LinkedIn Launches Carousel Ads For B2B Advertising

26-06-2018Tags: Social

The B2B social media channel has launched a new format of sponsored content called carousel ads, providing advertisers with the opportunity to display up to 10 images and text snippets within a single ad.

Along with an ad description and URL, carousel ads enable LinkedIn users to horizontally swipe through a series of images and interact with individual cards. According to LinkedIn, advertisers can “leverage the flexibility of carousel ads in creative ways to tell compelling stories or showcase products and features in an interactive way”. The new ad format can help to “humanise your B2B marketing efforts and foster a deeper connection with your audience.”​

Carousel ads can meet the following campaign objectives:

• Brand awareness (tell people about your brand)
• Website traffic (tell people where they can see more)
• Lead generation (tell people why they need your products or services)

Reduced Cost Per Click

LinkedIn isn’t the first social media channel to announce carousel ads, with Facebook launching a similar advertising format in May 2015, followed by Instagram in May 2016. According to WordStream, carousel ads reduced the average cost per click of Facebook advertising by 20-30% when compared to static image ads.

LinkedIn tested its carousel ads before rolling out to all advertisers, and 75% of beta advertisers saw an uplift in click through rates when compared to standard sponsored content campaigns.

Carousel Ad Best Practices

• Grasp your B2B audiences’ attention with visual storytelling
• Feature graphics, people and dynamic text to entice your audience in
• Include clear messaging and strong calls to action on each carousel card description
• Leverage existing content by combining content with a similar theme, or breakdown larger content into carousel cards
• Start with 3-5 cards in a carousel, then test adding more cards from there
• Try arranging your carousel cards in different orders, and optimise based on performance
• If you tell a story, place the main value add or call to action in the final card to encourage your audience to swipe through the entire carousel
• Refer to LinkedIn’s carousel ad specifications whilst planning to ensure your content is formatted correctly

For more information on carousel ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions today.