LinkedIn’s courting advertisers with event tools, ad options

Virtual events had a moment in 2020. While their 15 minutes of fame might be coming to a close, they aren’t exactly going anywhere, since hybrid events are expected to be the next big thing. Want your lanyard and mediocre coffee in a freezing conference room? Great. Prefer to stay in sweatpants and watch from home? That works, too.

LinkedIn, for its part, is helping marketers get the word out about whatever events they’re cooking up. This week, it rolled out tools that make it easier to plug events + learn more about who’s attending:

• Its new Event Ad format highlights details like “date, time, and how to join.” Plus, it lets users see if a mutual connection has expressed interest in attending.
• Rishi Jobanputra, senior director, product management at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, told Marketing Brew that these ads also provide event-specific metrics that its other ad formats do not. “Marketers can see exactly how many members clicked on or saw an ad and then registered for an event, so they know how effective their campaign spend was at driving event registrations​,” he explained.
• Jobanputra said 60 brands created campaigns using this tool during its beta phase. During testing, he claims Event Ads reduced cost per registration by an average of 40%, compared to LinkedIn’s Single Image Ad format.

+1: LinkedIn has also released an Event Analytics tool that pulls together insights related to reach, engagement, and makeup of attendees so marketers can “more easily and effectively plan for future events.”

According to Jobanputra, 21 million LinkedIn members attended virtual events on the platform last year, while its livestreams increased more than 400% from September 2019–September 2020.

So profesh

In recent months, the Microsoft-owned company has been trying to position itself as the home for B2B advertising. A campaign it released in March told marketers that its platform, teeming with job updates and career advice, isn’t a place where cat videos and vacation pics regularly show up.

“Reaching your target audience when they’re in a ready-to-do-business mindset is particularly crucial on social media,” it said at the time.

Big picture: The latest updates come roughly a month after LinkedIn said its ad revenue was up 60% year over year, surpassing $3 billion.—MS