The Cost of LinkedIn Sponsored Messages

LinkedIn-sponsored messages allow businesses to reach their target audience and generate leads through the social media platform. But what is the true cost of running LinkedIn ads?

This guide examines the latest pricing models, factors influencing costs, tips to optimise your spending, and answers the ultimate question – how much will LinkedIn sponsored messages cost in 2023?

Introduction to LinkedIn Sponsored Messages

LinkedIn sponsored messages, also known as LinkedIn ads or Sponsored InMail, enable businesses to send customised emails to LinkedIn members matching their ideal customer profile. Some key facts:

Linkedin’S Professional Messaging is like sending emails or texts, but on linkedin. it lets you chat with other people on linkedin about jobs or work stuff.

• Over 850 million members on LinkedIn globally
• Members are generally high-value prospects for B2B companies
• Clickthrough rates of up to 3.5% compared to 0.9% for email campaigns
• Delivered directly to the member’s LinkedIn inbox

How Do LinkedIn Sponsored Messages Work?

With a LinkedIn ad campaign, businesses define their target audience using criteria like location, job title, company size, etc. LinkedIn then identifies members matching the profile and delivers sponsored messages to their inboxes.

The customised content allows brands to personalise messages using the member’s name, job title, company, and other details. This level of targeting and personalisation results in higher engagement rates than regular email campaigns.

Cost of LinkedIn Sponsored Messages

So, what does it cost to run LinkedIn-sponsored messages? Here are the key pricing factors:

1. Cost Per Send

The base cost of sending a single sponsored message. This ranges from AED 4 to AED 12 depending on factors like industry, target seniority level, and more competitive targeting parameters.

For example, it may cost AED 4 to target junior-level prospects in less competitive sectors. In contrast, Director-level roles in highly competitive fields like Tech can cost over AED 10 per message.

2. Monthly Send Volume

Most LinkedIn ad accounts operate on a monthly send volume ranging from 50 to 100,000+ messages per month. The more messages you send, the lower your marginal cost per send.

However, minimum monthly spends apply once you exceed certain send thresholds:

Monthly Send Volume	Minimum Spend
1 – 999	No minimum
1,000 – 9,999	AED 330
10,000 – 49,999	AED 1,650
50,000+	AED 4,125

So, while the marginal cost per send decreases with higher volumes, you must factor in minimum spend requirements.

3. Audience Size & Competition

The broader your target audience and targeting parameters, the lower your cost per send. You’ll pay a premium CPS for niche audiences with higher competition from other advertisers.

Similarly, targeting senior decision makers (e.g., directors and VPs) incur higher costs than junior prospects.

4. Subject Line & Message Testing

Like any advertising platform, headlines and message copy significantly impact engagement rates. LinkedIn allows A/B testing of multiple subject lines and sponsored message templates to optimise performance.

The cost per send remains constant, but testing allows you to refine messaging and increase click-through rates over time.

5. Companion Ads

You can complement sponsored messages with companion banners – LinkedIn feed ads targeted to your audience. Companion ads increase total campaign visibility and further boost engagement rates.

Adding companion ads increases your overall campaign investment but can improve ROI by generating more clicks and conversions per sponsored message.

What Impacts the Cost Per Send?

Many factors account for the wide cost per send range of AED 4 to AED 12+:

1. Targeting Parameters

More niche targeting parameters like:

• Senior job titles (Director, VP, C-level)
• Specific skills/certifications
• Precise company attributes like size, industry and tech used

Increase the competition and cost per send. Broader targeting is cheaper.

2. Audience Engagement

Low clickthrough rates and engagement from your target group signal low interest in LinkedIn’s algorithm, resulting in higher prices to send sponsored messages.

High historical engagement rates do the opposite and decrease costs.

3. Industry Trends

Specific industries have more advertisers competing for the same audience pool. For example, high demand from Tech brands increases prices for Software Engineers.

4. Location Targeting

Targeting wider regions or countries is cheaper than targeting specific cities, especially for metro hubs like Dubai or Abu Dhabi, which attract lots of competition.

5. Contact Targeting

The ability to target first-degree connections or second-degree connections of specific employees comes at a premium. More targeted = higher cost.

Tips to Optimise LinkedIn Ad Spend

Here are 5 tips to manage your LinkedIn ad budget and optimise cost per send:

1. Broad Targeting

Use broader targeting parameters for location, company size, job title and industry to tap into larger audience pools and decrease costs. Then, narrow it down based on performance.

2. Test Different Audience Segments

Create multiple test campaigns with different audiences and messaging to identify your best-performing segments – then allocate the budget accordingly.

3. Subject Line Split Tests

Run A/B tests with different subject lines while keeping the message copy identical to find your optimal headlines.

4. Personalise Message Copy

Leverage LinkedIn’s profile data to customise each message. Personalised messages see open and click-through rates more than double those for generic messages.

5. Companion Ads

Supplement InMail campaigns with companion banners for added visibility and engagement at a lower cost than more InMails.

LinkedIn Sponsored Messages Cost Per Lead

The true ROI for LinkedIn ads is the cost you pay per lead generated, which accounts for both the cost per send and the click and conversion rates achieved.

Here is a sample cost per lead breakdown:

• Cost per send: AED 8
• Send volume per month: 5,000
• Monthly spend: AED 40,000
• Clickthrough rate: 2.5%
• Lead conversion rate: 20%
• Cost per lead: AED 160

So, while the base cost per send is AED 8, the actual cost per converted lead is AED 160 after factoring in engagement rates.

Driving higher clickthrough and conversion rates will decrease cost per lead over time for positive ROI.

LinkedIn Advertising Costs By Industry

LinkedIn advertising costs vary significantly based on which industry you are targeting. Here are the average cost-per-send benchmarks for key industries in 2023:

Industry	Average Cost Per Send
Technology	AED 8-12
Business Services	AED 6-10
Financial Services	AED 6-12
Manufacturing & Industrial	AED 5-8
Healthcare & Pharma	AED 6-10
Retail & eCommerce	AED 5-10
Media & Entertainment	AED 4-8

Technology and Financial Services tend to attract competition from B2B advertisers, driving up costs to reach these audiences.

Meanwhile, sectors like manufacturing, media, and entertainment allow targeting more niche audiences at lower prices.

What is the Average Open & Click Through Rate?

Engagement rates for LinkedIn-sponsored messages surpass regular email benchmarks. Here are the average benchmark metrics:

• Open Rates: 30-50%
• Clickthrough Rates: 2-4%

Rates vary based on your headline, message copy and audience relevance. Testing and optimisation are key to improving KPIs over time.

Higher engagement signals relevancy to LinkedIn, lowering your costs.

LinkedIn Advertising Cost Comparison

Here is how LinkedIn sponsored messages compare to LinkedIn’s other paid advertising options:

Ad Format	Average Cost Per Lead	Audience Size
Sponsored Content	AED 100-250	Very Broad
Sponsored Messages	AED 150-300	Broad
Conversation Ads	AED 250-600	Narrow

Sponsored messages provide extensive targeting options to reach your broad audience at a moderate cost. Conversation Ads allow precise targeting but have a limited scale and high costs.

Long-Term Cost Projections

LinkedIn rewards advertisers that consistently run and optimise campaigns over long periods with lower costs and higher ROI, like any advertising platform.

Cost per lead often follows this trajectory for sustained 6+ month campaigns:

• Month 1: AED 400+ per lead to gain initial data
• Month 6: AED 200 per lead as targeting and messaging is honed
• Month 12+: AED 100 per lead for mature high-volume campaigns

Even with initial investments, lead generation can be very cost-effective in the long run. Enhancing LinkedIn Messaging for Professional Growth means making your messages better on LinkedIn to help your career grow. It’s like improving your chats to get better jobs or promotions. Grasping LinkedIn’s AI Messaging means understanding how LinkedIn uses smart computer programs to help send and sort messages. It’s like having a robot assistant for your chats!

Mastering LinkedIn Follow-Up Communication is about learning how to effectively respond to messages and connections on LinkedIn. It’s like practicing to reply to your friends’ messages in a polite and timely manner. Optimizing LinkedIn Response Rates means making changes to your LinkedIn messages to get more people to reply. It’s like improving your conversation skills to make more friends!

Managing LinkedIn replies means answering messages and comments on LinkedIn to keep conversations going and build connections Crafting LinkedIn Connection Requests means writing a friendly message to someone you want to connect with on LinkedIn so they know who you are and why you want to connect

Schedule LinkedIn interactions Set aside time each day to connect with people and share posts on LinkedIn Craft LinkedIn conversations help you talk better with people on LinkedIn You can learn how to

LinkedIn networking bots help people connect with others on LinkedIn automatically These bots can send messages and requests without the user doing it manually

Wrap Up:

LinkedIn sponsored messages enable sending customised emails directly to the inboxes of LinkedIn members matching your target profile. Costs range from AED 4 to 12+ per message sent, with factors like targeting parameters, industry, seniority level, and campaign maturity impacting pricing.

Careful audience evaluation, testing for optimal segments and messaging, and running sustained campaigns drive improved performance and ROI over time. While initial investment is required, costs per lead can decrease to attractive levels for high-volume campaigns.

LinkedIn advertising represents a major B2B lead generation opportunity if the best budgeting, optimisation and analytics practices are followed. Sponsored messages provide a personalised way to reach audiences, but analysing results and refining targeting/messaging is key to managing costs and conversions.

Boost Your Lead Generation with Lou Assist

Sponsored messages can deliver tremendous ROI, but optimising performance takes expertise. Lou Assist, a leading B2B sales agency in UAE, offers LinkedIn marketing services to help businesses generate more leads.

Request a quote from Lou Assist to explore how sponsored messages can take your lead generation to the next level. Their team manages end-to-end strategy, execution and optimisation for ROI.

FAQs About LinkedIn Sponsored Message Costs