How You Can Use LinkedIn’s Ad Library To Help Form Your Customer Acquisition Strategy
What is the LinkedIn Ad Library?
Put simply, it’s a hub that will show you all of the ads that have run on the platform in the last 12 months. If you want to know what ads your competitors are running on LinkedIn, this is the tool for you. This transparency is a treasure trove of information for brands looking to understand the competitive landscape and gain insights and inspiration. It’s gold.
How Can Brands Use LinkedIn Ad Library for Competitive Analysis?
- Understanding Ad Strategies: At a glance, you should be able to get a pretty good understanding of your competitor’s acquisition funnel. What type of creative they’re using and where they’re using it. Are they focusing on video content? Thought leadership ads? Carousel ads? By analysing these choices, companies can infer their competitors’ positioning and strategy.
- Grasping Creative Approaches: Dive into the actual content of the ads. Are competitors using emotive storytelling, hard statistics, or user testimonials? This gives you insight into the creative strategies that your competitors believe will resonate most with their audience.
- Assessing Campaign Frequency: By frequently checking the Ad Library and filtering to ‘Active Ads’, brands can estimate how often competitors launch new campaigns and perhaps even gauge their ad spend.
- Spotting New Offerings & Features: If a competitor is launching a new product or service, there’s a good chance they’ll advertise it. By keeping tabs on the Ad Library, brands can stay updated on competitors’ product developments.
- Identifying Target Audience: While you can’t see the exact audience targeted, analysing the content and messaging of ads can offer hints. For instance, ads emphasising enterprise features are likely to target larger businesses.
- Analysing Ad Lifespan: If an ad has been running for an extended period, it’s likely performing well. On the other hand, ads that disappear quickly might not have hit the mark. This can give you insights into what kind of content resonates in your industry.
- Inspiration for Your Campaigns: While you shouldn’t copy competitors, seeing a wide variety of ads can inspire your campaigns. Maybe you’ll discover a new angle or approach you hadn’t considered. You’re here for inspiration, don’t limit yourself to direct competitors, explore other verticals or brands you look up to from a content perspective.
Real World Example: We just onboarded a leading hamper brand in Australia, a quick search of the term ‘Hamper’, filtered to ‘Australia’ and ‘This Year’ allowed us to see which of their competitors have advertised on LinkedIn, what hooks/offers they’ve used and what type of creative they’re running. We’ll use these insights when mapping out our customer acquisition strategy for this client.
Already we can see where we can stand out and lead with stronger creative, a variety of media, and ad units and tell a much more compelling story and offer for the clients’ prospective clients.
Thank you LinkedIn Ads Library! If you want to use it in your next strategy, check it out HERE.
If you need help with your LinkedIn customer acquisition strategy, get in touch with SOMO today.
