12 Tricks for Optimizing Your Law Firm’s LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn is by far the most popular social media platform for both law firms and individual lawyers (ABA). And over the years, we’re seeing more and more law firms advertising on the platform. In fact, in 2022, 36.5% of Am Law 200 law firms were using LinkedIn advertising(2022 Social Law Firm Index). Thus, we’re here to teach you how to optimize your law firm’s LinkedIn ads for maximum performance.

As more and more law firms leverage LinkedIn advertising, knowing how to run successful campaigns is becoming exceedingly important for law firm marketers. Whether you’re launching a new campaign or you want to see better results with your current one, keep the following optimization techniques in mind.

1. Leverage the right ad type that aligns with your goals:

There are distinctions between the different LinkedIn ad formats, and certain options will perform better than others for specific purposes. 

Sponsored Content is ideal if you want to get plenty of eyes on your content. The format lets you share valuable information that can help you with lead generation and nurturing, in addition to brand awareness.

Sponsored Messaging Ads on the other hand are great if you want to deliver highly personalized content right to a user’s inbox. For instance, you can ask specific people to fill in a survey or be a guest on your podcast, and you don’t have to be connected with them. This format is perfect for niche campaigns.

2. Use bold ad headlines that highlight your value proposition:

The first thing people are going to notice on your law firm’s LinkedIn ad is the headline. Make sure it stands out and grabs your audience’s attention. It shouldn’t be overly wordy and should include your value proposition.

Furthermore, concise headlines lead to more engagement. Note that anything over 100 characters could be truncated on a desktop.

Try A/B testing your headlines often, which brings us to our next point.

3. Always run at least two creative assets in a single campaign:

Create a minimum of two ads per campaign with different headlines, imagery or design so you can compare and optimize. The two ads don’t need to be starkly different. For instance, you can simply test different combinations of ad copy to see which performs best with your target audience. You can even test video and carousel ads.

The goal is to try as many quality ads as possible and make decisions based on the data you find on your LinkedIn Campaign Performance tabs.

4. Call out noteworthy stats and quotes in your ad:

A good way to capture your audience’s attention is with a standout statistic or quote. In fact, LinkedIn has research proving that stats and quotes in ads outperform those that don’t incorporate them. Highlight an impressive fact or quote to lure people in, and then follow through with an offer they can’t resist.

5. Call out your target audience in the ad:

If you’re creating an ad for a specific industry or job title, mention it directly in the ad. Not only is this more personalized and attention-grabbing, but it helps make sure that the wrong people keep scrolling and don’t click, which will waste your marketing budget!

6. Ensure your call-to-actions are clear:

Call-to-actions can be easy to ignore when they’re overly complicated. Choose an action that’s compatible with your campaign objective, and stick with simple and direct language.

The top Sponsored Message keywords are:

• Try
• Register
• Reserve
• Join
• Confirm
• Download

7. Don’t give up on the ad, swap in new creative instead:

If you notice an ad is performing poorly, try swapping out the image rather than pulling it down entirely. Bright colors, high contrast and easily identifiable photos tend to work best. Remember, videos tend to outperform static image ads, so if you have the resources to use video instead – we recommend doing so. Check out easy to use platforms like Canva or Biteable to craft your video creations.

How will you know if your ad is performing poorly? If the CTR is less than .35%. That means that the ad isn’t resonating or catching the attention of your law firm’s target audience or the ad has been running long enough and you’ve hit ad fatigue. 

8. Low impressions might mean you’re not bidding high enough:

LinkedIn can be difficult to earn impressions on. This is very dependent on the audience you’re going after. Typically, it’s more expensive to reach decision makers on the platform. So if you notice you’re having trouble achieving a meaningful number of impressions, try increasing your bid in small increments.

9. Target groups to reach a more qualified audience:

Another way you can optimize your law firm’s LinkedIn ads is by changing up the targeting strategy. Since users join groups based on expertise, industry, and interests, advertising within niche groups can be a great way to gain exposure to your target audience. LinkedIn’s platform offers powerful ways to target these groups when creating campaigns.

10. Ensure your landing pages are optimized for conversions:

Maybe you don’t need to optimize your law firm’s LinkedIn ads, but rather your campaign landing page. Sometimes performance is impacted by what’s happening after the ad is delivered. For conversion goal campaigns, if you notice that website visits are high but conversions are low, you might have a problem with your landing page. Take care to follow best practices for creating effective landing pages if they will be linked to from your firm’s LinkedIn ad.

11. Start large, and refine:

A smart strategy for optimizing your LinkedIn ads is to start on a broader scale and then gradually refine your approach. Begin your campaign with five or so different ad creatives to test the waters and cast a wide net. After the first week or so, evaluate their performance based on click-through rates (CTR). Remove the two weakest-performing ads to focus your budget and efforts on the more successful ones. This “start large, and refine” approach ensures that you allocate resources where they’ll have the most impact, helping you fine-tune your ad campaign for better results over time.

12. Consider swapping your ad objective:

If you find that your current ad campaign, focused on leading people to an external landing page, isn’t yielding the desired conversions, it might be time to pivot. LinkedIn offers the option to capture leads directly on its platform using Lead Gen Forms. By altering your campaign’s objective to focus on collecting leads within LinkedIn, you can streamline the conversion process and potentially improve results. This flexibility allows you to adapt your strategy and choose the approach that resonates best with your audience, ensuring your campaign remains agile and effective.

Takeaway

Even the most powerful tools can lead to disappointing results if you don’t have the right foundation in place. LinkedIn offers highly targeted advertising, along with access to specific groups and plenty of options for finding your ideal audience. Follow these 12 techniques to ensure your law firm’s LinkedIn ads and campaigns are optimized for the best possible results. We know that running advertising campaigns on LinkedIn presents some unique challenges – we are in the platform day in and day out running campaigns for our clients. If you need assistance with your campaign and strategy, reach out to us today.