Online Marketing | Social Media

LinkedIn Ads: More Interaction Thanks to Conversation Ads

“Greetings %FIRSTNAME%! My name is Anne. I am a Digital Marketing Consultant at Amazee Metrics and assist companies in successfully advertising on LinkedIn. We are also happy to support %COMPANYNAME% in reaching the appropriate target group. Particularly with Conversation Ads we have had positive experiences in the last few months. Do you know the new Conversation Ads already?

Answer A: “Yes, I already use them”.

Answer B: “No, I have not tried them yet”.

Answer C: “What Are Conversation Ads?

If you choose answer C, here is the explanation: At the beginning of the year LinkedIn introduced a new advertising format, Conversation Ads. Within the Messenger these should increase the engagement of users. These ads look similar  to the example above.

We have tested the new format and can confirm that conversation campaigns not only increase the interaction rate, the ads also leave a personal impression of your company. However, the campaign setup is much more complex than with simple message ads, which is why we are sharing our experience with you – even if you would have chosen answer A or B.

Conversation Ads In A Nutshell

Conversation Ads on LinkedIn are sponsored messages that arrive in users’ mailboxes. Unlike normal Message Ads, they offer the opportunity for a conversation. This is based on a given story, similar to the interaction with a chatbot. It is also possible to insert several Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons here. With this, the recipients of the message can either receive a new reply, be redirected to a lead form or receive a link to a web page.

LinkedIn Conver

What Do I Need to Create Them?

First of all, you need a clear goal: What do you want to achieve with the campaign? You build your story accordingly.  This implies that you write a start message, several response options in the form of CTA buttons (max. 5 per message), and additional messages if you want to start an automated dialog. Depending on your campaign goal, you might also need a lead form created on LinkedIn.

In addition, you will need sufficient access rights in your LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and – this is important – your potential sender will also need these.

Lastly, it is recommended, but not mandatory, to add images to your Conversation Ads.

When Are Conversation Ads The Right Format?

From our experience, Conversation Ads are particularly suitable when…

  • you want to offer the user different options.
  • you would like to get into personal contact.
  • you have a colourful medley of content on a specific topic, so that the recipient has many possibilities to respond to your offer.

Best Practices for Creating Conversation Ads

  • The sender should be in line with the offer and have a professional profile on LinkedIn. For example, it would be unrealistic if the CEO of a company with 10‘000 employees suddenly sends “personal” messages on LinkedIn.
  • At the beginning of the message, the sender should briefly introduce him/herself. Do not take the mail’s recipient by surprise!
  • Use simple language – like in a personal message. Avoid using marketing jargon or catch phrases.
  • Macros help to personalize the message (name, industry, company, job title). Do not use placeholders such as “Dear Sir / Dear Lady”. This appears impersonal and gives the impression of a mass mail.
  • Do you offer free services – such as whitepapers or free summits? Perfect. These usually perform best.
  • Avoid one-way buttons, e.g. answer options such as “No, thanks”.
  • The Conversation Ads Report shows which buttons perform well and how you can optimize the narrative thread if necessary.

Our Experience With Conversation Ads

LinkedIn is not a channel to generate sales. The social platform is primarily intended to establish professional contacts, for networking, and the exchange on professional topics. If you keep this in mind when considering this advertising platform, the Conversation Ads are a very exciting format at hand. 

The opening rates of our campaigns with this ad format were higher than 60%. This is already far better than the performance of, for example, Gmail campaigns on Google Ads. Whether the message is not only opened, but also clicked on, depends in turn strongly on the quality of the start message and the targeting. And for the latter, LinkedIn Ads offers a wide range of very specific options.

One last point we need to mention: Despite detailed targeting, LinkedIn has seen some trolls and other strange creatures lately. So it sometimes happens that leads from opinion research institutes or fake profiles come in. 

And if you would like to run Conversation Ads for %COMPANYNAME%, please contact us. Hopefully, we will hear from you soon, %FIRSTNAME%!

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