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On August 7th, LinkedIn released Sponsored Updates, allowing us to hit the newsfeed.
THE MAIN POINT
You’ll end up paying $6-10 a click, even if you have a killer CTR, since the average CPMs are north of $200. But if you have a high-end B2B target, it could be worth it. Facebook still has more volume by job title and company workplace target.
IN MORE DEPTH
There are 3 million LinkedIn business pages (hat tip to Jason Miller of LinkedIn for sharing stats). Compare that with the 50 million Facebook pages, of which only a portion are business pages.
With Facebook, you can target down to the zip code, while LinkedIn lets you go down only to the city level.
Facebook has sponsored stories (targeting based on who you’re connected to and sharing friend activity). LinkedIn had this two years ago, but pulled it quickly.
The CTRs on Facebook and LinkedIn are similar– perhaps slightly higher on LinkedIn. But if you isolate Facebook mobile newsfeed, then Facebook wins. You can’t choose mobile placements on LinkedIn yet.
Neither network offers frequency capping or dayparting, but Facebook does offer negation targeting and custom audiences.
Facebook has the ads API and insights API, with the insights API easy to use and get access to. Facebook has conversion tracking and bidding to conversion. LinkedIn ads API and analytics API are closed.
LinkedIn show summary stats by seniority and company size– Facebook doesn’t have this.
Here are the number of folks you can target on Facebook by job title. Clearly a lot more blue collar types– a larger audience than Facebook by a factor of five.
And as you’d expect, if you’re hitting executive positions or HR, LinkedIn is the way to go.
These are relative ratios- Waitresses on Facebook outnumber LinkedIn waitresses 4 to 1. But on LinkedIn, there are 1,255 VPs of Human Resources for every one of them on Facebook.
Would you list your experience as a bartender on LinkedIn?
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.