LinkedIn Releases ‘Matched Audiences’ Targeting
Just a few short weeks ago, LinkedIn released ‘Matched Audiences’ an enhanced targeting solution for the Professional Business Network Platform. A feature that’s been readily available across Google, Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest for quite a few years now.
What is LinkedIn Matched Audiences?
LinkedIn Matched Audiences gives all advertisers the ability to target ads on LinkedIn by website visitors (Remarketing), company name and email addresses. One key benefit for B2B advertisers is they can serve their ad targeting directly to people who have shown interest in their company or brand within the business network site rather than through the broader consumer networks; Google Display and Facebook.
How to set up a Matched Audience?
Firstly, the LinkedIn Insight tag needs to be placed on your website much like the AdWords Remarketing tag or Facebook Pixel for ‘Matched Audiences’ to work.
Next, within your LinkedIn campaign manager, go to one of your campaigns and then click on the ‘Audiences’ tab. Click on ‘Create an audience’ and you will be greeted with two options 1) website audience and 2) uploaded list audiences (as shown below). These options give you the functionality to target existing website visitors through Remarketing or to target by email or company name like Google’s customer match.
Note, for uploaded lists, the format must be in .csv and the first column header must be ‘email’ or ‘company name’ depending on which list you choose. Once processed the list can be applied directly to your campaign targeting with a minimum list size of 300.
Website Audience
Uploaded List Audience
How can B2B advertisers use Matched Audiences?
Matched audiences provide a unique opportunity for those in the business space to hone in on their ideal prospects and remarket to existing site visitors to reach those lower in the funnel, more likely to convert to a lead or sale.
On other search and social channels business emails are not as widely used as personal emails but LinkedIn matches to both emails (usually present on LinkedIn) which increases the chance of a successful targeting match.
Businesses can use this powerful tool to segment their email prospects to avoid overlap and reach the right users with a customised ad campaign. For example, creating a list of current customers for exclusion in Lead Generation campaigns.
With the prior release of LinkedIn conversion tracking last September, the channel now has a lot more to offer in terms of targeting and measurability of performance and should not be ruled out for B2B advertisers.