5 Ideas to Improve LinkedIn Campaign Manager in 2023
Dec 5, 2022 - Marcel OdenaThe end of the year 2022 is approaching and it is usually a good time to think about good resolutions, make wish lists for next year, and do all those things that we humans usually do.
And I did not want to miss this opportunity to make a list of ideas for improving LinkedIn Campaign Manager. I think these improvements would help companies running LinkedIn campaigns getting more out of them.
There are many areas where LinkedIn Campaign Manager improvements can be identified. I do believe that the return on LinkedIn advertising investment is one of the biggest concerns of many advertisers. That’s why in this article I want to focus on those ideas that I think would help improve the profitability of LinkedIn campaigns.
First, the Advertiser Context
Let’s imagine the following context to focus on the actual problem:
Beginning of the Year: we started investing money in LinkedIn campaigns, each company following its strategy, creating its campaigns, etc.
During the Year: the advertiser begins to notice “things”:
- Receive leads from people who want to know more and download content.
- Receive leads from people who already have it clear and want to ask about the services or products of the company. This is what all advertisers want, to be honest, they are the least. Why? LinkedIn is a channel of supply, not demand, we connect to LinkedIn to see what our contacts say, not to buy anything in particular. The recruitment process is very different than in Google Search.
- Notice that there are more people visiting the website, the company page on LinkedIn, looking at the CEO’s LinkedIn profile, and other people in your company, etc. That is, signs of showing interest in the company.
End of the Year: it’s time to take stock of what we have achieved with LinkedIn campaigns. Money?
- How many customers have we got?
- What recurring billing do we have with customers achieved with LinkedIn?
Easy questions, difficult answers. Right?
In my opinion, this is a very common context among advertisers. Any improvement in LinkedIn Campaign Manager to answer these questions will be very beneficial.
So, what could be done or improved? Here are some ideas.
1. Sending a notification email from LinkedIn with all the lead’s data
Idea #1: to be able to configure in LinkedIn Campaign Manager the sending of email notifications when a new lead is created, including the lead’s personal information (name, surname, email, company, etc.), as well as information about the campaign (campaign name, ad ID, the lead gen form used, etc.).
Now the platform allows you to configure alerts when a new lead is created, but the alert is simply this: you have a lead, access to LinkedIn Campaign Manager, download the CSV file, and look at the lead information data.
Could the current situation be improved?
Yes, of course, the LinkedIn campaign manager could send an email with the lead information data.
This can be done nowadays but with third-party tools, such as Zapier, that trigger the email with the lead information when a lead is generated on LinkedIn Campaign Manager. On another hand, the CRM itself could send you the email notification, but previously you have to create the contact in the CRM and this requires either a native integration of the CRM with LinkedIn (not available for all CRMs) or requires again a Zapier-type tool to connect LinkedIn with your CRM.
I sincerely believe that there are many advertisers who would appreciate this function of sending an email with the lead information from LinkedIn.
2. Option to block free emails in Lead Gen Forms
Idea #2: to be able to receive the work email of the person who submits the Lead Gen Form. In other words, to be able to create a Lead Gen Form that blocks free emails such as Hotmail, Gmail, etc.
Current Problem
In a large number of cases, you get the lead personal email with LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms (Hotmail, Gmail, and similar).
In these cases, what usually happens if the sales rep sends an email to these addresses is that no response is received.
Why?
Because they are personal email accounts; many people check infrequently their email, or when they look at them they have the inbox bursting with emails to read, or the context is not appropriate, the user’s mindset is a “personal moment” and receives a business email, etc.
What would be the ideal (unrealistic) solution?
We as LinkedIn members could configure 2 emails in our LinkedIn profile: a personal email and another work email. But many users do not, and they only have their personal email account configured.
What happens if the sales rep calls instead of sending an email?
He/she usually gets no response. In the post-covid era, many people are tired of receiving calls from strangers, and they do not pick up the phone, or if they pick up they do not show predisposition.
What would be ideal?
Ask the user how they want to be contacted, by email, phone, etc. Right?
What happens if the user says by email?
We have a problem if he/she has a personal email account (Hotmail, Gmail, etc.).
Can we set the work email in a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form?
Yes and No. Let me explain you.
Option 1: work email in the lead gen form
You can choose the “work email” in your LinkedIn Lead Gen Form, but this does not ensure that you will receive the lead’s work email. If a LinkedIn member only sets his/her personal email in his/her profile, you will receive his/her personal email in the lead gen form submission.
Option 2: Adding a text custom field in the lead gen form
You can create a custom text field in your LinkedIn lead gen form asking for the work email.
But there are no controls to ensure that it is an email (you can send the form with a “hello” text word), nor prevent it from being from personal accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail, etc.
Looking for inspiration to solve this problem
Just as an idea for inspiration, HubSpot has a pretty cool feature related to this: you can create a form and configure it to block free email domains such as Hotmail, Gmail, and similar. You can learn more about this in this Hubspot’s article.
3. LinkedIn internal messaging for the lead follow-up
Idea #3: to be able to use the LinkedIn internal messaging system for the lead follow-up.
What would be the most natural thing to follow up on the lead?
Follow the conversation through the LinkedIn messaging system. Right?
The sequence of events would be as follows:
- The user connects to LinkedIn and looks at the feed to see what their contacts are saying.
- He is scrolling through the feed and at a certain point, an ad captures his attention.
- He is interested in what the advertiser offers and decides to submit the LinkedIn Lead Gen Form to be contacted.
- Immediately a sales representative receives the notification, with all the lead information.
- The sales representative sends a message through the LinkedIn messaging system to the lead.
- Several messages are exchanged between them until they decide to set a meeting or continue the conversation by email or phone outside LinkedIn.
What has changed in this sequence from what usually is done?
That LinkedIn has made a bridge in the conversation. The initial channel was LinkedIn, the details to continue the conversation are still managed via LinkedIn’s message system, and finally the lead and advertiser talk outside LinkedIn if they choose.
Current problems
With the standard LinkedIn profile (free version), you can’t send a message to a LinkedIn member if you don’t have them as a contact. To have her as a contact you have to make a request and wait if she accepts you.
With LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can send a message to someone on LinkedIn even if you don’t have them as a contact. Problem? You need to pay and they are LinkedIn products separate from LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
As surprisingly as it may seem, many advertisers do not have LinkedIn Sales Navigator nor LinkedIn Premium, so they are not able to continue the conversation with the lead through the LinkedIn messaging system.
What if the lead wants to send a message to the advertiser through the LinkedIn messaging system?
He faces the same problem.
This is especially a problem in LinkedIn Sponsored Message campaigns. Usually sponsored messages are sent from an advertiser’s employee profile.
In these cases, the situation is usually the following:
- A sponsored message campaign is created to send sponsored messages to those people we want (the target audience).
- The user receives the sponsored message in his/her LinkedIn inbox.
- The user starts reading the message.
- Let’s assume that the user is interested in what we offer and decides to answer the person from whom he has received the message. He can not. Why? Because the sender is not his contact.
The sponsored message usually has a link to the landing page, but this does not cover the previous scenario when the lead wants to chat directly through the LinkedIn messaging system.
4. Campaign Profitability Dashboard within the Campaign Manager
Idea #4: LinkedIn campaign manager allows you to create reports and dashboards to show information about leads on the one hand and personalized business metrics on the other (MQL, SQL, Opportunities, Opportunity Value, etc.).
LinkedIn Campaign Manager should allow you to create reports and dashboards to show all leads received and allow you to create custom columns with information such as:
- Is the lead an MQL? Yes or no.
- Is the lead a SQL? Yes or no.
- Has it generated a business opportunity? Yes or no.
- What is the sales pipeline?
- Did you get the deal? Yes or no.
Surely many advertisers would fill out this dashboard semi-manually, but at least they would have a place within LinkedIn to consolidate the data, and now, start being able to answer the question:
- How many leads have we got?
- How many are MQLs and SQLs?
- How many customers have we got?
- What is the annual recurring revenue (ARR) from customers acquired through LinkedIn?
Another very powerful option would be to use the concept of “offline conversions”. Imagine a file in which you have the identifier of each lead and the type of conversion they have made.
Current problems
From my point of view, the current problem is that LinkedIn’s vision is that the advertiser will solve these problems with third-party tools, but in many cases, this is not the case.
It usually happens that in the CRM of the company there are many leads from several channels, and the LinkedIn leads are mixed with the others, and many times It is hard to track back the deals and opportunities to LinkedIn leads.
In my opinion, LinkedIn has done a huge effort in order to integrate several top market CRMs (like HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.). But I think LinkedIn should provide tools to advertisers with other CRMs in order to track LinkedIn leads through the sales funnel.
5. Softer the requirements to launch a Brand Lift Test
Idea #5: to be able to launch a Brand Lift Test through LinkedIn Campaign Manager to analyze the impact on the advertiser’s brand perception with relatively affordable investments or even based on a criterion of the volume of impressions/clicks (not investment).
It would be great if after several months of reaching an audience on a regular basis, LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager allowed to launch a Brand Lift Test.
In order to assess whether the investment in advertising on LinkedIn is profitable, I think it would be excellent to have this type of study.
Current issues
Currently, the LinkedIn Campaign Manager has a module to launch Brand Lift Tests, but it is only allowed to launch the study for investments greater than $ 90,000 per quarter.
This investment figure leaves out many advertisers.
Possible solutions
The minimum investment figure could be revised.
It could also be considered criteria of traffic volume/clicks, rather than investment.
In order to assess whether the investment in advertising on LinkedIn is profitable, I think it would be excellent to have this information as well.
LinkedIn Campaign Manager enhancements
In this article I have proposed 5 ideas to improve LinkedIn Campaign Manager and help advertisers to assess the return on LinkedIn investment and make their LinkedIn campaigns more profitable:
- Sending a notification email from LinkedIn with all the lead’s data
- Option to block free emails in Lead Gen Forms
- LinkedIn internal messaging for the lead follow up
- Campaign Profitability Dashboard within the Campaign Manager
- Softer the requirements to launch a Brand Lift Test
Indeed the LinkedIn Campaign Manager roadmap is full of improvements.
And surely the decision process to include new features is more complex than we sometimes imagine, but that said, here you have 5 ideas to consider.
What do you think of these ideas?
Go ahead and make your comment!
Need help managing your LinkedIn campaigns?
If you need any guidance regarding your LinkedIn campaign strategy or assistance with creating your LinkedIn campaigns, feel free to reach out to me through the LinkedIn advertising service page.
