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Life after LinkedIn’s lookalike audiences

by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
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Life after LinkedIn’s lookalike audiences

By Carol Howley, Chief Marketing officer at Exclaimer

LinkedIn, the digital watering hole for professionals, recently announced its plan to remove one of its most potent targeting tools – the Lookalike Audiences. This departure from a once revered feature will send ripples through the pool of advertisers, digital marketers, and brands keen on expanding their digital reach. But is this a setback, or a silent nudge towards a more refined, data-driven future in corporate interactions?

When a platform as pervasive as LinkedIn redesigns its algorithms, the impacts are felt across the marketing sphere. Traditionally, B2B marketing has leaned heavily on audiences that could be created from existing customer bases. LinkedIn’s Lookalike Audiences allowed advertisers to hone in on their ideal audiences with ease, leveraging the platform’s vast dataset of professionals’ career trajectories and preferences.

A sign of the times

But this change isn’t just about LinkedIn; it’s a reflection of a broader industry shift towards AI-driven and data-centric approaches in digital marketing. The shift in digital marketing, particularly in B2B sectors, is swiftly moving towards tailored targeting over generalized proximity. This change is underpinned by the increase in clever data analytics tools. Companies now demand marketing efforts that not only generate leads but deliver highly qualified prospects, primed for nurturing and conversion into valuable relationships.

A new playbook for precision marketing

Marketers who once relied on the reach of Lookalike Audiences are now looking at a playbook that prioritizes personalized communication, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and intimate knowledge of their target audience. Invest in understanding your customer’s ecosystem, their challenges, their desired solutions, and how your offering fits into their narrative. This is how the new age of B2B marketing works.

Actionable strategies for B2B marketers

  1. Impact analysis: Create a detailed analysis of the potential impacts of LinkedIn’s removal of Lookalike Audiences on your business. Explore ways your teams can respond to this change and the strategies they’re adopting to mitigate any negative effects.
  2. ABM – Reaching audiences on a personal level: ABM doesn’t cast a broad net; it focuses on catching accounts that are most likely to generate significant revenue or strategic value for the business. It’s personalization taken to the extreme, and there lies its strength. Rather than speaking to everyone and no one simultaneously, tailor your message to resonate on a personal level.
  3. Explore emerging technologies: Explore new data analytics technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and predictive analytics platforms. Tools like 6Sense leverage these technologies to enhance your ABM efforts, automate marketing workflows, and improve campaign performance.
  4. Scalability through personalization: “Scalability” and “personalization” are often seen as conflicting ideas. However, the rising stars of B2B marketing are proving they are allies. Automating personalized outreach through AI, robust CRM systems or other clever tools can bridge the gap, offering the efficiency of scale with a personal touch that brings higher engagement.
  5. Email signatures – A huge opportunity for personalized outreach: In the world of digital marketing tools, the humble email signature often gets overlooked. It sits at the end of every email – an underused opportunity to deliver a perfectly tailored message to your target audience. A signature is the last and if used well, most impactful, part of any professional correspondence.

Opportunities for those who adapt

We can see that the focus is no longer on sheer reach, but on fewer, quality interactions. This is a change that promises not only a more fine-tuned marketing approach but a more respectful and relevant interaction with your prospect base.

As marketers, we must welcome the opportunity to connect with our audiences on a deeper level. This requires a shift in attitude, a sharpening of skills, and a reimagining of our outreach. For those who adapt, the possibilities are endless.

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