LinkedIn launches autoplay video ads aimed at B2B brands
Professional networking platform LinkedIn has vowed to go "all-in" on sponsored content, by announcing two major updates to its service; video ads and official company pages.
Launched as a private beta in October the service has already attracted 700 advertisers
A late arrival to the video party LinkedIn has been scrabbling to catch-up with competitors such as Facebook after belatedly trialing its own sponsored video service last August.
The new video formats will see advertisers be able to make use of the same targeting capabilities available them in other formats on LinkedIn. These include targeting by job title, seniority, company name, industry, skills targeting as well as Matched Audiences targeting for account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns.
Mindful of marketers' desire to reach quality audiences (an internal LinkedIn study found 46% of B2B marketers made this their number one priority) the service has embraced native video ads as the logical next step by allowing advertisers to reach out to decision makers directly with standalone news feed posts.
Kaydee Bridges, vice-president, digital and social media strategy at Goldman Sachs, said: “Video content is crucial for our brand, and these changes allow LinkedIn's professional community to more easily derive value from the content we are producing. While our videos can be long – up to 3 minutes – we are seeing deep engagement at a great value.”
Launched as a private beta in October the service has already attracted 700 advertisers keen to promote their products, services and company mission.