📈 As part of this MetricMonday series, I’m doing some deep-dives into LinkedIn Ads metrics that you’ll want to understand. 📈
Did you know that your Clickthrough Rates don’t actually mean what you think they mean if you’re running campaigns in different objectives? (Which you should be doing – don’t let it discourage you!)
Know the nuances so you actually know what’s performing.
For instance, if you’re using the Engagement objective, ANY kind of click on that ad (Reaction, comment, See more…, etc.) are all chargeable, so if you’re bidding manual CPC, you’re going to pay that click cost for every kind of action.
This is why your 6% CTR on Document Ads can look so amazing, but not be generating meaningful traffic. Every click to see the next page is counted as a chargeable click in the Engagement objective.
Try running the same Document Ad on the Website Visits objective and be amazed at how your 6% CTR just dropped to .3% 😂
(Ditto to Thought Leader Ads. HUGE CTR numbers but most of the chargeable clicks are for social actions, clicks on hashtags, etc.)
If you’re using the Website Visits objective, the only clicks you’ll pay for are the ones where they actually clicked to your landing page. Sure, you’ll pay a higher cost per click (35% higher), but you’ll appreciate paying for site traffic more than clicking the “See more…” link.
Each of the objectives have a different definition for what a Click is. Both objectives will report “Clicks” in the proper column in Campaign Manager, and your CTR column will be averaging numbers together that don’t tell you the full story. To see your actual Clickthrough Rate, you’ll need to do some extra work.
Campaign Manager (Not Preferred 🥺)
If you prefer to stay in Campaign Manager to do your analysis, this is harder. Click “Columns: Engagement” and scroll WAAAAY over to the right until you see “Clicks to Landing Page” and open your calculator to divide that number by Impressions to know what your actual CTR is (as defined by someone being served one of your ads, and then taking the action you’re asking them to).
Exporting to Excel (My personal favorite 😁)
If you’re exporting your data to Excel (because you’re a rockstar 🎸) export an Ad Performance Report and create a column that divides “Clicks to Landing Page” / “Impressions” to get an accurate measure of your real CTR across all objectives (except Lead Generation – more to come on that one).
🫏 BEASTMODE:
Ready to go Beastmode?! Run a test where you bid Manual CPC one week and Max Delivery the next (same campaign and ads), and compare the difference between your Cost per Landing Page Click. Which bidding method resulted in a lower cost when you’re looking at the clicks you actually want?
Comment below if there is another metric that you’d like to see a deep dive on!
If you haven’t met B2Linked yet, we help B2B companies maximize their return from LinkedIn Ads by minimizing waste from poor targeting, bad bidding, and inefficient campaign setup.
If this would be helpful to your company, consider booking a free discovery call. We’d absolutely love the chance to get to work with you!
–AJ Wilcox
Host of the LinkedIn Ads Show Podcast, Founder B2Linked
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