How Law Firms Can Use Predictive Audiences To Increase Reach

Predictive audiences can grow your campaign reach significantly. By creating an audience of people with similar characteristics to your existing data source,  you can obtain more qualified leads and gain visibility with new people. LinkedIn provides a way to combine your own data source with their AI to generate a new custom audience for better campaign performance. Here’s what law firms need to know about using predictive audiences to enhance their LinkedIn campaigns. 

What are Predictive Audiences?

Predictive audiences are a form of custom target audience that is partly your own data source and partly based on the AI provided by LinkedIn. They primarily use contact lists, lead gen forms, or online conversions, along with LinkedIn’s proprietary AI features. You can adjust your audience by location and size, and targeting filters can be used to exclude audiences during your campaign setup. Marketers can create a predictive audience on their Audiences page in Campaign Manager. It’s worth noting that this feature is being rolled out in phases, so if it’s not an option for you right now, it likely will be soon. 

The data sources you select in Campaign Manager should align with the specific behavior you are trying to achieve. As mentioned, you can use the following for creating your predictive audience: 

• LinkedIn lead gen form
• Contact list that shows “ready” on the Audiences page
• Online conversion (using the LinkedIn Insight tag)

Why Use Predictive Audiences in Campaigns? 

There are several good reasons to try predictive audiences, most especially an increased ROAS. When using predictive audiences, you can target your messaging to the exact sort of people most likely to respond, therefore maximizing your results. 

Because you can target the people most likely to respond to your marketing, you’ll inevitably have greater precision. You’re more likely to reach your most valuable and loyal clients and prospects. In turn, you’ll save money over time by having more effective marketing and needing to generate fewer leads because they are more qualified. It’s a way of working smarter, not harder! 

When it comes to LinkedIn marketing, you can make the most of your digital budget by knowing who you’re reaching and what resonates with them. You can tweak your marketing in order to better connect with the specific people in your target audience, which is bound to be more effective. 

Predictive Audiences Best Practices

How can you make the most of the predictive audience functionality? Here are some tips for getting started. 

• Make sure you have a list of current clients; for example, a contact list of client emails from your CRM. 
• Build an audience that matches specific criteria for behavior. A good example is a lead gen form from a previous webinar. 
• Collaborate with your sales team and make sure to use a list that has been vetted by them. 

Also, keep in mind these requirements: 

• You can only pick one type of data source at a time
• Contact lists must have a minimum of 300 rows and a maximum of 300,000 rows
• Online Conversion or Lead Gen Forms must have more than 300 members
• There is a limit of five predictive audiences for each ad account and they can’t be shared across ad accounts

Takeaway: 

Predictive audiences are definitely worth trying, and worth learning about if the concept is new to you. By creating such audiences for your LinkedIn campaigns, you can broaden your reach and generate new leads who are more likely to take the actions you hope for. Just make sure to follow the best practices and set everything up carefully and correctly for the best results. For more insight into all things LinkedIn, view our webinar: the Law Firm Guide to LinkedIn Marketing. If you’d like assistance leveraging LinkedIn for law firms to reach your business development goals. Connect with us today. We’ve helped many law firms and legal companies build and execute successful LinkedIn strategies.