LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads

Expansion of the Thought Leadership Ad Program On Linkedin

Linkedin ads are potentially effective for brands, particularly B2B brands, to engage prospects and customers. LinkedIn lets companies sponsor ads based on employee posts on Linkedin. The sponsorship or “promoting” of an organic post to become an ad for the organization means a post from an employee that includes longer and richer content is pushed via the Linkedin ad campaign platform to a wider audience.

Starting in April 2024, Linkedin is expanding the sponsorship of member posts. Organizations using the ad campaign platform may sponsor (or turn into an ad) any Linkedin member content/post. This means that customer, supplier, industry leader, or other member posts can be converted into an ad for a brand/organization.

The creator of the post does receive an alert and must authorize use of their content by the organization.

Linkedin’s announcement article cites a study as the rationale behind the move to expand the sponsorship program:

“73% of decision-makers say that an organization’s thought-leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials”

Questions About Thought Leadership Ads

It will be interesting to see if Linkedin publishes data on the approval/rejection rate of sponsorships by its members. It also raises an interesting question of whether the value of the added exposure by content creators will be sufficient renumeration or if creators will push for a slice of the ad revenue as compensation.