This feature allows businesses to increase their reach and achieve their brand goals by leveraging the expertise and experiences of their own thought leaders. To be eligible for promotion, posts must be from verified members who have the company listed as an active and current job on their LinkedIn profile.
To set up a thought leader ad campaign, the person responsible must have direct sponsored content (DSC) poster permission approved for the company page associated with the post being promoted. The supported objective types for thought leader ads are Brand Awareness and Engagement, and the supported ad format is the single image ad. It’s important not to select the LinkedIn Audience Network option, as it will disable thought leader ads.
To create a thought leader ad, users need to go to the Ads in this campaign page in Campaign Manager. For new campaigns, this page will be accessed after selecting campaign settings, while for existing campaigns, the campaign can be edited to reach the Ads in this campaign page. From there, users can browse existing content in the content library, search for and select the desired employee, and choose the specific post to promote. A sponsor request is then sent to the employee, who can approve or reject the request.
It’s important to note some limitations of thought leader ads. They are only available for Brand Awareness and Engagement objectives, and the format is limited to Single Image Ads. Other formats like LinkedIn Articles/Newsletters, documents, polls, and multi-images are not eligible for promotion at this time. Metrics and reporting for thought leader ads will follow the same structure as Single Image Ads, with viral metrics available for organic lift through CSV downloads. Showcase Pages are not available for promotion with thought leader ads, and there is a limit of five requests that can be sent to each thought leader.
While thought leader ads do not have a specific call to action (CTA) button, users can include URLs in the intro text. Additionally, it’s currently not possible to duplicate a thought leader ad, so each ad needs to be created individually.
With the introduction of thought leader ads, LinkedIn aims to provide businesses with a powerful tool to amplify their thought leadership and engage their audience by leveraging the expertise and insights of their own employees and executives.
