LinkedIn is more than just a monastery for buttoned-up office avatars and thinkfluencers.
LinkedIn has long served as an online advertising platform for B2B marketing, recruiting campaigns, audience expansion, and more.
LinkedIn on Thursday announced new connected TV ad placements that will allow B2B marketers to stream shows and movies while targeting audiences off-platform. Through his LinkedIn Campaign Manager, clients can purchase streaming ads from his CTV publishers such as Roku, Samsung, and NBCUniversal.
The nature of LinkedIn and the way members use the platform has made it clear that we need to help marketers reach their target LinkedIn members outside of the platform, Penry Price, vice president of marketing solutions, told AdExchanger told.
nature of networking
LinkedIn may not have the intimidation of TikTok or the omnichannel engagement of YouTube, but the social network has a personalized feed and database of information about active users. That information includes general location, media preferences, and possibly salary and income.
But unlike typical social media apps, people don't use LinkedIn out of boredom or to talk to friends, Price said. LinkedIn users are using the platform for more purposes, such as networking and job hunting. There is a limited opportunity to reach users while they are open to seeing your ad before they close the tab and do something else.
LinkedIn's expansion into CTV is not about customer acquisition, Price said. Rather, it's about allowing B2B advertisers to reach existing LinkedIn members at different times of the day, such as when they're at work or sitting on the couch when they get home. he said.
Price spoke to AdExchanger about LinkedIn's CTV strategy.
AdExchanger: Streaming is no longer a shiny new object. Why did LinkedIn want to get into CTV now?
Penry Price: Many brands are using streaming to reach general consumers, but that's not necessarily the case for marketers trying to target business professionals.
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Many B2B advertisers are still unsure whether to try CTV, and many are just getting started. The reason for the hesitation is that a B2B brand's specific goals don't mesh well with the mechanics of TV ad buying.
Why?
B2C brands buy TV ads based on household attributes such as age and gender demographics, program type, and annual income. However, B2B marketers rely less on this information. It's actually a nice thing to have.
What B2B marketers really need to know is where their audience works and what their professional roles are. This information determines whether a user has seniority and decision-making authority to purchase a particular product or service on behalf of the company.
This level of targeting is difficult to achieve on streaming platforms where you don't necessarily have a lot of information about your viewers' professional lives.
But through integration with the CTV platform, we can help B2B companies reach their target audience on streaming apps based on data from real LinkedIn members.
What are some examples of B2B marketers you work with?
Many of our customers are financial services, technology, and software companies that provide products for IT and human resources employees. Healthcare is also a growth area for us.
What role can streaming play for B2B marketers?
CTV helps increase brand awareness and consideration early in the buying process.
Just like someone would buy a new sweater or shoes, no one would buy a new office printer or IT software just because they saw an online ad. These are big purchases that require months of consideration, just like buying a new car.
B2B brands need to see if customers have a positive opinion of the brand before seeing product ads on LinkedIn. By using CTV to launch campaigns further up the funnel, brands can increase the likelihood that their digital ads will actually drive sales.
What data partnerships does LinkedIn need to find members on streaming apps?
We are still working out the details of partnerships with data providers that will allow us to match identifiers to streaming data without revealing the identity of actual LinkedIn members.
But the idea is to match hashed IDs to deliver CTV impressions to streaming services that are actually being watched by logged-in LinkedIn members.
B2B companies can use obfuscated LinkedIn data to correlate the type of content their target audience watches and how LinkedIn members respond to B2B ads on other platforms.
How does LinkedIn measure whether these CTV ads are effective?
Consider increasing engagement on LinkedIn. For example, do your brand's ads on LinkedIn increase clicks and video completion rates among target audiences who see your ad for the first time on CTV compared to target audiences who don't?
We also rely on measurement and validation partners to provide key TV metrics such as reach and frequency.
For us, the goal of CTV is to help our B2B clients move their target customers down the purchase funnel faster.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
For more articles featuring Penry Price, click here.
