Linkedin introduces targeted advertising

Written on July 16, 2008 – 3:26 pm
Joop Dorresteijn, Contributing editor

LinkedIn has introduced a clever new functionality on their platform today, by announcing a limited first version of Linkedin DirectAds. DirectAds allows you to target advertisements on age, gender, industry, or seniority of ad viewers. Two weeks ago co-editor Robin reported the soft-launch, now it’s for real.

The advertisement will display in a non obtrusive way, and is visible on the profile and the homepage of the targeted receiver. The costs for the advertisements are dependent on your targeting, which you can setup yourself using the LinkedIn DirectAds page. the popular professional network currently requires you to pay with a credit card, but the biggest turndown is that the service only works in the US for now. However, the service looks promising, and could be ideal for users who want to advertize themselves, their business, product or service to specific users.

It seems that LinkedIn found an (not entirely original) income stream that can help professionals to find the right person in the right place. What could be the developments of Linkedin contacts pushing ads to your pages? I wonder how long it will take until people start experimenting to use LinkedIn as a dating site.

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!

advertising, linkedin

About the author: Joop is an entrepreneur and blogger located in Seoul, South Korea. Read his blog here.

I've been a long-time registered user of LinkedIn, the social network centered around your career and professional relationships, and apart from a number of frustrations (e.g. the terrible 'Groups' feature execution) I consider the service...

LinkedIn more than just network tool, introduces apps

Now that LinkedIn has gathered 30 million members in its professional network, the Mountain View-based company wants to go beyond just connecting. Last night it introduced nine applications with which LinkedIn users can "communicate, collaborate,...

Rambler introduces contextual video advertising

Rambler Media, one of Russia's leading Internet companies (€38 Million in 2007), has announced contextual advertising for video content. Its advertising division - Begun - will integrate Begun.Videocontext on Rambler’s video sharing community, Rambler...

2 comments to “Linkedin introduces targeted advertising”

By viktor on Jul 16, 2008

Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads are much more effective that AdWords. It seems to me that they should be more expensive too.
I guess they will achieve this with their biding system with time. But in the meantime it is great platform to run a campaign.

[Reply]
By Doron on Jul 17, 2008

I get really frustrated about the fact that its only available for the US. More than half there users are from outside the US..

[Reply]