In today’s business world, finding a suitable medium for your ads can be pretty tricky.
This short article will explain the various advertising costs of running ads on LinkedIn and its risks.
Running ads on any social medium can be challenging overall, and each advertising platform comes with its own set of rules and parameters that work for them.
Sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Google get a lot of attention regarding ad space, but today we’re going to be entirely focused on LinkedIn and what it can offer for running advertisements.
Although this article will provide plenty of detailed information, below, you’ll find a brief list of average costs for running ads on LinkedIn.
Average Costs for CPS, CPM, and CPC
- CPS (Cost per message-send): $0.2
- CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions): $33.80
- CPC (Cost per click): $5.58
This information may be helpful, but it won’t be enough to create high-performing ads.
With other metrics like demographics, industries, and personal interests, there’s a lot your ads will need to perform optimally.
If you blindly approach ad spend, you will end up losing money and time.
In addition, it’s okay to make mistakes as that’s how you learn, but we’re hoping this information will help avoid some novice mistakes.
How LinkedIn Charges Advertisers: Four Important Factors
Target Audience
The advertising system on Linkedin operates like an auction.
You will end up competing with other advertisers who are trying to target the same audience.
The majority of marketers will go after senior executives and consumers to help increase their ads traction and potential return.
Furthermore, consider this: what happens to the price if everyone else is aiming for the same audience? It rises.
Before anything else, making sure your target audience is adequately structured is paramount.
LinkedIn Ad Relevance
Each campaign receives a campaign rating from Linkedin. When your advertisements perform well, you receive a high score.
The higher your ad’s rating, the lower your ad cost.
This score is affected by click-through rate, engagement rate, clicks, likes, shares, and comments.
Using this information can quickly help you improve your ads.
Bidding Strategy on LinkedIn
This tells Linkedin how much you’re willing to pay for your target audience. This metric has a direct impact on the price you’ll pay when your billing period comes around.
Moreover, if you happen to win an auction, you will pay only one cent more than the next highest bidder.
In marketing, that is referred to as a “second-price” auction model.
A good bidding strategy can do wonders for the performance of your ads and can easily separate you from the competition.
Objective
The chargeable click behavior varies depending on the objective.
As a result, selecting this option has a direct impact on how you will be charged.
After spending many years spending dollars on ad space across multiple social mediums, we’ve been able to compile a detailed list of expected costs for running ads across a wide range of platforms.
Narrowing down the most cost-efficient way to run ads is ideal for any business.
As you continue reading below, you’ll find a list of average CPC for specific ad objectives.
CPC by Objectives on LinkedIn
- CPC for website conversions: $6.84
- CPC for lead generation: $4.22
- CPC for engagement: $2.53
- CPC for website visits: $6.84
As always, businesses have their own set of objectives for their advertisements, but LinkedIn breaks down its provided objectives into three different categories.
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Awareness
There are multiple marketing objectives within each category, and each goal has a unique pricing model.
Brand awareness, for example, is charged based on impressions, while lead generation goals are based on clicks.
As a result, some objectives, including impression-based buying, don’t have a benchmark for CPCs.
So, to excel at Linkedin ads, you must understand click behaviors and chargeable clicks clearly.
Many marketers tend to ignore the requirements of running a successful ad.
They also don’t consider the change in potential cost based on where your demographic audience is from.
CPC By Country on LinkedIn
- Australia: $6.40
- China: $3.50
- Hong Kong: $5.00
- India: $1.15
- Indonesia: $1.57
- Japan: $5.26
- Korea:$4.86
- Malaysia: $3.36
- New Zealand: $4.90
- Philippines: $2.30
- Singapore: $5.80
- Taiwan: $3.00
- Thailand: $3.60
- Vietnam: $3.40
- Austria: $5.80
- Belgium: $4.98
- Denmark: $4.10
- Finland: $5.80
- France: $3.60
- Germany: $7.90
- Greece: $2.00
- Ireland: $4.10
- Italy: $3.70
- Netherlands: $3.80
- Norway: $5.10
- Portugal: $2.20
- Russia: $3.90
- Spain: $3.60
- Switzerland: $6.00
- United Kingdom: $7.00
- United States: $9.90
The structures of a company are typically divided into four particular geographies.
As a result, marketers will advertise based on the regions they navigate and have the most significant potential for a return on investment.
Additionally, to provide more detail, the following is a breakdown of average CPC by region.
CPC by Region on LinkedIn
- CPC in LATAM: $1.68
- CPC in APAC: $2.78
- CPC in NAMER: $9.64
- CPC in EMEA: $4.02
Targeting by country will also have an impact on your costs. You can see from the average CPC from a nation with developed markets; they have higher CPCs.
Many corporate headquarters are also located in these nations, and increased demand resulted from a country’s concentration of decision-makers.
Price increases occur as a result of increased competition in the ad auction space as well.
However, if your metrics are in order, your advertisements can still succeed amongst your competitors.
Marketing Tip
Keep an eye out for seasonality in the ad space.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CPC prices plummeted dramatically. Many marketers were scared and ceased advertising as a result, and the price dropped.
A similar thing may be seen in December when prices fall. Yes, you read that correctly; from mid-December forward, Linkedin’s CPC drops.
December is a month when more buyers go online to investigate new ideas and goods.
They must devise a solid strategy for the coming year and be prepared for the upcoming seasonal changes in the ad space.
CPCs are dropping as advertisers withdraw and more decision-makers join.
Using particular seasons to capitalize on advertisements is a trick as old as time, yet, many marketers still don’t use this to their advantage.
CPC by Seniority on LinkedIn
- Average CPC of Entry and Mid-level: $3.20
- Average CPC for Senior Decision Makers: $7.20
CPC by Industry on LinkedIn
- CPC of Finance industries: $5.70
- CPC of Consumer goods industries: $6.70
- CPC of media and communications: $6.00
- CPC of technology industries: $7.00
- CPC of Government industries: $5.10
- CPC of ‘Other’ industries: $5.80
Considering how many different metrics there are to monitor, I thought it would be appropriate to provide the average CPC based on seniority levels.
Through personal experience, senior decision-makers were classified as anyone above the Managerial level.
This comprises VPs, CXOs, Partners, Directors, and Owners, among others.
All of these parameters are targetable in your Linkedin campaign manager and will aid in making the most of your ad spend.
Get the Highest Return for a Low Cost on LinkedIn
While aiming, your focus on cost is only one piece of the equation for success within LinkedIn’s advertisement space.
Keep in mind that as long as you provide what users desire, your ads will be successful and running as efficiently as possible.
Linkedin aims to compensate marketers for satisfying the demands of their members, and they plan to do this with reduced advertising expenses.
So price and bidding methods aren’t the only factors to consider.
Concentrate on making your ad relevant and exciting to your target demographic.
This entails crafting advertising that adheres to acceptable practices and targets the appropriate audience for your desired outcome.
Additionally, specific important metrics can change from time to time, and it’s always best to stay up to date on what parameters are working best for your business.
On another note, you can find a more accurate reading of your ad cost by taking a close look at your campaign manager tool.
Here, you can find CPC’s and CPMs for each of your target audiences.
In Conclusion
Hopefully, after all of the included information, you can better understand how advertising on LinkedIn works and the various ways it can aid your company in the long term.
Moreover, it’s clear that if the tried and true methods aren’t exercised, you could end burning through a lot of money with little to no return.
Of course, each business has different objectives, marketing content, and products that all require their own marketing style.
However, the details included in this article will only help your advertisements perform better.