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Do you want to use LinkedIn ads to reach your target market? LinkedIn Message Ads are a great place to start! LinkedIn InMail and Message Ads allow you to reach your target audience via LinkedIn.

This comprehensive guide will help you learn the intricacies of LinkedIn InMail messages and how to close more customers. Let’s look at the current pricing and best tips for both LinkedIn messaging options.

What is LinkedIn InMail?

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LinkedIn InMail allows premium LinkedIn accounts to communicate with people they don’t know. This feature is an extension to the standard private messaging feature on LinkedIn.

You won’t however be able to send InMail messages if you have a basic or free account. However, you can receive them.

What’s the difference between LinkedIn InMail and Sponsored InMail?

We discussed LinkedIn InMail, which allows you to send messages and photos to people you don’t know for many purposes.

Sponsored InMail (formerly Message Ads) is a paid LinkedIn feature that allows sales and marketing professionals to communicate with their target audience in a personalized way. The goal is to drive website traffic and generate more leads.

There are two types of Message Ads: Conversation Ads or Message Ads. Ads can include offers such as ebooks, invitations to events, product demos, and ebooks. Message Ads can be used to target messages with one CTA. Conversation Ad campaigns let you have multiple CTAs and the option to connect with a lead generation form or to other landing pages.

InMail allows you to send limited amounts of general messages depending on your premium plans, but not the ability to create an ad with targeted material.

LinkedIn Message Ads & InMail Costs

LinkedIn Message Ads and InMail offer a range of payment options to suit any budget. You can select your ad price with Message Ads.

Pricing Options for LinkedIn Message Ads

• Cost-per-click: You pay when people click on your ad. This is a great option for driving traffic to your website or for lead generation.

• Cost-per-1,000-impressions (CPM): Pay when users see your ad. This is the best way to increase awareness.

• Cost-per-send: Only pay when messages are successfully delivered. This option is great if you are looking to increase your event registrations or quality leads.

Each of the bid strategy options lets you set your daily budget or total budget, as well as a schedule with a start and an end date.

Pricing Options for LinkedIn InMail

• Premium LinkedIn Career Account $29.99/month for five monthly InMails

• Premium LinkedIn Business Account: $47.99/month, 15 InMails per month

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator $79.99/month for 20 emails per month

InMail credits are credited each month and roll over, so any credits that have not been used can be used up until three months later. InMail credits can be used to purchase InMail messages that receive a response within the next 90 days.

You can buy more InMail credit if you run low at the end of a month, but these are about $10 each.

Five LinkedIn InMail Best Practices for Driving Engagement

These five tips will help you get more engagement and responses from your InMail recipients.

1. Make your pitch persuasive

It’s not as difficult as you might think to create persuasive messaging. To add persuasive elements to your message, you just need to tell them why they will benefit from what you are offering.

You can explain how mutual benefit is possible, even if you’re asking for something. Create value to get them to engage and respond.

Persuasion is key to achieving your goals.

2. Keep it simple and direct.

Many people don’t have the time to read long messages that are full of pleasantries and fluff. Your messages should be easy to comprehend and grammatically correct, with no redundant words.

You can show respect for their time if you communicate clearly with them by sending InMails that are not as long as the classic War and Peace.

3. Include the goal of your message.

Your InMail messages must have a goal. InMail messages should contain the goal or point.

If you only want to connect, for example, mention that in your message. You can ask for the connection, and you can even explain why you are interested in connecting.

4. Include a strong closing statement.

Do not assume your recipient will know what you want. Ask them if you would like to meet in person or over the phone.

A weak closing sentence would be “Let me see if you’re interested”. Be specific about what you want. Include a date and time for a meeting to discuss your message.

Strong closing statements or calls to action can put the ball in your court and provide you with a higher response.

5. You can also add personalized messaging.

Before you send them a message, make sure to check out the profile of your recipient. Note down any relevant information you find about your recipient on their profile.

This information can be used to personalize your message. You can find common ground with someone if they use funny memes or references to a TV series or movie in their InMail.

This should only be done if you are familiar with the topic. Don’t choose a topic or show what you don’t have any knowledge about.

To show that you share common interests and to establish common ground, mention mutual connections, education, and employment.

How to set up LinkedIn Message Ads

Without step-by-step instructions, setting up LinkedIn Message Ads can seem complicated. This guide will show you how to create your ads quickly and efficiently in just four steps.

1. Make a LinkedIn Message Ad Campaign.

• Log in to your Campaign Management Account, and click Create Campaign.

• Next, choose the campaign’s objective. If you wish to drive traffic to your landing pages, you can choose “website visits”.

2. Define your target audience for the ad.

• Now, it’s time to choose the audience to which you want your message to reach.

• Let’s assume that you are looking for people who are interested to grow their business with inbound marketing strategies. This is the purpose of this walkthrough. Select Interests and Traits, and Member Groups. Inbound marketing can be typed in the search bar.

• Choose the target groups. If you select all Member Groups, this will give you a reach of more than 140,000 people in your target market.

• Targeting specific companies can further narrow your audience. Click + To Narrow Your Audience.
• Navigate to Company Select an attribute such as Company Growth Rate. You’ll see that 67,000 people are now in your target audience if you choose companies with a lower rate of growth.

• To further narrow your audience, you can choose Job Experience or Job Seniorities to target decision-makers in the company you are targeting. You now have a target audience that consists of 24,000 people interested in inbound marketing. These people work in the following areas: Marketing, Business Development, Operations, Media, and Communication.

3. Choose the final ad details and budget.

• Based on what content you wish to include, choose your ad format.
• Scroll down to the Budget & Schedule section to set your budget and schedule. You can choose to run your campaign continuously or to set a start date and an end date.

4. Create your Ad.

• Click on Create a New Ad.

• Your ad will connect automatically from your LinkedIn profile. If you wish to have your sponsored message sent by someone else, please go to the Sender Section.

• After selecting a sender, type in your ad name. Next, create a subject line.

• You can add text to the message. You might add a link to your landing pages to the message. To do this, select the text you want and click the link icon. The Edit Link box will open. Enter your URL and click OK.

• A custom footer can be added with disclaimers, terms, and conditions. You can also add a CTA to the footer that will link to your landing pages.

• After you’re done designing your LinkedIn Message And click Create. On the next page, you’ll be able to see the preview of your ad.

• Next, click Next, and click Launch Campaign.

Ten LinkedIn Message Ads Best Practices for Nurturing Leads

Take a look at our 10 tips for messaging ads to help you nurture leads along their buyer’s journey.

1. Select a credible sender

The first step in creating your LinkedIn Sponsored InMail Ad is to decide who your sender will be.

Your message must be relevant to the recipient’s name. To add value to the message, their job title must also be credible. If Bluleadz were to send a marketing message to Bluleadz, it would be most likely that our CEO or marketing manager would send the message.

2. Make your subject lines stand out.

You need to make engaging and valuable content that is not only relevant to your email marketing campaigns but also stands out in the individual’s inbox.

Although their LinkedIn inbox isn’t as full as their email, it’s important to have a catchy subject that will get them to open your message. Subject lines should be concise and effective.

LinkedIn mentions the following words are the most effective subject lines:

• Many thanks
• Exclusive invitation
• Connect
• Opportunities for employment
• Join us

3. Make a simple, valuable message.

After grabbing the attention of the reader with a catchy subject line, it’s time to ensure that your message is valuable and engaging.

They may not be familiar with you personally but they will likely fit the criteria that you have set. To grab their attention and make an impression, your InMail ad must contain a powerful message.

You can address them directly using a personalized greeting (personalization tokens can be used in LinkedIn InMail). Also, using the word “you”, instead of sounding like an advertisement, can help build a personal connection. Keep your message concise and relevant while keeping it under 1,000 characters.

Mobile tip: Copy with more than 1,000 characters may not work as well on mobile devices.

4. A clear call to action will keep them engaged.

Engaging your readers is key to making LinkedIn Message Ads work. It’s not enough to get them to open your InMail or read your message. That would be a waste.

Readers should continue to interact with you. You need a clear, concise, and compelling call to action (CTA), at the end of your message. LinkedIn Message Ads allows you to add a button CTA to the end of your message.

It is also a good idea to include a text link in your message. These are the top-performing InMail CTA keywords:

• Try
• Register
• Reserve
• Join
• Confirm
• Download

5. Use a strong (but not distracting) image.

You can upload an image to accompany your InMail ads that are displayed on a desktop. Unfortunately, this feature is not available for mobile.

A strong visual should be included in your InMail message. It must not distract from the message. You can only use 300×250 pixels for images.

6. Choose the right target audience.

Your ads’ most important aspect is choosing the right audience.

These people are paying money so make sure you think carefully about who your campaign is targeting before you start. You can use the targeting filters to reach more qualified people, even though it means you have a smaller number of people.

First, consider the location. This could be the country, state, or city you are looking to visit. Next, consider the level of experience you would like these people to have. LinkedIn lets you select specific job titles, seniority, years of experience, and other details.

It is also important to decide what kind of company you want them to work for. You can choose specific names, industries, and sizes to target your company.

The targeting doesn’t end there. It is possible to look at the education, interests, age, gender, and other characteristics of the people you are trying to reach.

There are many targeting options. As you can see there are many options. Make sure to think ahead and make sure that you choose the best targeting options for your buyer personas. This will help you increase qualified leads.

7. To optimize your ads, you can try A/B testing

LinkedIn Message Ads allows you to A/B-test your campaigns. This feature should be used. You should only test one variable when A/B testing.

You can, for example, test two different CTAs and two different headlines. But you shouldn’t do both simultaneously. You won’t be capable of identifying which variable had the greatest impact on the performance of the ad.

You can run A/B tests for about one week. Then, you can use the insights to optimize your ad.

8. You can use analytics to improve your LinkedIn message ads.

Digital marketing is complex and you can’t just “set it, forget it”.

After your ads are up for a week or so, you can start to use the analytics to improve your ads’ performance.

To view detailed information about your campaign, you can click the demographic tab within your Campaign Manager dashboard. The details of the people who interacted with your advertisement can be viewed, including their job titles, industry, seniority, and other details. These are valuable data that you can use to improve your content or target.

9. Your Sponsored Message Ads and Sponsored Content should match.

Your sponsored LinkedIn content can be sent at the same moment as your message ads. This allows you to use the same audience for both. This allows you to reach the same audience twice via different channels.

Both formats work well together. For example, the LinkedIn content you sponsor could be a blog post explaining an idea related to your message. Your audience will be able to educate themselves. This will increase brand awareness and help you get more clicks for your campaign ads.

10. Use Lead Generation Forms. 

Your LinkedIn ads include lead generation forms that allow you to seamlessly collect information from your leads. LinkedIn forms automatically fill in information from your audience by using data taken directly from their profiles.

This allows your leads to fill out their information automatically, which can increase their user experience and the number of leads they generate.

These best practices will help to avoid common pitfalls when creating LinkedIn Message Ads.

LinkedIn Message Ad Mistakes to Avoid

While we’ve covered all the best practices in LinkedIn Message Ads, there are some important “don’ts” to be aware of when creating ads. These mistakes can lead to poor ad performance, which could result in wasted ad dollars and potentially damage your brand.

Assertive Content

Although Message Ads are a form of paid advertising, you don’t want to sound too commercial. You don’t have to sound salesy.

Avoid using all caps and exclamation marks. Your content should be conversational, personal, and not pushy.

Vague Content

After reading your message, the receiver shouldn’t be left in suspense. These targeted people will not engage with you if your content is unclear.

Too much content

Although vague content can be bad, excessive content can make it worse. It doesn’t have to be detailed in your message.

Additional content should be provided on the landing page that is connected to your call-to-action. Here you can provide more information and encourage them to become a lead.

Complex and long-lasting CTAs

CTAs should only be three to four words long. Mobile will cut any CTAs that are too long.