This past week, LinkedIn announced multiple new features focused on enhancing the B2B user experience, and that didn’t stop in Cannes. Here’s a guide including everything you need to know.
Generative AI is ushering in a transformational paradigm shift in business, especially in digital media and advertising. With this transition, disruption comes first, jobs change second, and then we start to see new job categories. This concept of AI stealing our jobs is a false narrative; instead, we should look at generative AI as complementary. Seventy-five percent of the global workforce now uses generative AI at work.
So, how is generative AI reshaping the B2B universe? LinkedIn executives say we are moving from a knowledge economy to a relationship economy based on people skills, collaboration, and social ability. Seventy-two percent of US executives agree that soft skills are undeniably more valuable than AI skills.
With increasing pressure to prove ROI, B2B marketers feel strongly that they’ve figured things out. According to LinkedIn’s B2B Marketing Benchmark report, 9 out of 10 B2B marketers are confident about their ability to drive revenue and focus on “collective confidence” among the buyer group, including decision makers who influence purchasing decisions.
LinkedIn’s new offerings will boost marketers’ and publishers’ abilities to reach new business heights. With relationship building at the forefront, these new tools focus on three essential keys.
- Continue to build your brand
- Engage with your community
- Reach consumers in the best way possible.
What’s New At LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is on a roll. This year alone, the social networking platform for business users unveiled LinkedIn CTV alongside other new offerings, such as Live Event ads and Thought Leader ads. These features will continue to elevate reach and engagement with buyers on LinkedIn across their network of publishers.
Cutting Edge Video Tools: Video ads on LinkedIn? Yup. Digital video has proven itself to be a new revenue stream for buyers. LinkedIn is testing the Wire Program, a new initiative that allows in-stream video ads alongside trusted publisher content. Nearly 75% of US adults spend at least two hours a day watching short-form video content, and video uploads on LinkedIn are increasing by 45% year-over-year.
The Wire Program is being tested with a beta group of publishers. Some of those publishers include Barron’s, BlBarron’s Business Insider, Forbes, MarketWatch, LinkedIn News, NBCUniversal, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo Finance. With memory recall at the top of mind, it’s obvious that buyers should align brand messaging with publisher content in a format that resonates with their audience.
New Research reveals that viewers will spend about an hour a day watching digital video rather than linear video. LinkedIn has even implemented its Campaign Manager platform to run self-serve-in-stream video ads.
Enhanced AI Capabilities for Marketing Campaigns: LinkedIn announced Accelerate last fall, and the capability has helped increase efficiency. In fact, with Accelerate, advertisers are seeing a 52% lower cost per action than with classic campaigns. With this in mind, LinkedIn is working closely with Microsoft designers, helping brands refine their targeting and allowing them to exclude companies and third-party lists. If buyers need creative help, no worries — LI now offers a new AI marketing assistant.
“We can help you run an advertising/marketing campaign in an underrated way,” said Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer. “All it takes is five minutes. Just provide your product and add a link to it. LinkedIn will do all the work for you, which entails handling the creative, audience targeting, and budget management. Campaigns on LinkedIn are showing a 47% lift in ROI.”
Reaching buyers can be tough, but with AI included in Accelerate, publishers can gather data using LinkedIn’s platform data to align with people who will most likely click on their ad campaign. B2B marketers and publishers can also refine their targeting. They can even layer in targeting exclusions, like third-party lists (as mentioned above).
Think of LinkedIn’s marketing assistant as ChatGPT enabled, without having to go to ChatGPT. You can ask questions like, “How do I buy better ad creatives?” and more.
And, Wait There’s More: LinkedIn is currently partnering with nearly 500 publishers to train their newsrooms.
The King of B2B
On the rooftop of the historic Carlton Cannes hotel LinkedIn’s presence is surely ‘the place to B2B.’ The company premiered “Everybody’s Business,” a new documentary exploring the growth of B2B marketing. You can now watch it on YouTube, go check it out!
Today, more and more companies are breaking news on Linkedin. It’s a shift in business communications, transitioning from traditional press releases to the voice of the C-Suite. Messaging comes directly from the C-suite providing an intimate perspective, where the executives dive in deeper and share details directly from their meetings.
With so many means of connecting with audiences, AI relevance will only power news faster bringing it to the right audiences at the right time.