As an advertiser, you can use conversation ads to start a conversation with professionals and business decision-makers through LinkedIn Messaging on both desktop and mobile devices. Conversation ads are a form of native advertising displayed to members through LinkedIn Messaging based on the target audience you create.
Important to know
Starting mid-October 2024, LinkedIn supports European Union (EU) targeting for Sponsored Messaging conversation and message ad campaigns. Only EU members who agreed to receive Sponsored Messaging ads in their LinkedIn inbox will experience this change.
With conversation ads, you can set up multiple call-to-action (CTA) buttons that link to your landing pages, open a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form, and encourage engagement with more information in the next message. The prepopulated responses to their selections are determined through a message decision tree you create. To ensure members see relevant ads and to improve their member experience, a Not Interested CTA button is automatically added to the intro message of a new conversation ad and an edited or duplicated existing conversation ad.
Important to know
We’re gradually releasing a Not Interested call-to-action (CTA) button for conversation ads, and you might not have access to it as this time. The feature will also be gradually released to members. The Not Interested CTA button is required and automatically added to the intro message of a new conversation ad or when you edit or duplicate an existing conversation ad. If you have five CTAs in an existing conversation ad, you’ll be prompted to remove one to accommodate the required Not Interested CTA.
Before creating a conversation ad, create a new campaign and select brand awareness, website visits, lead generation, or website conversions as the objective. You can also create new ads for an existing conversation ad campaign by editing your campaign.
To create a conversation ad:
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Go to the Ads in this campaign page in Campaign Manager.
- New campaign - If you're creating a new campaign, you'll go to the Ads in this campaign page after selecting your campaign settings.
- Existing campaign - To add an ad to an existing campaign, you can edit the campaign to go to the Ads in this campaign page.
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Click Create new ad.
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Complete the Basic Info section.
- Enter a name for the ad in the Name this ad field. The name is only visible in Campaign Manager.
- Select the Sender of the ad or click the Add sender button to add an unlisted member of your network.
- Optional: Upload a banner creative and add a custom footer for terms and conditions or disclaimers.
- If you chose lead generation as the campaign objective, select an existing form from the Select a Lead Gen Form dropdown menu or click Create a Lead Gen Form to create a new form.
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Click the Next step button in the lower-right corner of the page.
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Choose a template that best fits your messaging goal. When selecting a template, you can view a preview of the message on the right side of the page.
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Click the Next step button in the lower-right corner of the page.
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Complete the Ad Builder section.
- Enter a subject line that'll appear as the first line in the member’s inbox. Short and impactful subject lines with a clear value exchange work best.
- A preview of your ad will dynamically generate on the right side of the page as you complete the fields. For an overview of your entire conversation, click View Flowchart in the top-right corner of the Preview pane. Click View Preview to return to the preview.
- Complete your Intro message. Rich text options like bulleting, italics, and bolding are available, although we recommend keeping the formatting simple and conversational since you’re in a conversation space. You can use macros to personalize the message.
- Optional: Select the Add an image checkbox to upload the required image. Click Upload and select the required image.
- For desktop, upload the required image. Mobile might render the image differently depending on the platform. The file type must be in JPG or PNG format with a maximum file size of 5 MB.
- Under the Call-to-action (CTA) buttons section, use up to 25 characters to create the first CTA Button text you want members to select. You can add up to five custom CTA buttons with corresponding actions and response messages. For the first message of a conversation ad, a Not Interested CTA is required and is automatically added as one of your five CTAs. As a result, you can add four custom CTAs for your intro message.
- When clicked, the Not Interested CTA button allows members to delete or archive the conversation ad.
- The first CTA button is displayed at the bottom of the screen and remains visible as members scroll through the message. As members engage further and click more CTA buttons, the first button of the latest message is displayed and remains persistent at the bottom of the screen.
- Important to know: We’re gradually releasing the persistent CTA button as part of the member experience, and you might not have access to it at this time. The persistent CTA button isn’t available for iOS.
- From the Action dropdown menu, select what action you want members to take when they click the CTA. At least one of your CTA buttons must send customers to your website.
- Click Edit response to create the response members will see after they click your initial CTA button. When you click Edit response, you can build out additional CTA buttons to layer into your conversation ad.
- Click Add another button to provide members with optional responses to your initial message.
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Click the Create button.
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The Ads in this campaign window opens. Click the
More icon to the right of the ad to Duplicate, Edit, Remove or Send test message. The option to Edit is only available for ads in draft status. -
Click the Status
dropdown menu to change the status of the ad from Draft to Active. The status must be changed before the ad can be shown to members in your target audience. -
Click the Next button.
When you’re ready, you can launch your new campaign or save changes to an existing campaign. Your ads will be reviewed and, if approved, are displayed based on your campaign settings.