How to have personalized ads in LinkedIn

July 31, 2019

How to have personalized ads in LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s advertising platform has the ability to make very personalized ads with user content, unlike Google and Facebook. We’ve all seen these ads, ‘Hey {First Name}, Four15 Digital is hiring!” But how do they dynamically insert your name into the ad? It’s called a macro. Macros can be used in dynamic ads as well as sponsored InMails, which I will go over in this blog.

Macros in Dynamic Ads

Utilizing macros in dynamic ads is a great way to generate more attention to your ads. The user will not only see their image in the ad, but can also see their name and company, depending on the dynamic ad type. There are 3 different types of dynamic ads; follower ads, spotlight ads, and job ads. With follower ads and job ads you can have a dynamic first name, full name, or company name in your ad copy. For Spotlight ads you can only have a dynamic first name and full name. 

Macros can be added to any part of your ad copy. Keep in mind these DO NOT count towards your character limits. This means that you can write your ads up to your character limits and still fit in the macros. 

Below is how to format that macros are input in your ad copy:

  • %FIRSTNAME% 
  • %FULLNAME% 
  • %COMPANYNAME%

For example, the below ad would be written as ‘%FIRSTNAME%, explore relevant opportunities with Clif Bar & Company’. 

Macros in Sponsored InMails

Using macros in sponsored InMails is just as simple as using them in dynamic ads. See below for the dynamic Sponsored InMail values:

  • %FIRSTNAME% 
  • %LASTNAME% 
  • %COMPANYNAME%
  • %JOBTITLE%
  • %INDUSTRY%

If you wanted very custom ad copy for you InMail you could utilize all of the options here. Keep in mind that whatever the user’s profile is set to be the value that is added.

Summary

These dynamic value can create a very powerful message in used correctly. Take for example a Sponsored InMail I received the other day.

At first glance, I thought ‘Hey these guys really did their homework to recruit me!’ When in reality they typed out one templated and utilized the %FIRSTNAME% and %COMPANYNAME% macros and probably sent it to 10,000 people. No matter where I worked, they would’ve called out ‘raising through the ranks’. Which makes the recruitment message less impactful then at first. That said, I’m a marketing professional and know how these messages work within LinkedIn. To someone who doesn’t use LinkedIn’s advertising platform, and isn’t very familiar with marketing in general, you can see how powerful this message could be. 

It’s best to use macros as much as possible in your dynamic ads and sponsored inmails as they create a much more personal ad drawing in the target user’s attention much more than an ad not using any macros.