The Complete Guide to LinkedIn Ad Types for Law Firm Marketers

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions offers a robust advertising platform that continues to grow, providing law firm marketers with new and better ways of reaching existing and potential clients. Once your law firm has substantial content and is active on LinkedIn, you should begin to advertise on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn ads, you can deliver messaging to a hyper-targeted audience beyond your law firm’s connections and followers. This post gives you the rundown on the types of LinkedIn ads available, where they show up, and when to use them.

LinkedIn Ad Formats

LinkedIn Sponsored Content: 

This type of ad format is delivered directly in the LinkedIn feed. These ads appear natively alongside content that users curate organically. Law firm marketers can think of sponsored content as promoted posts, because they’re essentially ramped-up versions of any links, media, or messaging that you’d normally share through your firm’s page. 

Sponsored Content ad formats support all levels of full funnel marketing. Specifically, sponsored content is ideal for raising awareness of firm happenings (such as an event), generating leads with forms, increasing qualified traffic to certain areas (like specific blogs), and boosting overall followers. 

Sponsored Content ad formats include:

• Single image ads
• Carousel ads
• Video ads
• Single job ads

Each ad format has specific creative requirements. Click here to access all sponsored content ad specs.

LinkedIn Sponsored Messaging:

Sponsored Messaging, formerly known as ‘Sponsored InMail’ comes in two ad formats: Message Ads and Conversation Ads. Both LinkedIn ad types enable law firm marketers to send personalized messages to highly targeted recipients. One great thing about this advertising type is that messages can only be sent to active LinkedIn users, so you won’t risk bounce backs or landing in abandoned email folders. Additionally, the responsive design means that your CTA will appear on any device.

Both types of sponsored messaging ads are helpful for generating downloads of gated content, sharing webinars or other events, generating new leads, and directly engaging your law firm’s prospects and nurturing relationships. We recommend you test both LinkedIn ad formats, at an equivalent budget, and compare performance.

• With Message Ads, marketers can display a targeted message with a single call-to-action button. We recommend this ad format if you’re looking to spark immediate action, for example, if you’re reaching out to invite someone to be a guest on your law firm’s podcast or be a guest blogger.
• With Conversation Ads, marketers can set multiple call-to-action buttons that link to various landing pages, open a Lead Generation Form, or drive engagement with more information in the next message. This format allows you to start quality conversations with your law firm’s target audience through a choose-your-own-path experience.

Here are some tips for crafting successful sponsored messaging campaigns that spark action:

• The best days to launch, when people are most receptive on LinkedIn, are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
• Message content should focus on how your recipient will benefit from taking the desired action.
• Ensure the subject line is personable, concise, interesting, and friendly.
• Sending the message from a recognized, prominent, or credible person will positively contribute to your law firm’s LinkedIn ad campaign.

LinkedIn Text Ads:

LinkedIn Text Ads are simple display ads that appear on the right-hand side of the top of the LinkedIn desktop feed. LinkedIn text ads cannot be served on mobile devices. Benefits of this ad type are that they are easy to create and you only pay for what you use (clicks or impressions). They’re LinkedIn’s cheapest ad format, so if you’re looking for really low cost per conversion, this is a great place to start.

Text Ads are perfect for low budget campaigns where your goal might be to drive traffic to a certain campaign landing page or to simply boost brand awareness. They’re also helpful for attracting and communicating with job candidates. 

LinkedIn Dynamic Ads: 

LinkedIn dynamic ads will take a user’s name or profile picture from their LinkedIn profile and apply it to the ad template you’ve created, resulting in incredibly personalized ads. Law firm marketers can use text ads to deliver highly personalized offers in a prospect’s news feed, inbox, or sidebar. They’re perfect for finding new employees and establishing or sustaining brand awareness. These ads are available in 4 formats: 

• Follower ads: expand your audience for your law firm’s LinkedIn Company or Showcase Page. We recommend implementing these ads for new or merged pages.
• Spotlight ads: share thought leadership, best practices, insights, and valuable content with your target audience
• Job ads: recruit applicants for your law firm’s job postings
• Content ads: generate leads automatically when members download your content

Takeaway

LinkedIn is the most popular and successful choice when it comes to law firms investing in paid social media; we found that 30 percent of the Am Law firms use paid LinkedIn. No matter your goal, there is a LinkedIn ad format that can help your firm to achieve it. However, to be most impactful, it’s important to understand the differences in ad types and choose the options that align with your objectives. 

If you need help building out a LinkedIn advertising strategy, reach out to us today. We have vast experience helping lawyers and law firms achieve measurable success through social media.