While social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook offer granular targeting for advertisers, some of LinkedIn's most successful campaigns are not "hyper-targeted", according the firm's ANZ director of marketing solutions.
Matt Tindale, who previously held senior sales and strategy roles at MCM Media, Southern Cross Austereo and DDB, says there can be an "obsession" with targeting but that often it is better to pull back.
"We can target in a very effective way, with extreme accuracy, there's no doubt about that," Tindale said. "But some of our most successful campaigns are not hyper-targeted. In the tech category, for example, there can be an obsession with CIOs, CTOs etcetera.
"But we've got a lot of research that looked at the decision-making process, and it's not just CIOs, it's a whole group of people being delegated to – managers, chief marketing officers – that have a whole lot of say in the decision-making process."
Investment in content marketing in Australia has more than doubled in the past year, according to Tindale. It's no longer considered a "nice to have" but a primary area of focus for brands – and with good reason: according to LinkedIn, brand content achieves a seven times higher engagement rate than jobs on its platform.
Internal research showed its members wanted to see brand updates that were "informative, inspirational and entertaining" above all else – so don't think white papers and annual reports. "Just because it's B2B doesn't mean it needs to be boring. I would actually say the opposite," Tindale said. "People want valuable, insightful content but they want it delivered in an entertaining and digestible way."
Telstra is held up as an example of best-practice in this regard. It ranks in the top three most engaged companies in the world on the platform, sharing value-added content from thought leadership pieces to campaign updates. Telstra CMO Mark Buckman recently spoke about the need for brands to move to a 'newsroom' model in order to push our "smaller packages of content more often".
While some publishers are creating marketing offerings for brands, such as YouTube partner network Boom Video's Boom Natives, Tindale said it wasn't an area LinkedIn was currently exploring. It does run the popular 'Influencers' series, however, featuring the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama, and locally Creel Price, Naomi Simson, Matt Barrie and Mike Smith.
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at frankchung@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.