We don’t hear much from LinkedIn, in terms of their marketing efforts. However, they remain a prominent name in social marketing, probably due to their relatively large user base as well as their self-service ad platform. Now though, LinkedIn is announcing a new feature that will be available to marketers that do use the professionally focused social network. The new feature will allow advertisers to place 300×250 videos in place of their current text ads. However, they are not much like the usual video ads that can be found on other platforms. These video ads depend upon a user’s physical clicking of a link.
They work quite simply, and they are not an entirely new form of video ads. When a user clicks on a video ad, which is labeled by a shot of the video with the large play button across it, the video will open up and fill the whole 300×250 unit. After the video has played and finished, it is easy for users to click through to other content as they have always been able to on the current ad platform. Whether this is an effective decision for LinkedIn is something that we will just have to wait and find out.
As one argument, LinkedIn has stepped it up, bringing more functionality of their marketing options. Video ads are still doing quite well today, and any company, especially one as popular as LinkedIn, can benefit from including them in their advertising features. However, the video ads that have seen arguably the best results are those that play automatically. I suppose, though, that with video ads, users that would have clicked on an ad anyway will become more engaged with what they are interested in within an ad. So, no matter what, it is probably a step in the right direction for LinkedIn, and their advertising customers will probably jump at the new feature.
The new ads are available to marketers in a few types, whether they be pay per click or pay per view. The video ads will also utilize the targeting options that LinkedIn already offers, making the new video ads even more effective. With images and videos being the most popular ad content amongst consumers these days, videos were definitely the right choice.
Video ads are making their way across the web, being offered by most companies that offer advertising today. Soon, they will be seen almost everywhere, and their effectiveness will be through the roof.
LinkedIn has already gone to work trying to make the option simpler, by working towards the integration of Youtube videos into their video ad service. Along with the videos, the company also wants Youtube’s analytics functions involved with their video ads. Chances are, we will see good results from these new video ads on LinkedIn, provided that marketer’s use them effectively. Video ads rarely prove to be a bad decision, but we will simply have to wait for the next report from LinkedIn, detailing how good of a decision this actually is.
