If you’re a business-to-business marketer, LinkedIn Ads needs to be on your radar. It’s a unique channel with targeting capabilities that vary greatly from search, display and other social networks. Here are 5 reasons B2B marketers need to test LinkedIn Ads to see how the channel performs for their business.

1. Reach Potential Customers According to Their Job

The greatest advantage of LinkedIn Ads over other ad networks is the ability to target your audience according to their profession. That means you can show ads directly to decision makers and influencer at your target businesses. You can target by job functions (e.g., finance), industry (e.g., biotechnology), job titles, company name and more to reach potential customers in your niche.

For example, if you’re trying to reach online advertisers, you can target the people with the skills “PPC,” “Online Advertising” and “Google AdWords.” This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated they are skilled in these areas to your campaign’s audience.

We target a niche within a niche...

"One of the things we like best about LinkedIn Ads is the ability to reach our exact audience” said Intelliworks VP of Marketing Dan Obregon. “We target a niche within a niche – the people specifically responsible for student recruitment within higher education institutions.”

2. Get Higher Quality Leads

LinkedIn Ads can be a terrific source of high quality leads because you can configure your campaigns to ensure that only qualified people see your ads. This sets LinkedIn apart from other display & social ads that can be affected by poor performance because visitors may be curious but not actually qualified. Because you know that the person who sees your ad is qualified to be your customer, you can expect higher quality leads from LinkedIn Ads.

The cost per lead is about the same, the difference is the quality.

For example, if your decision makers tend to be IT Directors, you can enter “Director of Information Technology” as a job title. This will include all LinkedIn members that currently have this job title to your campaign’s audience.

When comparing LinkedIn Ads to paid search campaigns, Barbara Wainwright of Fowler Wainwright International said , "the cost per lead is about the same, the difference is the quality. With LinkedIn, the quality is a huge advantage.”

3. Reach Senior-Level Professionals

LinkedIn Ads goes takes targeting by job category a step further by letting you also narrow down potential customers by seniority. Are you trying to reach decision makers in finance? Then skip the entry-level assistants and interns and target manager, senior and CXO roles.

For example, you can enter “Information Technology” as the job function and “Director” as the level of seniority. This will expose director level LinkedIn members in IT to your ads and exclude all others.

4. Reach Trade Association and Conference Groups

You can always reach qualified prospects in trade publications and the occasional industry conference, but what about when you don’t have the time or budget to have a presence there? With LinkedIn Ads you can easily emulate this targeting by targeting LinkedIn groups.

For example, I can reach online marketers by targeting relevant conference groups like SMX and SES. I can also reach online marketers by targeting the LinkedIn group of SEMPO, a prominent trade organization.

...LinkedIn helps us get in front the right people early in the decision-making cycle.

On this note, Dan Obregon said “We may not have the big conference and print advertising budgets of the larger players in our industry, but LinkedIn helps us get in front the right people early in the decision-making cycle.”

5. Get Insight into Customer Segments

Another benefit of LinkedIn Ads for B2B marketers is the potential insight that can come from campaigns segmented by audience. When your campaigns are split by customer segments, you may discover some interesting insights about which messages resonate with each segment.

For example, you may find that senior-level prospects want white papers and ebooks while owners and managers want demos and free trials. This information can help you craft the strongest message and offer for each of your segments.

On this note, Dan Slagen of Hubspot said “Getting clarity on our customers' preferences gives us valuable insights into what offers are most appealing to particular segments."

Get Started

LinkedIn Ads is a uniquely powerful channel that all marketers should test– especially those focused on business to business. For help getting started, check out our guide to LinkedIn Ads .

To supercharge your LinkedIn Ads campaigns and make management even easier, sign up for AdStage .