Several months ago, LinkedIn introduced a new feature: Conversation Ads. It’s basically an upgrade of their Message Ads feature (previously known as Sponsored InMail) that turns a one-sided message into a conversation, thus increasing interaction and engagement.
Conversation types of ads are especially effective, not only because people use messaging apps more than three hours a day, but also because you can personalise your communication depending on where your prospects are in the customer journey. This is even more important in the B2B context, where buying cycles are longer and it’s essential to build trusting relationships.
Both Message Ads and Conversation Ads go directlyto your target audience’s inbox. They can include a CTA button and a lead generation form, designed to collect leads. While Message Ads allow you to send a single message with a single CTA, Conversation Ads let you include multiple CTA buttons and send users additional messages based on the response buttons they select.
LinkedIn calls their new feature a “Choose your own path experience that lets you create full-funnel campaigns with multiple customized calls-to-action, like product education, webinar sign-ups, and ebook downloads”. This means that when recipients see your sponsored message, they will have multiple responses to choose from (up to 5 per message).
Conversation Ads are sent at the exact moment the recipient is on LinkedIn, further increasing the likelihood of engagement.
How does a LinkedIn Conversation Ad work?
LinkedIn Campaign Manager is a platform on which you run and manage all your advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. To set up your ad account, youneed a LinkedIn account and a credit card. You will be asked to enter an account name, select a currency, and link your account to your business page.
First, you will need to choose an objective of your campaign, for example: increasing webinar registrations. Next, you need to define your target audience (based on location and characteristics such as job title, industry, skills, etc.) and select the appropriate ad format (Conversation Ad).
Then you’ll need to set the budget, select the sender (the best person to represent your company) and create a lead generation form – here you define which information you want from the recipients when they register for the webinar.
Once all this is set up, you can start building your message flow. Start with an opening message, where you introduce yourself and the webinar and explain why you think the recipient would be interested in attending.
Next, add at least two CTA buttons – two different response options, such as “Sign me up” or “Tell memore first”. If the recipient chooses the second option, you can reply with another message and offer the recipient other CTA button options, e.g. “Tell me about the speakers” or “Show me the agenda”.
The goal of any path you create is to get the recipient to sign up for the webinar, so you’ll need to add a “Sign me up” button at some point after an action was taken.
In the same manner you can use Conversation Ads to drive website visits, share free trials, increase content downloads, event or programme enrollments, and so on.
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