LinkedIn expands Thought Leader Ads for advertisers to sponsor member content

LinkedIn is broadening the scope of Thought Leader Ads, enabling advertisers to sponsor content from any member, not limited to employees, for any Page under their management. Previously, brands could utilize Thought Leader ads to amplify posts from verified employees, but now they have the option to promote content from non-employees as well if desired.

“Nearly 73% of decision-makers say that an organization’s thought-leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials and product sheets. And influential and trusted advocates for brands can be employees, customers and/or industry experts. The expansion of our Thought Leader Ads format to enable  brands to showcase voices beyond their employees gives them a new way to reach their target audience with relevant  information, like customer testimonials,“ LinkedIn said in a post. 

The process involves building Thought Leadership campaigns through LinkedIn Campaign Manager, which now features dedicated search tools to facilitate such promotions. These ads are available for brand awareness or engagement campaigns and support single image or video posts exclusively, excluding text updates, polls, or slideshow-style PDF uploads. Upon selecting a post for promotion, the content creator receives a notification to approve or deny the request, ensuring transparency and user consent.

Although members have the option to opt out of brand promotions, brands can now leverage testimonials, reviews, comments, or any image/video post as promoted content, with a transparency tag indicating its promotional nature.

This expansion offers brands an opportunity to maximize their LinkedIn reach using organic content and endorsements. However, it raises questions about compensation for content creators, especially now that non-employee content can be promoted. It seems logical for a revenue share system to be implemented to incentivize creators appropriately.

Thought Leader Ads for non-employee members will be accessible worldwide by the end of March 2024.