LinkedIn Marketing Solutions vs. Sizmek Ad Suite (discontinued)

LinkedIn has a much higher CPC than most commonly used platforms resulting in a much higher CPL/CPA. For businesses that don't have big CPC budgets, it would be difficult to be able to run tests without breaking the bank. Unless they get it right out of the gate, they may not find success with their efforts. On the opposite side of that, if a business can afford higher acquisition costs, this platform is likely worth exploring. They offer precise targeting with audiences full of professionals so often the leads are really high quality if you get it right.

Incentivized

If you need a prompt support for any kind of issue, those guys really rock. I opened tickets on Friday evening getting things fixed in less than an hour. That's a critical point for demanding clients. The main weaknesses in my opinion are the user interface that is not so user friendly and the integration with Google products. This is in place but, mainly due to Google's walled garden, the environment is not so efficient.

• Targets the exact right audience for your B2B messaging: you don't have to guess based on likes or any other periphery data to determine whether you're reaching the right audience - you can hit by job title, years of experience, job function, seniority, and other great ways to ensure precision delivery to the correct audience.
• Offers a helpful variety of ad units that are great for different types of campaigns to make sure you're reaching your audience in the right format for the ask.
• Self-service platform now for all ad units, enabling you to take control of your LInkedIn marketing with a hands-on approach.

Incentivized

• Easy Dashboard Navigation - Search bar allows user to quickly locate details about any campaign
• Insightful Analytics Tools - Platform provides users customizable graphs to leverage for reporting presentations
• Extensive Reporting Metrics - Ability to pull ad performance reports on all aspects of campaign
• Simple Creative Hosting - Easy upload and path location details for creative files

Incentivized

• LinkedIn has a relatively limited audience size when compared to other social media platforms.
• There is a large group of LinkedIn users that create an account and never return, but messages still hit their inboxes.
• LinkedIn targeting by job title can be limiting, as they set a hard limit on targeted titles per campaign.

Incentivized

• Sizmek's trading desk was a total miss when I tested it a few years ago.
• I briefly used Abakus and did not find it intuitive, accurate or helpful. It has a long way to go before it can compete with the likes of VisualIQ.

Incentivized

in terms of promoted content reporting and usability, the platform is not as flexible or easy to use compared to more established social platforms like Facebook. However, it does offer plug-ins to Google Data Studio which makes pulling and manipulating data easier. My main usability gripe comes when looking at organic performance of a company page. There isn't an easy way to export organic performance data.

Incentivized

So, everything what I just said previously adds up to the value of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Definitely recommending it to a friend. It has its things to improve but its nothing major or nothing to worry about. So I give a 9 because it still has that, some user interface glitches that can be improved but do not damage the experience that you have with it.

Incentivized

LinkedIn offered a different way to market and that was through direct messaging on the platform. Those direct messages result in a push notification and an email (depending on the user's settings), so we knew that was a more creative and attention-getting spend. It made more sense for our professional clientele as well.

Incentivized

When it comes to serving Ads, Doubleclick does a better job with QA and handling creative in my opinion. However the tagging system is more diverse and handy in Sizmek.

Incentivized

• As an agency, LinkedIn gives us one more way to demonstrate worth: we're managing the LinkedIn page of many of our clients, and this is demonstratively an improvement from before.
• Also as an agency, LinkedIn ads allow us to offer an additional way to get leads in the door. When we've struck out on other ad programs, we usually try LinkedIn Ads before moving on to a higher investment channel (such as list rental).

Incentivized

• Sizmek has had a positive impact on ROI because it delivers the reports our clients want and need
• Sizmek has had a postive impact on employee morale due to ease of use

Incentivized