LinkedIn’s revenue grew 45% YoY in Q3 to $568 million. Its Marketing Solutions division also increased 45% YoY, totaling $109 million in revenue. Marketing Solutions, which makes up 19% of LinkedIn’s total revenue, is one of the social network’s three lines of business.
Overall member growth was strong. LinkedIn now has 332 million members, up 28% YoY. About 47% of LinkedIn members now access the platform through mobile.
LinkedIn also integrated B2B advertising platform Bizo in Q3, which it acquired for $175 million. LinkedIn intends to build an “end-to-end B2B marketing platform.”
“We’ve seen an increase in Sponsored Updates spending and we’re seeing existing customers increase their spend as our content marketing proposition develops,” said CFO Steve Sordello on the earnings call. “We’ve seen a 60% increase in customers using more than one product.” He added that next year, LinkedIn intends to establish a broader, content-based platform alongside the Bizo marketing platform.
LinkedIn’s and Bizo’s teams, Sordello said, are working on developing lead nurturing across the Web through display ads and finding ways to augment LinkedIn Sponsored Content. Analysts asked repeatedly about the “off-network” LinkedIn opportunity and how Bizo will help advertisers.
Sordello said the next step is for marketers to target prospects on LinkedIn, then nurture their leads off-site.
Penry Price, LinkedIn’s VP of global sales and marketing solutions, recently referenced the social network’s plans to develop better ways to measure marketing and sales leads, products designed to help marketers determine how leads engaged with display or video ads.
CEO Jeff Weiner also mentioned during the earnings call the Sales Navigator platform LinkedIn rolled out last quarter, which “represents a large SaaS opportunity.”
“As it scales, this new product line should add greater diversity and visibility to our overall business.” Sales Navigator, Weiner said, helped LinkedIn closed one of its “largest contracts ever” with supply chain stalwart SAP.
Sordello said LinkedIn will continue its content monetization march in Q4 and that it will ramp up its longform content publishing platform, the company’s “fastest-growing product based on engagement.” LinkedIn not long ago enabled targeting of native ad units directly in-stream via its Certified Sponsored Updates program. Separately it rolled out a Certified Content Partners program to connect brands with publisher-derived content.
Additionally “multi-app and connected apps are driving higher daily engagement than what we’ve traditionally seen, and we expect to continue our aggressive investment in mobile,” he said.
