Thought Leader Ads: LinkedIn expands the capabilities of its ad format

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The day before yesterday, LinkedIn announced that it was extending the capabilities of its Thought Leader Ads ad format so that advertisers can sponsor content from different members on the platform (with their permission) - and no longer just from company executives or employees.

What is Thought Leader Ads ?

LinkedIn introduced a new paid advertising format in 2023 called Thought Leader Ads. This native advertising formatincreases the reach of content generated by a company's employees to a targeted audience. These sponsored posts appear in users' News Feed with the word "advertising".

In the official announcement published at the time of the launch, LinkedIn highlighted 3 advantages to promote its new offering to marketers:

• They reinforce their credibility by communicating through a trusted voice
• They distinguish your brand as an industry authority
• They help you build a community around your opinion leaders

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What will this change?

The new feature will enable brands to amplify a range of diverse, influential, trusted and expert voices via sponsorship by their company page or showcase page, of posts by members on LinkedIn, in order to reach new audiences.

Ioana Erhan, Director of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions for France and Italy, explains: "In recent months, we've seen the rise of thought leadership in our customers' marketing and communications campaigns, as brands have clearly understood the challenge of building trust with their targets in a climate of uncertainty. Embodiment is at the heart of today's thought leadership challenges, and when trusted voices - executives, experts, employees or, more broadly, our members - authentically promote a company's ideas, it's a powerful way for brands to reach new audiences, boost their visibility and credibility, and encourage community building. As we've seen since their launch, Thought Leader Ads formats have a click-through rate 2 times higher and an engagement rate 1.9 times higher than the other formats we offer. With the launch of expanded capabilities for this format, advertisers will have the ability to promote posts from members that match their goals, and collaborate with trusted experts to build larger influencer marketing campaigns to reach new audiences."

The Thought Leaders Ads format enabling companies to promote members' posts on LinkedIn will be available by the end of March 2024 for all advertisers worldwide.