Targeting Higher Education Audiences with LinkedIn

Overview

Most marketers are away of LinkedIn’s self-serve advertising network and many are using it. With a reach of 250 million professionals from nearly every industry, LinkedIn is a promising platform. However, many higher education marketers struggle to reach their target audiences and produce compelling return on marketing dollars. In this webinar, we’ll review how LinkedIn marketing works, compare it to other online advertising channels, and discuss several of its best and worst features. We’ll finish by sharing examples of how to reach audiences effectively for degrees, certificates, and corporate training.

• Outline and section topics – How does the LinkedIn self-serve advertising work?

– When should I use LinkedIn versus Facebook, Google, or Bing?

– 7 best features of LinkedIn

– 9 worst features of LinkedIn

• Examples of targeting prospective adult education audiences

www.jmhconsulting.com 404-312-3999

Marketing to Adult Education Audiences on LinkedIn

presented by Jon Horn

A CONSULTING FIRM WITH MARKETING EXPERTS

RUTHLESSLY DATA-DRIVEN

IN THE TRENCHES


1. What are the best and worst features?

2. How does advertising on LinkedIn work?

3. When should I use LinkedIn?

4. How can I reach my students?


The Best & Worst


9 Worst Features

• Geographical targeting stinks

• Reporting stinks

• No integrated conversion tracking

• Limited ad formats with miniscule images

• Can’t target by education level, major, or degree type

• Inability to exclude audiences except in sponsored updates

• Minimum CPC is $2.00 and minimum daily budget is $10

• Each target audience requires separate campaigns

• Can’t use Boolean logic when targeting


7 Best Features

• Reach targeted professionals while they are career oriented

• Ability to collect leads without landing pages

• Combine targeting like Industry, Job Function, and Seniority

• Targeting by Job Title

• Targeting by Skills

• Targeting by Groups and Affiliations

• Targeting employees at specific companies

• Using targeting capability of LI when sponsoring updates


How do LinkedIn ads work?


LinkedIn Ads appear on: • Profiles of other LinkedIn members.

• The homepage after members sign in.

• The LinkedIn Inbox.

• Pages that appear after searching for members.

• Pages for LinkedIn groups.

Campaign targeting

• Geography: “United States” or “California” or “Toronto”

• Job Function: “Sales” or “Engineering” or "Marketing"

• Seniority: “Vice President” or “Owners”

• Job Title: “Project Manager” or “Teacher” or "Registered Nurse"

• Industry: “Education” or “Biotechology”

• Company Size: “1-10 ” or “500-1000” people

• Company Name: “GE ” or “Hewlett-Packard” or “FedEx ”

• School Name: “University of Georgia” or “Brown University”

• LinkedIn Group: “Business Intelligence Group” or “SHRM”

• Skills: “Project Management” or “SEO” or “Leadership”

• Age: “18-24” or “35-54”

• Gender: “Female” or “Male”

When should I use LinkedIn?


Awareness

Interest

Engagement

Conversion


When paid search isn’t effective

LinkedIn is…

Good For

• Reaching professional audiences

• Targeting specific job titles, industries, associations, or groups

• Marketing graduate degrees and career advancement programs

• Marketing to corporate representatives

Not Good For

• Reaching career changers

• Marketing to non-professional audiences

• Marketing most undergraduate degrees

• Marketing personal enrichment programs


Combined data from 8 clients with a total spend

of $430,000 generating 384 million impressions

and 220,000 clicks


Cost per thousand Impressions

Cost per Click Cost per

Conversion

Bing Paid Search $26.36 $ 2.69 $57.80

Facebook $0.27 $1.13 $107.47

Google Display $0.98 $1.07 $76.46

Google Paid Search $70.91 $3.99 $61.07

LinkedIn $1.25 $2.67 $44.63

Overall average $1.12 $1.95 $66.24

How do I reach my audience?


Location

Seniority

Industry Job Function

Skills


Reaching marketing decision makers in US higher education

All LinkedIn

Location = United States

Job Function = Marketing

Industry = Higher Ed

Seniority = Manager,

Director, or VP

MBA in Healthcare

Seniority Entry, Senior, or Manager

Industry Hospital & Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Practice, Biotechnology, etc.

Job Function Accounting, Administrative, Finance, Operations, etc.

Seniority Entry, Senior, or Manager

Job Function Healthcare Services


Project Management Certificate

Skills Project management, project coordination, etc.

Seniority Entry, senior, or manager

Job Title Project manager, project coordinator, etc.


Groups Project Management Institute, etc.



Onsite corporate training

Job Title Training manager, director of training

Seniority Manager, Director, or VP

Function Human Resources

Company Size 1-10, 11-50, or 51-200 employees

Associations ASTD

Seniority Manager, Director, or VP


Questions?

Jon Horn

JMH Consulting, Inc.

www.jmhconsulting.com
