LinkedIn has expanded its Reserved Ads for top-of-feed placement to all managed advertisers. This ad format, once available only to select partners, is now accessible to a broader range of advertisers who rely on LinkedIn’s account representation. The opportunity to capture the premium top-of-feed position on LinkedIn is significant for anyone navigating the professional space, where attention is often scattered and competition is stiff.
This move is particularly intriguing because it blends predictability with prime visibility, a combination that’s often challenging to achieve in digital ads. It assures advertisers specific impression rates and premium placement, leaving little to chance. You’re not bidding for attention in the noise; your brand leads the conversation when users open their LinkedIn feed.
What Are LinkedIn Reserved Ads?
Reserved Ads offer a top slot on LinkedIn’s feed for brands. Unlike typical auction models, these ads run on fixed rates, giving advertisers clear forecasting for impressions and costs. It’s available for various content formats, including video ads, single images, thought leadership posts, and even carousel ads. Predictability and premium positioning are the strongest selling points, making this especially valuable for those launching high-impact campaigns or attempting to dominate attention during specific events.
Results so far reinforce its influence. Brands have reported up to 75% higher dwell time and 88% higher view-through rates, according to LinkedIn’s internal analytics. For entrepreneurs or marketers who worry about misallocating budgets, these numbers make Reserved Ads a tempting choice.
Why This Matters for Advertisers
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, this product is a way to close the gap with much larger brands. Tools like Google Ads or traditional social media ad options can drown startups under mountains of competition, but LinkedIn, with its professional user base, offers something unique. Top-of-feed placements are prime real estate, especially for industries like SaaS, consulting, or recruitment.
Reserved Ads are designed to warm up cold audiences at the awareness stage, empowering businesses to build an engaged pool for later retargeting. Linkedin’s data highlights that users who first encounter Reserved Ads can lead to a 101% boost in mid-funnel engagement, such as downloading whitepapers or setting demo appointments. This two-tiered focus on both immediate impressions and longer-term retargeting makes it a smart investment.
Who Stands to Benefit?
Realistically, not everyone. These ads are only available to advertisers who run managed campaigns through a LinkedIn account representative. This means freelancers managing small budgets on self-serve systems are excluded for now. But for startups building strategic ad pipelines or slightly more established businesses exploring LinkedIn’s potential, this product could be a game-changer.
It’s also worth pointing out that brands heavily focused on B2B relationships will find this particularly useful. LinkedIn is already a hotspot for decision-makers, and Reserved Ads exploit this concentration brilliantly. Gaining first-in-feed visibility means you can hook potential leads almost immediately as they log in multiple times during the day.
Steps to Launch a Reserved Ad Campaign
If you’re considering Reserved Ads for your advertising strategy, here’s a step-by-step approach:
- Connect with a LinkedIn Representative: Start by reaching out to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions team to check pricing and availability.
- Define a Timeframe: Decide when you need the placement, aligning this with a critical business moment like product releases or webinars can maximize results.
- Choose the Right Format: Select from supported formats such as video ads, single image ads, or document ads depending on your audience’s preferences.
- Analyze the Audience: Sync your data with LinkedIn’s unique professional segmentation options. Whether you target by job title or company size, customize ads for precision.
- Measure and Refine: Monitor the first wave of ads for engagement metrics. Adjust content or scheduling to test what yields the most engagement.
Mistakes to Avoid When Using Reserved Ads
- Neglecting Visual Impact: A top spot won’t save a dull ad. If the visuals or messaging don’t catch attention immediately, users will scroll past despite the prominent placement.
- Overlooking Alignment: Don’t serve top-of-feed ads without follow-up content like retargeting. If users engage but have nowhere else to go, you’re wasting money.
- Poor Timing: Avoid reserving slots during periods with lower engagement, like public holidays, unless you’re banking on season-specific clicks.
- Ignoring Audience Data: Use LinkedIn’s targeting tools, from demographics to professional segments. Guessing here reduces your ROI significantly.
Personal Take: Where I See This Heading
As someone who’s launched multiple startups and worked within the trenches of experimental marketing, I find LinkedIn’s Reserved Ads to be an exciting twist in B2B digital campaigns. Entrepreneurs often complain about unpredictability in ad budgets, and rightfully so. Algorithms shift. CPCs fluctuate. Reserved Ads, by guaranteeing impressions at a fixed cost, bring back some control lost in the auction model.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. These ads rely on crafting truly compelling messaging. That top spot is yours, but its power diminishes unless matched with high-quality visuals and value-driven content. If used well, this could become a staple for launching high-stakes campaigns, stepping away from noisy competitor content, and consistently reaching high-value targets.
Final Thoughts
Reserved Ads are an upgrade for businesses serious about dominating attention on LinkedIn. With predictable delivery and premium placement, they blend brand visibility with performance metrics. Yet, they’re not a magic bullet for everyone. Without a managed budget and strategic content planning, even the best placement won’t drive results. But if used thoughtfully, this tool bridges branding efforts with demand generation, delivering engagement statistics that most advertisers dream of achieving.
For anyone looking to make smarter strides in professional advertising, check out more on LinkedIn ad tools.
FAQ on LinkedIn Reserved Ads
1. What are LinkedIn Reserved Ads?
LinkedIn Reserved Ads ensure that your brand takes the top-of-feed ad placement, guaranteeing impressions at fixed rates. They support various formats like video, image ads, carousel ads, and more. Read more about LinkedIn Reserved Ads
2. Why are Reserved Ads important for B2B marketers?
Reserved Ads offer exclusive visibility in LinkedIn’s professional feed, driving attention from decision-makers and boosting engagement up to mid-funnel conversion rates. Discover insights on LinkedIn Reserved Ads benefits
3. Who can access LinkedIn Reserved Ads?
Currently, Reserved Ads are available for managed advertisers with a LinkedIn account representative and are not part of the self-serve ad platform. Learn more about eligibility
4. How do Reserved Ads improve campaign performance?
Metrics show Reserved Ads lead to up to 75% higher dwell time and 88% higher view-through rates compared to standard Sponsored Content placements. Explore LinkedIn performance data
5. Which ad formats are supported by Reserved Ads?
Reserved Ads support multiple formats, including Video Ads, Thought Leadership Posts, Single Image Ads, Carousel Ads, and Document Ads. Check out the supported formats
6. Can startups benefit from Reserved Ads?
Yes, startups building strategic ad campaigns can leverage LinkedIn Reserved Ads to compete effectively with larger brands, particularly in the B2B landscape. See how Reserved Ads help startups grow
7. How can Reserved Ads support retargeting?
Reserved Ads warm cold audiences at the awareness stage, creating high-quality retargeting pools and increasing mid-funnel engagement, like demo appointments or whitepaper downloads. Explore LinkedIn retargeting strategies
8. What should marketers avoid when using Reserved Ads?
Marketers should focus on visual appeal, strategic timing for slot reservations, and precise audience targeting to avoid wasting budget. Learn about mistakes to avoid
9. How can advertisers set up Reserved Ad campaigns?
Advertisers can work with LinkedIn representatives to define their timeframe, select ad formats, and precisely target audiences based on professional segmentation options. Learn how to launch campaigns
10. Why is top-of-feed placement valuable?
Top-of-feed placement ensures visibility among LinkedIn’s professional user base, allowing brands to capture attention at high-value moments when users first open their feed. More details on top-of-feed importance
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp’s expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the “gamepreneurship” methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.