A Dangerous Change To Google’s Content Targeting Options
Dr John Woods covers the consequences of Google’s change to some of their content targeting options on the Google display network.
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For those of you who spend time in LinkedIn’s advertising platform, Campaign Manager, you will have noticed a newish notification advising you that “For consistent optimal campaign delivery and engagement, we suggest a minimum target audience size of 50,000”.
Which is all very well if there are actually at least 50,000 individuals who might ever be involved in the consideration of purchasing your products or services.
But for many niche B2B organisations, their prospective customer base is likely to be much, much smaller than 50,000.
So, if you’re looking for ways to maximise your advertising spend on the most targeted group of prospects possible, here are three clever ways to optimise those LinkedIn audiences!
Who you exclude from your audiences can be just as important as who you include. There are a few limitations here, for example if your targeting includes job seniority or functionality you can’t exclude job titles, and vice versa.
But there are some very clever uses of them, including:
Pro Tip: If you are adding exclusions, in most cases you will want to “OR” rather than “AND” them. For example exclude someone if they are in a list of known competitors OR if they are entry-level employees.
LinkedIn leverages users’ self-reported skills from their profile to provide a reasonably robust dataset for us to choose from. Think about which skills your target audience is likely to have, including specific technologies they might be using, to help focus in on the most qualified prospects. A note that not every skill you might want will be available for targeting so use the search functionality.
Interests are based on content that the LinkedIn member has viewed and therefore are a reasonable indication of whether that individual might be actively in the market for your products or services. The list of Interests isn’t sometimes as exhaustive as you might want it to be so use the search functionality and spend time exploring the options.
Pro Tip: leverage any persona, keyword, or market research you have to hand which might spark some ideas about related skills or interests.
Audience Expansion is a tricky little button that is ticked by default when you set up a new campaign. Essentially it allows LinkedIn to show people outside of your target audience your ads, on the basis they have similar attributes (e.g., job titles, companies, or skills).
Given all the trouble you have probably just gone through to create a super targeted campaign, we do not advise letting LinkedIn decide to show them to anyone it fancies. Instead, experience with Lookalike audiences to see how good LinkedIn really is at interpreting your audience criteria. You can then make a thoughtful choice about whether to also show your ads to an expanded group of prospects.
Dr John Woods covers the consequences of Google’s change to some of their content targeting options on the Google display network.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Access practical tips to elevate your B2B content to E-E-A-T guidelines
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