The notion of targeting job titles may seem focused, but in reality it can be just as broad as targeting specific job functions. However, with the right strategy and approach, it is possible to effectively target job titles and confidently achieve your recruitment goals.
LinkedIn advertising can be a powerful tool for B2B marketers. With over 610 million members, advertising on LinkedIn allows you to reach a professional network of decision-makers and executives using accurate first-party data at scale. By targeting members based on their profile information, you can ensure that your message is seen by the right people at the right time when they are most engaged. This can lead to higher engagement and conversion rates, ultimately contributing to the success of your advertising campaign. LinkedIn members are incentivized to keep their profiles accurate and up-to-date, providing you with a quality audience composed of influencers, decision-makers, and executives. With a range of demographic targeting options, including job functions, job titles, and job seniority, you can tailor your advertising campaign to reach the specific audience you need. Take advantage of the benefits of advertising on LinkedIn for your B2B marketing needs.
LinkedIn targeting is differentiated because members are incentivized to keep their profiles accurate and up-to-date for networking, personal branding, and job opportunities. With LinkedIn, you can reach a quality audience of influencers, decision-makers, and executives.
This means you can target members using profile-based demographic information, re-target visitors from your website, or upload lists of contacts or companies for your account-based marketing efforts. On LinkedIn, you can reach members using the following demographic targeting options:
Job Experience
Job Functions, Job Seniorities, Job Titles, Member Skills, and Years of Experience
Company
Company Connections, Company Followers, Company Industry, Company Name, and Company Size
Education
Degrees, Fields of Study, and Member Schools
Interests
Member Interests and Member Groups
Demographics
Age and Gender
In this blog post, we are focusing only on the Job Experience targeting options. Keep on reading to learn more.
Job Functions
Job Functions are based on standardized groupings of the job titles entered by LinkedIn members. For example, a doctor would fall under the Medical function and members with similar occupations, such as nurses, veterinarians, surgeons, and dentists.
Combine the Job Function option with Seniority to reach decision-makers with specific expertise. For example, if you’re looking to reach decision-makers in the IT function, try targeting the Information Technology, Engineering, and Operations functions and pairing that with a seniority targeting of Senior, Manager, Director, VP, CXO, and Owner.
Job Titles
When members update their LinkedIn profile with a new role, these Job Titles are grouped by LinkedIn’s algorithms and organized into standardized Titles you can use for your campaign targeting. For example, though most engineers fall under the Engineering job function, you may want to target Software Engineers and Petroleum Drilling Engineers differently, given they have different skills.
Avoid limiting your reach by targeting only a few titles. When you enter a title in the tool, Campaign Manager will auto-suggest other relevant job titles you may want to add. Including all relevant titles will ensure your campaign has adequate reach.
Job Seniority
Job Seniority describes the rank and influence of a member’s current organizational role. A member’s job title determines this option. For some campaigns, targeting by seniority can be an effective way to reach those with influence over a buying decision.
For example, a Senior Product Marketing Manager has a seniority of Manager, an Associate Consultant has a seniority of Entry, and a Doctor or Physician would be classified as a Senior Individual Contributor.
Consider targeting Senior Individual Contributors (ICs). Increasingly, ICs have a significant say in buying decisions. If you’d like to reach senior ICs with lots of experience, target them by choosing Senior and combine that with the Years of Experience option.
Attention: Job Titles Can Lead to Broad Targeting!
Job Titles are “supertitles” on LinkedIn. They cover several titles if you target one of those.
For example, “Marketing Manager” also targets “Marketing Specialist.” It is OK because, in reality, many marketing managers perform specialist functions. But then the “Marketing Director” also targets “Marketing Specialist, ” which becomes a problem.
Super titles can skew your audience into something completely different.
To be mindful of supertitles, you should:
Build Your Audience Insights
Utilize the Insights tab on LinkedIn to gather data about your audience’s job titles. This will give you a clear understanding of your target audience.
Be Wary of High Percentage Shares
Take note of job titles that have a large percentage share (>30%) within your audience. These titles may indicate supertitles that can skew your audience and potentially muddy the accuracy of your targeting.
Exclude Unwanted Titles
If you come across job titles that don’t align with your campaign objectives or target audience, consider excluding them from your targeting.
Super titles are helpful if you are doing broad targeting. It saves you the hustle of listing every job title variation. Though, it is better to use job function targeting in this case.
But if you are trying to build a niche, hyper-targeted campaign, supertitles will turn your audience upside down.
Ready to take your B2B marketing to the next level? Try advertising on LinkedIn and reach a quality audience of decision-makers, influencers, and executives. Talk to us today!
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