For every content distribution channel, there are pros and cons. LinkedIn advertising offers a great opportunity to connect with customers, but is it the right channel for your customers?

LinkedIn allows direct access to decision makers. Many of those decision makers are on LinkedIn looking for business solutions — namely products, services, or talent.

If that describes your ideal customer, this platform may be just the thing for your business’s B2B content marketing needs. But let’s take a deeper look at LinkedIn’s pros and cons.  

Pros for LinkedIn Advertising

Reach High-Value Audiences

With the platform’s Sponsored Updates self-serve advertising, you can reach what many call the gold standard of high-value audiences. LinkedIn member demographics skew higher for both salaries and job responsibility than memberships of other social networks. It’s also easier to reach top decision makers. Not only can you target an upper-level manager in need of your business solution, but you can also target the C-suite executive that has to sign off on it.

Target Hyper-Specific Audiences

Speaking of targeting, that’s another compelling pro of advertising with Linkedin. You can filter the audience for a campaign by geographic location, industry, job title, and even company. Want to target your content to just the SVPs at Wells Fargo? You can do that. It’s another feature you won’t find on any other social network.

Get the “Right” Clicks

It’s true that other social networks may have more active users — compare Facebook’s 1.55 billion monthly active users to LinkedIn’s 100 million monthly active users, for instance. Yet a higher volume of PPC activity isn’t necessarily better. After all, not all clicks are equal. What LinkedIn offers to content marketers is a platform that can get the “right” clicks, not just more clicks.

Set Up Your Own Campaigns

Another advantage of the platform is its ease of use. LinkedIn’s self-serve ad interface is designed to be easy enough for small businesses to use but versatile enough to meet the needs of Fortune 500 advertisers. Documentation is extensive, from LinkedIn’s own user guide to Kaleidico’s take and much more.

Cons for LinkedIn Advertising

Expect Higher CPC Pricing

Because LinkedIn gives B2B content marketers access to a high-value audience through granular targeting, advertising on the channel comes at a premium price. Average CPC is estimated at around $6 according to Contently while LinkedIn notes a minimum daily budget for campaigns of $10. That’s in contrast to Facebook’s estimated CPC of $0.50 and a daily minimum of as little as $1.

Plan Your Strategy Carefully

With such a premium price on clicks, you’ll want to ensure the clicks you get are the ones you want, making a highly refined strategy all the more important. Make sure you’ve carefully thought out your buyer personae and crafted your content and web links or landing pages accordingly.

Remember Some Users Are Job Hunting

While you can reach many top decision makers looking for business solutions, keep in mind that’s not why some users are on the site. As a professional networking and career advancement social network, some users are just job hunting. Keep this in mind when strategizing for your campaign.

LinkedIn’s Overall Advertising Value

Despite the CPC price tag and need to have strategic foresight, LinkedIn advertising offers B2B content marketers some truly unique advantages. No other social media platform offers comparable targeting that lets you reach the same kind of audience. For the right campaign, it’s the perfect match.

Need help with your next LinkedIn campaign? Our full-service digital agency can help! Call us at 313-338-9515 or email hello@kaleidico.com to learn more.