LinkedIn is showing interest in Influencer marketing, a business where popular creators on social media platforms make good money by helping brands promote their products.
According to the financial reports, LinkedIn has been struggling to grow its revenue since 2022. This issue highlights the platform’s need for a boost. To fuel its growth, the platform is turning to its membership, which just passed the 1 billion mark for help.
Last week, LinkedIn began allowing advertisers to pay to amplify posts from users, especially those with huge followings. Last year, the platform launched a product called Thought Leader ads.
To elaborate on how profitable influencer marketing is, we shall look at eMarketer’s analysis. This year, almost two-thirds of the U.S. social media marketing dollars will flow to Instagram and TikTok. With analysts, projecting that both platforms will gain an additional 2 percentage points of market share by 2026.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, will hold on to 4% of the market, estimated at $4.5 billion. In addition, the platform will possibly see its share remain stagnant for the next two years. However, the platform is aiming to change that prediction.
LinkedIn launched Thought Leader ads in 2023 with limited capabilities, allowing brands to boost posts made by their employees only. An example is MasterCard, which promoted posts written by some of its Singapore Leaders, with one receiving over 500 notifications on the first day.
One advantage of LinkedIn to advertisers is that its members list their employment details on their profiles, which makes it easy to target the right audiences for specific products. Since the introduction of Thought Leader ads last year, the ads have gotten more engagement than regular ads, showing the platform where to apply more pressure.
LinkedIn states that it will be rolling out new features to the Thought Leader ads in a few weeks, including the option of looking up any company’s collection of ads, to see what works.
However, the success of the LinkedIn ads strategy rests upon the fate of TikTok, as the app faces a possible U.S. ban soon.
