LinkedIn rolls out targeted Pay Per Click service

The social media site LinkedIn, which describes itself as hosting the largest professional network on the internet with over 90,000 members, has unveiled its new pay per click (PPC) advertising platform called DirectAds.

The idea behind DirectAds is that adverts only appear to users who are likely to purchase a company’s product or services. The PPC platform targets LinkedIn’s user base not only on the criteria of geography and industry, but also on the basis of an exact job title, company name and the member’s LinkedIn group membership.

The business-focussed website – which attracts a new member every second of every day – was responsible for 1% of all online display advertisements in the United States last month, according to the marketing research company ComScore. Although ComScore’s figures showed that Facebook represented more than a quarter of the total online display ad market, LinkedIn members – who use the site as a networking and career-promotion tool – are more clearly defined.

The PPC advertising service, which was originally released on beta in the summer of 2008, has garnered praise for the manner in which the platform allows marketers to home in on potential audiences using social media marketing.

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