The least expensive ad format to get traffic to your site will be Text Ads, but they don’t send very much traffic. The format that will give you the most traffic, will be Sponsored Content.

Here is a quick rundown of each ad type:

1. Sponsored Content (Most Recommended):

• Middle of the road costs ($6-9 average per click)
• Good engagement rates (not uncommon to have 1% clickthrough rates, so possible to generate meaningful traffic from highly-targeted audiences)
• Most versitile (can do single-image, multi-image, video, leadgen forms)

2. Text Ads (2nd Most Recommended):

• Cheapest ad format ($3-5 average per click)
• VERY low engagement (.025% CTRs are average here)
• Desktop only traffic

3. Sponsored InMail (Rarely Recommended)

• Most expensive ad format ($23-56 average per click)
• High engagement (50% open rates and 3% clickthrough rates)
• Requires an offer that makes people feel special, otherwise looks like spam

4. Dynamic Ads (Never Recommended)

• More expensive than Sponsored Content
• Engagement low like Text Ads
• Bad combo. Don’t use.

Will LinkedIn continue to grow as an advertising platform?

LinkedIn will definitely continue to grow.

Because Facebook has been so cheap, for so long, B2B advertisers have tried to force it to generate B2B leads. The B2B clicks, though, are starting to get really expensive, and it’s not uncommon to pay $2-3 per click on Facebook, and you generally won’t love the lead quality that comes from it.

You look at LinkedIn that is $6-9 per click, but results in great lead quality, and all of a sudden it starts to make a lot of sense.

LinkedIn’s ad business is growing rapidly now, and I suspect it will explode with all the advertisers moving from Facebook when they get priced out of the market.

LinkedIn will likely plateau as soon as click costs become so high that advertisers can’t have success there anymore.