While Facebook and Twitter are often talked about as the most popular sites for social marketing, LinkedIn is getting in on the action with an updated pay-per-click text ad offering. The company announced this week that a self-service PPC ad platform with enhanced targeting capabilities is available.
Since the launch of its beta ad product in 2008, the social site, which has more than 90 million members, has offered ads that target users by geographic location, age, gender, industry and other general information. Now, the company is moving its text ad service out of beta form and ads can be targeted according to exact job titles, company names or LinkedIn Groups.
“This deeper level of targeting ability offers advertisers more precision for their advertising dollar and greater return on investment,” the company says.
Enhanced targeting options on LinkedIn may be especially good news for B2B marketers. Adotas recently relayed data from OneSource's “B2B SalesPulse Survey” revealing that LinkedIn and company blogs are the two social platforms B2B companies find most effective in establishing thought leadership.
