LinkedIn introduces Event Ads and “boosted” posts

LinkedIn has introduced Event Ads and the ability to “Boost” organic posts from within a brand’s page, the company announced Tuesday. Alongside these ad products, the professional networking platform also announced Custom Streaming integrations and Mobile Page Analytics.

“Boosted” posts. Brands can now increase their post’s reach directly from their LinkedIn page. This feature, known as “Boost,” creates a campaign in an ad account associated with your page.

To boost a post, click on the Boost button above the post you’d like to promote. Next, you’ll select an objective for your post (website visits, post awareness, event awareness, post engagement or video views). Then, you’ll select the type of audience for your boosted post (profile-based, interest-based or LinkedIn Audience template). You’ll also need to designate your audience’s profile language and location, select or exclude more targeting criteria, set a daily budget and schedule the post.

Note: Posts can only be boosted once and only events and posts with a single image can be boosted at this time. Posts that include a poll, document, job ad or Pulse article are ineligible for boosting currently.

Event Ads. This new ad format appears in the LinkedIn feed and highlights important event details like date, time and how to register. If a user’s mutual connections have expressed interest in attending, that will be shown as well.

LinkedIn is also launching an Event Analytics tool that provides event organizers with metrics such as attendee/visitor engagement with your Event posts, total number of attendees, unique event visits, attendees’ top job functions and viewer count at the peak of a live stream.

Custom Streaming and Mobile Page Analytics. Alongside its latest ad products, LinkedIn also announced two features that improve the platform’s usability: Custom Streaming and Mobile Page Analytics.

Custom Streaming allows users to live-stream with LinkedIn Live via Zoom, WebEx and OBS, with an integration for Microsoft Teams planned to roll out in the coming months.

Mobile Page Analytics brings the data from LinkedIn Page Analytics to the platform’s mobile app, enabling users to see visitor and follower metrics and content insights.

Why we care. Boosted posts can enable brands to broadcast their message to a larger audience without having to learn or use any new marketing tools, which can be especially useful if you’re just looking to promote a one-time event or product launch.

B2B event marketers are the most likely to benefit from the new Event Ads. This format can be used to promote digital or in-person events and 40% of beta customers saw their cost per registration decrease when using this format compared to Sponsored Content Single Image event campaigns, according to LinkedIn.