Good Targeting Gets Even Better with LinkedIn Interest Targeting

Knowledge is a core value at SCG. This weekly column highlights something interesting learned recently by one of our team members. We hope you find it intriguing and informative.

We’ve been recommending LinkedIn campaigns, both organic and paid, to our B2B clients for a long time. They’re a great way to get messages in front of a targeted, qualified audience, and we typically see a clear payback in engagement and conversion metrics on client websites from traffic that arrives via LinkedIn referral.

Recently, the site added a new advertising capability that will give us even more power with sponsored content—LinkedIn interest targeting. Now, in addition to being able to specify job titles or industries for ads, we can also serve relevant promotions based on a user’s interests. And here’s an intriguing layer—LinkedIn is not necessarily determining a user’s interests based on things they’ve explicitly listed in the Interests section of their profile; it’s gauging based on a user’s engagement with content on the site.

While the current targeting options are still quite broad, it’s not hard to envision them quickly getting more granular. I expect that soon, even if I haven’t spelled out publicly in my profile that I’m a grammar nerd, LinkedIn will probably start showing me stylebook ads due to the fact that I’ve commented on and liked my connections’ articles on the Oxford comma. (I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I am a riot at parties.)

Ready to incorporate LinkedIn interest targeting in your advertising? Get in touch!