LinkedIn on Tuesday introduced lead-generation forms linked
to sponsored posts running on mobile devices. The feature enables marketers to curate qualified leads from paid content.
When someone clicks on a sponsored post for more information, the
information from their LinkedIn profile automatically populates the form with the member's name and contact info, company name, seniority, job title, location, and more. The leads are collected by
LinkedIn's campaign manager.
The Sponsored Content campaigns, LinkedIn's native advertising units, use the lead-gen forms on LinkedIn’s mobile app, but there are plans to expand the
service to the desktop and continue to integrate with third-party CRM and marketing automation partners.
Today's partners include Driftrock and Zapier, but marketers will soon have the ability
to send their lead-gen data directly to their Marketo, Eloqua, and Microsoft Dynamics accounts.
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Divye Khilnani, product management at LinkedIn, said the company will also expand the feature to
Sponsored InMail, a messaging ad product. When asked if LinkedIn might license the technology to other companies, he said "the lead-gen tool would be limited to other LinkedIn ad products."
The move makes sense, considering that the tool seems to lower the cost per lead for advertisers. Khilnani said LinkedIn ran a pilot with about 50 advertisers. About 90% experienced their target or
lower than expected cost-per-lead (CPL) goals. They saw an improvement of CPLs between 10% and 30% based on those running and not running the lead-gen forms.