At this year's B2Believe event, LinkedIn focused on empowering B2B advertisers to be more creative, stand out amongst their competitors, and help their buyers understand their value proposition. Ironpaper Growth Specialist Daniel Traicoff attended the event virtually and summarized his takeaways on the four most important areas that B2B marketers need to understand:
- B2B Product Inventory
- LinkedIn Ad Types
- Privacy Features
- Reporting Features
Big Picture: B2B Product Inventory
The most significant announcement at B2Believe is the currently unnamed B2B Product Inventory. This presentation kicked off with a comparison to Amazon, so this new feature might be considered an Amazon competitor in the B2B software space.
This feature is essentially an inventory of B2B products and features live updates similar to a net promoter score (NPS). Buyers will be able to search the inventory for products they're looking for, evaluate their options, and connect with a community of experts to find the right fit for them.
The Product Inventory will also give B2B sellers access to a potentially new well of B2B buyers who are actively looking to make a purchase. LinkedIn didn’t specify that the Product Inventory would be an e-commerce platform, but based on their presentation, that seems to be a possibility.
New LinkedIn Ad Types
Three new ad types will allow B2B marketers to connect with their buyers in new and unique ways.
Individually promote posts from employees
This new feature allows businesses to promote employees’ posts. These promoted posts will help marketers create a more personal, credible brand on their company page to attract potential buyers or high-quality job candidates. Marketers will need permission from the employee to promote their posts.
This is an extremely exciting new advertising opportunity. By promoting posts from individual employees, B2B companies can:
- Showcase the thought leadership within the company
- Create a more personalized and friendly company page
- Promote the right message from the right person - not just from a faceless profile
Content shared by employees gets twice as much engagement as content that is only shared by a company, so B2B companies should definitely look for ways to incorporate this new ad type into their LinkedIn strategy.1
Click-to-Message Ads
With Click-to-Message ads, buyers can start a conversation with a brand directly from their feed. While this is similar to current conversation ads, it allows potential customers to start the conversation. Allowing buyers to start the conversation fits with an inbound methodology, making this new type of ad an exciting tool for B2B marketers.
Connected TV Ads
Connected TV (CTV) ads allow B2B companies to connect with their professional audience through videos on TV Ad Networks. Traicoff noted that Microsoft recently signed a deal with Netflix Ad Model to handle their first ad-supported subscription offering, so CTV is an interesting avenue that B2B marketers may find more success in the near future.
New Privacy Feature
LinkedIn introduced a new feature called Group Identity, which will help deliver and measure ad campaigns while minimizing (and hopefully eliminating) the use of third-party data on their servers.
The B2B sales cycle is typically longer and has a larger purchasing group with a few different roles involved, so B2B marketers need to truly understand those buyers and target them based on concrete data. Traicoff believes this new feature will help B2B marketers do just that.
New Reporting Features
"Clean Room" Dataset
LinkedIn's new “Clean Room” dataset lets marketers incorporate offline conversions, CRM Data, engagements, and Microsoft Assets into their LinkedIn ads data to develop more accurate, usable data. Traicoff says this feature will be essential and helpful for remarketing and retargeting campaigns.
B2B Index
LinkedIn introduced a new index that measures creative quality, audience intent, and investment. This extension of the social selling index should help B2B marketers improve their algorithm posts and marketing efforts.
In addition to these features, LinkedIn introduced a couple of additional tools, including website actions and revenue attribution reporting. Because this data is already typically available through a CRM, these features may not be immediately valuable to marketers already using this technology effectively.
Additional features shared by LinkedIn include:
- Product Reviews
- Expert Advice on the product from the community and company
- Articles showcasing the product and its features
- Showcasing users of the product that businesses are connected with on LinkedIn
- Embedded product trials directly on LinkedIn
Sources:
1LinkedIn, The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to LinkedIn
