LinkedIn now gets 45 per cent of its ad revenue from native ads
Since it got its start as a recruiting site 12 years ago, LinkedIn has tried to get in on the platform game by getting professionals and companies to spend more of their time and money there. And with more than 110m multiplatform unique visitors in June, up 46 per cent year-over-year (comScore), LinkedIn still makes most of its money from selling recruiters access to job candidates.
But it’s been building out its ad business, which now accounts for 20 per cent of company revenue. Two years ago, it introduced Sponsored Updates, a native ad-like unit that lets companies like Microsoft Office and Holiday Inn Express pay to push their content into the feeds of their target audience. Since then, LinkedIn revealed in its earnings release July 30, Sponsored Updates has become its fastest-growing ad product, accounting for US$63m, or 45 per cent of its ad revenue, in the second quarter of this year.
That growth has come despite questions Sponsored Updates faced early on about whether LinkedIn provided companies large enough reach versus bigger social platforms like Facebook to make it worthwhile as a marketing avenue.
More like this
LinkedIn spends US$1.5bn on online education platform
