Dreamforce 2013 Taps LinkedIn Native Ad Unit to Drive Attendance

Dreamforce 2013, the world’s largest software conference, which is currently being held in San Francisco, is set to “achieve record-breaking attendance with more than 130,000 people from 82 countries registered to attend,” according to a press release issued by the organizer on Monday.

Since we started following this event organized by software giant, salesforce.com, several years ago, which features 1,250+ sessions and 350 exhibitors, they have employed the latest digital marketing tools to drive attendance.  This year is no exception.

We want to share one part their event promotion campaign with you… their use of LinkedIn’s Sponsored Updates, formally rolled out in July by the social network.

We saw several Sponsored Updates for Dreamforce using multiple creative assets, with different messages and images.

Here are some of the reasons why you may want to consider using this new native LinkedIn ad unit…

(1) Sponsored Updates run in the news feed on users’ home pages – if you are a LinkedIn user, you know firsthand how valuable this screen real estate is.

(2) The ad units have a similar format to organic posts but are labeled as “sponsored.”

(3) Sponsored Updates offer an added-value social layer meaning viewers have the option to like, comment on, and share the ads, as well as follow your show, which enables you to generate incremental exposure at no cost as LinkedIn does not charge extra for social actions.

(4) You can choose from extremely granular targeting: geo, industry, job function, etc.

(5) You can pay on a CPC or CPM basis.

(6) Sponsored Updates offer rich media capabilities i.e. images, videos (YouTube videos play inline at 700 x 700 pixels), etc.

(7) No landing page restrictions i.e. you can link directly to your event web site, content portals, relevant articles, event registration forms, etc.

(8) Reporting dashboard provides real-time performance data so you can optimize on-the-fly.

(9) Minimum ad spend requirement is very low ($10 per day).

(10) With more than 259 million members in over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn probably reaches B2B professionals that are potential attendees for your event.

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Posted on November 20, 2013