LinkedIn wants to help advertisers prove return on investment and so is adding conversion tracking to the ads it displays. That tracking, which requires the addition of a bit of code to the goal website, will help see how LinkedIn ads have lead to sales, signups, downloads or other actions designated by the advertiser. The information available will inform future ad purchasing and targeting decisions.
Facebook and other social networks have added similar tracking as everyone wants to compete to be the most effective social advertising platform out there. LinkedIn is in a unique place because of its heavy usage in the B2B space, where it’s used by upwards of 90% of companies who maintain active profiles. So if it can help advertisers better reach the decision-makers being targeted the more value it has. This isn’t something that’s going to be sued to sell t-shirts or other consumer merchandise, but will be big in promoting white paper downloads, email signups, requests-for-information and other actions that are in the lead generation field.
Chris Thilk 