Dive Brief:
- LinkedIn announced an expansion of its three-year-old LinkedIn Marketing Partner program in a company blog post. The move intends to better connect marketers with LinkedIn technology partners and help them measure and boost their ROI on the platform, which is often cited as a top business concern.
- The program updates include three new categories: marketing analytics, audience management and media buying, along with 19 new partners including Hootsuite, Marketo, Acxiom and LiveRamp. The program categories join the original three of ad tech, content marketing and community management.
- Seventy percent of marketers plan to increase their technology investment this year, according to research cited in the LinkedIn blog post, and 59% of marketers report spending at least 10% of their budgets on technology.
Dive Insight:
Among social media platforms, LinkedIn is distinctive because it's considered the go-to business-oriented channel, making it attractive to B2B marketers. With the expansion, marketers can now leverage LinkedIn-approved partners that specialize in the six categories to better target and engage audiences with fresh content, as well as scale and measure campaigns with new tools and partners.
Offering those marketers somewhat of a guide in the upgraded LinkedIn Marketing Partner program will likely attract more businesses to the site, while at the same time giving a stamp of approval for partnering tech vendors that have proven value and adding a revenue stream to the platform.
After the Microsoft acquisition last June, LinkedIn has been quietly rolling out new tools and features, including new targeting capabilities and a revamped desktop experience with a streamlined search box.
