2: You want to generate the most conversionsÂ
Spotlight ads have horrible engagement rates compared to other LinkedIn ad types.Â
If your primary objective is to drive conversions then spotlight ads are not the ideal ad type to use.Â
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Reason 3: Youâre trying to drive the most traffic to your siteÂ
Spotlight ads have below average clickthrough rates compared to other ad types which makes using them to drive site traffic a poor use case of budget.Â
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Reason 4: Youâre not already investing in other ad types
Spotlight ads are not a game changer ad type. They should be used in support alongside other more dominant ad types such as (image, video, or conversation).Â
The best use of spotlight ads is remarketing, allowing you to stay top of mind at a low cost in front of the audiences that already know/like/trust you.Â
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3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing
In no particular order, hereâs 3 strategies worth testing with spotlight ads.
Strategy #1: Remarketing
The real advantage of spotlight ads are low distribution costs with an average CPM of $5.28.
This in combination with the fact that spotlight ads are a non-intrusive ad type on desktop devices and limited right-hand placements makes them great for remarketing.Â
You can leverage spotlight ads to remarket:Â
- All website visitors
- Company page visitorsÂ
- Past event attendees
- Contacts of customers, and leads in nurture
If you want to learn more about building a LinkedIn remarketing strategy check out our in-depth article on How to Build a Multichannel B2B Retargeting Strategy (Step-By-Step).Â
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Strategy #2: Company Page Growth
Another potential strategy to test spotlight ads is growing your LinkedIn company page.Â
You can leverage this ad type to drive visitors to view your page (which will then hopefully lead to a follower), check out this example from Aurora who is using a CTA of âFollowâ.Â
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Strategy #3: Job Recruitment
Spotlight ads are available with the Job applicants campaign objective and given itâs dynamic element (automatically pulling the photo of the user) you can create personalized recruitment ads.Â
I hope you found this article useful!
And as promised, now know if this ad type makes sense for you.
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms
Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? đ¤
Then started searching to find the answer? (same here lol)
To save you (and ourselves) trouble, we gathered the most popular ad specs across 10 channels in one place:Â
- Google Display Ad Specs
- LinkedIn Ad Specs
- Twitter (X) Ad Specs
- Quora Ad Specs
- Reddit Ad Specs
- YouTube Ad Specs
- Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
- TikTok Ad Specs
- Meta Ad Specs
âď¸ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.Â
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Google Display Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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LinkedIn Ad Specs
Source: business.linkedin.com
Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home
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âX (Twitter) Ad Specs
âSource: business.twitter.com
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- You can request to have video lengths increased up to 10 minutes
- Carousel can use images or videos but must be in the same aspect ratio (ex: 1:1 or 16:9)
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Quora Ad Specs
Source: image ads, video ads
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Reddit Ad Specs
Source: reddit.my.site.com
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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.
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Youtube Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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TikTok Ad Specs
Source: ads.tiktok.com
Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads
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âMeta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)
Source: business.facebook.com
Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library
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Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
Hope you found this ad specs article useful!
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
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Hereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â 100% free access.
â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
â
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
⢠Scale their ideas
⢠Level up their careers
⢠Make a positive impact
â
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously I timed it đ)
3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know
Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.
You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.Â
Itâs a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.Â
In this article youâre going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.Â
This wonât solve your limited search volume issues that's just the nature of your target keywords and B2B SaaS but these strategies will help you squeeze more performance from your account.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
- Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
- Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
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Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Before you click away Iâm not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.Â
Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.Â
Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.Â
It essentially means youâre giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.Â
I would not recommend testing this approach unless you have:
- Strong negative keyword lists
- Proven converting phrase match keywords
- Significant conversion volume (> 15/month)
The benefit is you get to scale your top keywords safely past phrase match.Â
How to implement broad match discovery:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Once youâve identified some worthwhile keywords itâs time for step 2.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences
Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.Â
- Your data = website visitors or contact lists
- In-market = people actively researching a given topic
- Life events = people whoâve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
- Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.Â
- Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic
You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.Â
If youâre dealing with < 500 searches/month for your keywords I recommend clustering a minim of 10-15 audiences on top of your campaigns to help with delivery.Â
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Step 3: Setup a campaign experimentÂ
The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.Â
You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.Â
Located under Campaigns > ExperimentsÂ
Using this feature build an experiment splitting the traffic by 50% for your original campaign vs the experiment version using broad match AND the targeted audiences you brainstormed in step 2.Â
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.Â
Weâve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.Â
If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages â take advantage of localization!
Localization campaigns are when you target keywords, write ad copy, and design landing pages that all are in your audience's native language (ex: Spanish, German, Portuguese).Â
Youâll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.Â
The downside however with localization is search volume.Â
If youâre already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.Â
How to implement localized campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages
Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.Â
Based on your options make a list of potential languages.
Next, if youâre advertising outside of North America, review the top performing countries and identify their local languages and see if you have the internal resources that can speak that language.
If you canât sell in this language then this strategy wonât make sense.Â
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Step 3: Hire a local translator Â
Donât make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.
Youâll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.Â
For instance, if youâre advertising in Portuguese.Â
The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.Â
A local brazilian can tell if itâs not their dialect just like a native portuguese.Â
I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.Â
These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.Â
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.
This is where youâre going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.Â
For example, letâs say bidding on the keyword âcrm softwareâ hereâs how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:
- healthcare crm software
- crm software for fintechÂ
- crm software for small businesses
The benefits of industry campaigns:Â
- Personalized ad copy that can yield greater CTRs
- Higher quality leads due to a more qualified search term
- Lower cost per click prices due to less competition
The downside however is search volume (the constant struggle of Google for SaaS đ ).
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How to implement industry campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Just like the other strategies weâre going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your target industries
Run a win rate analysis in your CRM and understand which industries have the shortest sales cycles and largest deal sizes? Based on your findings, prioritise the industries in which you want to target.Â
Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap
Once you have your keywords and target industries youâre ready to build your campaigns.Â
Make sure to add your industry terms as negative keywords in your generic non-brand campaigns.
Otherwise you can have people seeing your generic ads for your industry terms.Â
Hope you found this article helpful!Â
Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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