Paid social media advertising has become an increasingly popular demand generation tool for higher ed marketers over the past several years. It’s nearly impossible to scroll through one of your social media timelines without seeing a sponsored ad for an online graduate program or one of your local institutions. LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions platform has, in my opinion, separated itself from the social media pack, specifically when it comes to the adult, distance, and professional education audiences. No other social media platform offers you the opportunity to differentiate your institution and its programs to a career-oriented and professionally-focused audience like LinkedIn does. Here are a few tips on how your institution can set itself apart from its competitors using LinkedIn as a marketing tool:

• Take Advantage of LinkedIn’s Professionally-Focused Targeting – Hone in on your desired target audience via job title, industry, seniority, or behavior (e.g. – which groups users are members of). This provides you with the opportunity to present a program-specific message to an audience that you can be confident is the right fit for both the program and your institution.
• Utilize LinkedIn’s Full Suite of Marketing Products – Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, Text Ads, Matched Audiences, and Re-Targeting are just a few examples of the opportunities available to you via LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions platform. Not every one of these marketing products is the right fit for every campaign, but combining the right targeting within the proper ad style can, and will, result in huge results.
• Test Multiple Creative Offerings – Best practice in any marketing campaign is to present your target audience with multiple creative variations, whether it be imagery, headlines, or calls-to-action. LinkedIn makes it possible to do all of the above and allows marketers to consistently hone, refine, and optimize their campaigns based on the highest performing creative options.

One of our core values at MindMax is to Get Results on behalf our University partners and LinkedIn has become an asset in assisting us in executing on that promise. Learn more about how MindMax can help you and your institution execute on full-funnel marketing strategies that include products like LinkedIn (and many others) by visiting the Solutions page of our website. Experience how MindMax can integrate with your existing marketing operations and assist you in achieving your enrollment goals.