The best bidding strategy for LinkedIn Ads
What is the best bidding strategy for LinkedIn ads? Well, there is no simple answer – it depends on how well your ads are performing.
The effectiveness and ROI on your advertisement campaigns will be impacted by your bidding strategy. All ads targeting a specific member competes for the same slot – the winning ad that is seen by the LinkedIn member depends on your bidding strategy, the relevancy of the ad (LinkedIn system figures out how relevant your ad is based on its results), and likelihood of getting an engagement from the LinkedIn member. You can make sure that your ad is relevant by targeting only people who are relevant for your product/service. An engaging copy and creative will increase the likelihood of engagement from your audience. And finally, a competitive bid can ensure that your ad gets enough impressions.
LinkedIn offers three bid types currently: Maximum Delivery, Cost Capping, and Manual.
Maximum Delivery:
Maximum delivery bidding is the most hands-off bidding option LinkedIn offers. LinkedIn’s AI takes over and utilises your entire budget and tries to get maximum key results as possible. Key results may be website visits, video views, engagements, leads, etc. depending on the type of campaign. If your ads are performing above average (average CTR for LinkedIn sponsored content ads is 0.4 – 0.65, you are better off using maximum delivery option as you won’t get charged for each click.
Ad campaigns with maximum delivery bidding are charged by impressions.
Maximum delivery is the best option if your ads are performing higher than average.
Cost Cap:
With cost cap, bidding you can set the maximum cost per key result. The LinkedIn system sets your bid for the ad automatically while making sure it stays under the cap. In cost cap bidding, LinkedIn recommends a bid amount and gives you a range of how much similar advertisers are bidding per click.
Cost cap bidding can be used for CPC, CPM, CPV and CPL.
Ad campaigns with cost cap bidding are charged by impressions.
Manual bidding:
Manual bidding offers advertisers the most amount of control over how much they spend per click. With manual bidding, you pay only for clicks and not for impressions. This means that if your targeting ensures that only relevant people see your ads, the impressions are in a way a bonus, and you get charged only for the clicks. In this case as well, LinkedIn recommends a bid amount and gives you a range of how much similar advertisers are bidding per click. In the case of manual bidding, there is a minimum bid set by LinkedIn. While it is technically possible to bid just above the minimum bid set by LinkedIn, low bids may result in low number of impressions and hence poor results. If you are using manual bidding, you must make sure that you are monitoring the campaign frequently to make sure that you are getting enough impressions.
Message ads and Sponsored message ads offer only manual bidding.
Manual bidding is the best bidding strategy if your ads are performing average and is generally the most cost-effective option.
