LinkedIn's New Advertising Platform

Mike Phillips — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:03:00 GMT

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that LinkedIn is preparing a major update to its advertising offerings, LinkedIn DirectAds. The new system will let advertisers target thier ads to users based on company size, industry, gender, job titles, seniority, age and location - significantly more granular than before.

The question for Web professionals - is it worth it?

LinkedIn is seeing growth. According to Compete.com, traffic is up to 14.2 million unique visitors per month, compared to 12.5 million one year ago. LinkedIn claims to have more than 90 million users worldwide. However, according to comScore data users spent just 12 minutes, on average, per visit on LinkedIn last month. Compare that with nearly 5.5 hours each user spent on Facebook.

But the prospect of targeting users based on seniority and job title is enticing. That might come particularly useful for targeting office supply managers, executives or any other decision maker. Job boards might find targeted LinkedIn advertising worthwhile and any number of B2B-focused enterprises could benefit from the reduced clutter that Facebook advertising might include.

A quick search for "LinkedIn Advertising Coupons" shows that coupons are sent out occasionally and that if you contact customer service, coupons can be negotiated. That is uncomfirmed, however. Visit LinkedIn.com/ads to learn more.

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LinkedIn's New Advertising Platform