Bidding on LinkedIn. Short guide and best practices.

Miša, Epic Agency
December 3, 2020

Is LinkedIn part of your strategy for 2021?

If yes, here is a guide for you. This week, LinkedIn has published a new overview of its bidding system and tips on maximizing your campaign performance for optimal ad delivery.

LinkedIn is the largest business network of our time, with more than 675 million users around the globe. It is created for business users and advertising is directed to the promotion of your company, products or service and searching for new personnel. It offers quality targeting for reaching excellent results and wide selection of ad types for various campaign objectives.

The most effective LinkedIn ad campaigns are built on focused bidding strategies.

When launching LinkedIn campaign all ads enter auction system and try to reach users visiting feed. The auction ranks bids from various advertisers competing for the same ad slot. The bid is the maximum price you’re willing to pay for a key result and it should be based on your marketing objectives, such as building awareness or generating website traffic. A combination of relevancy (how likely a LinkedIn member will engage with your ad) and bid value determines which ad is shown to the member and when.

Here is a guide of various bid types and tips on how to utilize each.

LinkedIn offers you to choose your own bid value or the automated one. You might also want to move between bid types based on your changing marketing needs. LinkedIn currently has 3 bid types: Maximum Delivery, Target Cost, and Manual Bidding.

Maximum Delivery (formerly known as Automated Bidding, Auto Bid) is a fully automated bid option where LinkedIn’s system sets the bid. It is best used when you want to deliver your full budget, while getting the most key results possible.

Target Cost is also an automated option where LinkedIn’s system sets the bid. It’s offered for CPC, CPM and CPV. However, it allows the advertiser to set their preferred cost per key result. LinkedIn’s system will stay as close to that specified cost as possible.

Manual bidding offers advertisers the most control over their bid. Advertisers enter their bid value and that is exactly what is used in the ad auction. But we recommend the campaigns to be monitored regularly in this case.

Which one to use?

If you are uncertain how to bid for your campaign or maybe don’t have time to manage it, Target Cost bidding and Maximum Delivery are your best options. Manual Bidding gives you the most control, but also requires more time, oversight, experience.

When should you choose Automated Bidding?

If your campaigns are spending 85 % of their daily budget with Target Cost Bidding or Maximum Delivery, it means they have potential (are »healthy«) and could get even more results with automated bids, for the same budget.

Why starting with the highest bid?

With Manual Bidding, Campaign Manager suggests a bid range. Start at the high end of the recommended range if you want to win in auctions.

How to lower costs?

If you’re over-spending with Manual Bidding, reduce your bid slowly. Monitor campaign performance and stop lowering when you see a dip in key metrics like impressions, clicks or conversions.

How to predict performance?

On the right side of your Campaign Manager there is a Forecasting Tool, a window that predicts performance as you input your preferences. Compare bid type results from day-to-day spend and you will see what works best for you.

Here is another breakdown of bid types. Choose the right one. Or ask us for advice.

Miša, Epic Agency