LinkedIn is an essential component in B2B marketing because the target audience is almost always here. However, advertising on LinkedIn can be costly, and it is important to get a good understanding of the benchmarks to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
In this article, I discuss average Click-Through Rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), and other key metrics based on our own experience with hundreds of LinkedIn campaigns for clients.
Average CTR LinkedIn ads
The Click-Through Rate (CTR) is an important metric for measuring the effectiveness of your ads. For LinkedIn Ads, the average CTR is typically between 0.4% and 0.5%. For campaigns aimed at website traffic or conversions, the CTR is often higher. The exact CTR varies greatly depending on the industry, target group, and ad format.
It is essential to create attractive and relevant ads to improve this statistic.
By the way, LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads have a CTR that is around 1.7 times higher (sometimes as much as 3.5% or more) because these ads are from personal profiles and therefore look less like ads. This is why it is one of my favorite ad formats! 🙂
Tips to improve your CTR:
- Write a better hook (the first sentence of the text)
- Ask a question in the creative (the image accompanying the ad)
- Less is more: don’t communicate too much in the creative
- Make sure your image stands out in the feed (provide contrast) and preferably use people in the image.
CTR LinkedIn
The CTR on LinkedIn is usually lower than on other social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. This is because LinkedIn is primarily a professional network, where users are often less inclined to click on ads. It is crucial to properly target your ads and provide valuable content to increase CTR.
Average CPC LinkedIn
The average cost per click (CPC) on LinkedIn is roughly between 5 and 6 euros for our clients’ campaigns with cold targeting. This is higher than the CPC on many other platforms, especially when compared to B2C, but this is justified by the quality of visitors generated through LinkedIn. When I compare Google Ads campaigns in B2B to LinkedIn campaigns, the CPC is generally the same.
The CPC for retargeting on LinkedIn is lower: I usually see a CPC between 2 and 3 euros.
Impressions LinkedIn
Impressions are an important metric to measure the exposure of your ads. A high number of impressions means that your ads are often displayed to users. However, it is important to keep an eye on the combination of impressions and CTR, because a high impression without clicks may indicate a problem with the attractiveness or relevance of your ad.
Average CPM LinkedIn
The cost per thousand impressions (CPM) for LinkedIn ads is about 35 euros. This can vary depending on the industry and competition for ad space. It is important to consider that higher CPMs often come with better reach and more visibility among your target audience.
Some of the LinkedIn campaigns for my clients have a CPM of around 19 euros.
What does LinkedIn advertising cost?
The cost of advertising on LinkedIn can vary greatly depending on several factors such as the target audience, the type of ad and the competition in your industry. You can already advertise for 10 euros per day, about 300 euros per month.
In general, you can consider a budget of 600 to 1,200 euros per month to make a visible impact with your campaigns to start with. It is recommended to start with a small budget, test your campaigns and then increase your spending based on the results.
If you already have enough visitors, I always recommend starting with a retargeting campaign with a relatively low budget.
Also read: how to calculate your LinkedIn Ads budget.
Total cost LinkedIn advertising: more than the ad budget
In addition to ad costs, there are other costs associated with LinkedIn advertising. Consider the time and resources you invest in creating the creatives and ads, landing page(s), managing campaigns and analyzing results. You can do this yourself or outsource LinkedIn advertising to a LinkedIn marketing agency.
Average cost per lead on LinkedIn
My experience with LinkedIn Ads for leads through webinar campaigns, for example, is that it costs an average of 20 euros per signup. I also have results of 10 euro per signup but also of 50 euro per lead, this just really depends very much on the target audience.
Frequency of advertising on LinkedIn
The frequency with which your ads appear on LinkedIn plays a crucial role in the success of your LinkedIn campaigns. On average, I keep a frequency for LinkedIn ads around 4 to 8 times every 30 days per person. This ensures that your message is sufficiently visible without people perceiving it as intrusive or distracting.
Too high frequencies can lead to ad fatigue, with users less inclined to click on your ads, while too low frequencies may not be enough to create brand recognition and engagement. It is important to regularly monitor the performance of your campaigns and adjust the frequency if necessary to achieve optimal results.
By the way, for retargeting campaigns, the frequency may be a bit higher. Therefore, it is important to monitor and adjust based on performance because too many impressions without interaction reduces the effectiveness of your campaign.
How can you increase the frequency of your LinkedIn Ads?
The two main ways to control frequency are budget and audience size. If you increase your budget, you increase frequency. And if you decrease your audience size, you also increase frequency.
Conclusion
LinkedIn advertising is an essential part of any B2B marketing strategy as far as I’m concerned. By understanding the average benchmarks for CTR, CPC, CPM and other metrics, you can create more effective campaigns and make the best use of your budget. Remember to regularly analyze and adjust your ads to get the best possible results.
Want to advertise on LinkedIn too?
Are you a B2B founder or marketer and want to increase your reach in your industry? Get in touch, we would love to help you based on our experience with hundreds of LinkedIn advertising campaigns!
