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The Challenge: Tricky CRE (Commercial Real Estate)
The right approach can mean the difference between a campaign that converts and money down the drain. We faced the challenge of reaching highly specific job titles within the CRE sector, notorious for its tight-knit professional circles.
Here's the thing about LinkedIn targeting: If you're a software company for real estate (for example) and targeting the "real estate" industry, you don't want to waste your budget on competitors. Unless you exclude "software" and "startups" audiences, LinkedIn may serve your ads to them, thinking they match your "real estate" audience. How to go about it? Use negative audiences when setting up ad campaigns.
Step 1: Setting Up Negative Audiences
First things first: who aren’t we targeting? It sounds counterintuitive, but knowing who to exclude is as important as knowing who to target. Here’s what we did:
- Excluded Irrelevant Roles: We filtered out job roles that, while related to real estate, aren’t the end users or influencers or decision makers of the SaaS solution, saving precious ad dollars from reaching the wrong crowd.
- Matched Negative Lists: We sourced a list of residential real estate companies and synced it with LinkedIn to avoid targeting real estate professionals that manage / invest or work with residential portfolios.
- Not Your ICP? Without specifying exclusion criteria, LinkedIn might include unwanted audiences. For example, for fintech SaaS targeting 20-200 employees, add 'myself only', '1-10', and '201+' to the negative list to avoid wasted spend.
Step 2: Pinpointing the Right Job Titles
Next up, getting super specific with job titles. This isn’t about reaching everyone, it’s about reaching the right someone. Here’s how we tackled it:
- Targeted Decision-Makers: We zeroed in on senior-level executives and specific roles known to influence tech adoption in CRE firms. Think ‘Director of Operations’ or ‘Head of Tech Integration’.
- A/B Testing Titles: Not sure if ‘Asset Manager’ should be in or out? We ran A/B tests to see which titles brought in the quality leads, tweaking our approach in real-time.
Step 3: Continuous Optimization
Setting up the targeting is just the beginning. Here’s how we keep refining:
- Regular Reviews: We constantly analyzed who was engaging with the ads, ensuring we were still hitting the bullseye and adjusting our filters accordingly. LinkedIn audience insights is the gold mine!
- Feedback Loops: Direct feedback from the sales team on lead quality helped us refine our targeting further, ensuring each ad dollar was well spent.
The Results: Quality Over Quantity
By ditching the "spray and pray" method, we not only saved budget but also boosted the quality of leads. Our targeted approach meant ads were seen by those most likely to engage, leading to higher conversion rates and happier clients.
Wrap-Up: Is This Strategy for You?
If you’re in a niche market like CRE, broad targeting just won’t cut it. You need to be precise, testing continuously, and knowing not just who your customers are, but also who they aren’t.
By Alla Elfimova
Director of Marketing. Ex-Publicis, Ex-Millward Brown. 10+ years of experience in Retail, Technology, Telecom, Media & Entertainment industry verticals, driving growth for the brands like Samsung, Verizon, Kohl’s, Twitter and Coca-Cola.