LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful ad network that every business should test. It has the unique ability to reach an audience by targeting their professional identity and this can be a big boon for B2B marketers especially. You can now reach professionals quickly and programmatically. In this post, we'll walk through LinkedIn campaign creation with a focus on targeting options and how you can use them to reach your perfect audience.

You can now reach an audience by targeting their professional identity quickly and programmatically.

To get started, login to your LinkedIn Ads account (or create one) and create your new campaign. Once you’ve given your campaign a name and chosen a language, you’ll be able to create your ad.

You can create basic ads (which include text and an image) and video ads. You can include up to 15 different ads in a campaign. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn ads apply their targeting settings to the campaign level. This means that each ad within a campaign will have the same targeting settings.

Next, you’ll be presented with your campaign’s targeting settings screen. This is where you can describe the professional audience you'd like to reach with your ads.

With the exception of location, each targeting field is optional. I stress this because you’ll want to be conservative in your selections as each new targeting field you apply will further narrow the size of your audience. To manage this, watch the counter to see an estimate of how many LinkedIn members you’re eligible to reach given your current targeting. If the number dips too low for your taste, either remove all selections within that field or add more selections to that field (entering multiple selections within a field will increase the size of your audience).

Location

Here you must specify at least one location for your audience. You should set it to where your potential customers are. You can select world regions, countries, states, and metropolitan areas. For example, if your customers are nationwide, you can enter “United States.” This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated the US as their location to your campaign's audience.

Companies

Here you can target by either company name or by a combination of industry and size. You can target members of companies by entering specific company names . For example, if you are looking to promote your business to employees of Salesforce.com, you can enter “Salesforce.com” (naturally). This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated Salesforce.com as their employer to your campaign's audience.

Alternatively, you can target categories of companies by selecting industries and the number of employees . For example, if you are looking to target large software businesses, you may enter “Computer Software” and “Internet” as industries and “10,001+ employees” as company size. This will include all LinkedIn members that have employers that fit that criteria to your campaign's audience.

Job Title

Here you can target by either job title or by a combination of job function and seniority within an organization. You can target members by job title by entering specific job titles . 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.

Alternatively, you can reach similar members by selecting the job function and seniority . For example, you may enter “Information Technology” as the job function and “Director” as seniority. This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated current positions that fit that criteria to your campaign's audience.

School

Here you can specify the alma mater of your audience. You can enter specific school names to target members that have attended. For example, if you’re trying to reach Stanford graduates, you can enter “Stanford University.” This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated they’ve attended Stanford to your campaign's audience.

Skills

Here you can specify the relevant job skills of your audience. You can enter common skills your audience claims to have. For example, if you’re trying to reach online advertisers, you can enter “PPC,” “Online Advertising” and “Google AdWords” as skills. This will include all LinkedIn members that have indicated they are skilled in any of the skills you’ve selected to your campaign's audience.

Groups

Here you can specify groups your audience is a part of. You can enter large or niche groups. For example, if you’re trying to reach wedding photographers, you can enter “Wedding Professionals Networking Group,” “Photography Industry Professionals” and “This is Wedding Photography” as groups. This will include all LinkedIn members that have joined either of these three groups to your campaign's audience.

Gender

Here you can specify the gender of your audience. You can select either male or female. If your typical customers skew towards a certain gender, you can select that gender here. This will include all LinkedIn members that have identified themselves as that gender to your campaign's audience.

Age

Here you can specify the age range of your audience. Your available selections are 18-24, 25-34, 35-54 and 55+. If your typical customers skew towards a certain age, you can select that range. This will include all LinkedIn members that are thought to be in that age range to your campaign's audience

Pro tip: LinkedIn members do not actually specify their age so you'll want to avoid this targeting field in order to reach the largest eligible audience.

LinkedIn Ads Audience Network

After you've set your audience targeting, you’ll be presented with the option to enable the LinkedIn Audience Network . You should certainly test out this option as it will make your ads eligible to display on partner websites. This lets you reach your highly targeted LinkedIn audience even when they’re visiting websites other than LinkedIn.

Once you've finished setting your targeting, you can move on to setting your campaign bids and budget. Once you launch your campaign, your business will be promoted to your perfect audience!

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