LinkedIn Analytics: How to Drive Sales with Data in 2023

Why should you review your LinkedIn analytics?

LinkedIn demographics show that there are 310 million active monthly users. 

If you’re not a numbers person, this article may give you a headache already. We’ll try to soften that blow with some easy ways to help you determine why, how, and where you can evaluate your LinkedIn analytics to improve your sales.

The bottom line is that it does, in fact, improve your sales by reviewing your data and looking for things like who viewed your profile, how many, and from where. We’ll explain here how to find the data, what it means, and what to do with it.

LinkedIn Analytics for your Company Page

In your company page’s admin view, you’ll find various analytics in the dropdown tab. This will give you information about each specific post you can evaluate.

There are 6 main types of page analytics for LinkedIn: Updates, Content, Followers, Visitors, Competitors, Employee Advocacy, and Talent Brand. Depending upon what you want to track, only some of these may be relevant.

Talent Brand analytics, for instance, is typically for HR so we won’t cover it here. We also won’t cover Employee Advocacy because that’s most often used in Marketing. The other four, however, will be of great use to you as you work to grow your sales.

Content/Post metrics ✍️

This data type includes information to help you understand what posts get more reactions than others. On each post, you’ll be able to click ‘View stats’ and find this information:

Tracking your click-through and engagement rates over time will help you see if you’re improving, decreasing, or staying stagnant. It will also tell you what posts people resonate with more so you can provide more on that topic or in that way. 

There are also a number of different types of engaging content you can post and each has its own metrics you can view. From uploading documents to text only to videos, you’ll discover over time which gets more interactions from your (desired) audience.

For example, if you post a long text with an image that gets a lot of interactions and another with a video but very few interactions, you may want to stick to text. Your audience will tell you what they want if you listen and read your stats.

Updates analytics 📈

On your company page, you’ll also be able to find the Update analytics which gives you an overview of all posts. You can filter by date and type of metric from Impressions to engagement rate. This is your birds-eye-view to help you see how you have improved or decreased over time.

Followers analytics 👥

This data is where you’ll not only find how many people follow your company page, but who they are. In your Followers tab, you’ll see a breakdown of who’s following your page based on Location, Job function, Seniority, Industry, and Company size data, and looks like this:

Use these Linkedin analytics to learn more about who follows your company and it will tell you what type of content you need to be putting out for them. Or, it will tell you that you’re targeting the wrong people with what you say and post and you can begin to determine where you can make changes.

Pro tip: Start by putting yourself in your audience’s shoes. What is important to them and what do they want to read?

Visitors analytics 👀

These numbers are interesting as well because you learn about how they use LinkedIn (Desktop or mobile) as well as the same demographics as the current followers above. Understanding the visitors also helps you evaluate the content you post and the people you attract.

Competitor analytics ⚔️

This newer tool with LinkedIn analytics can tell you where you and your competitors rank in terms of the number of followers and post engagements.

Evaluate where you want to be compared to specific competitors and have a goal you can break down into months or even days to accomplish. Go into their company pages and see what they’re doing to gain followers. 

Are they using specific keywords you should be using? Are they posting at certain times with certain types of content? Read what comments they receive and by whom – are these the people you want to interact with as well? Then speak to them using their own terminology and post what’s important to them.

LinkedIn Analytics for your Personal Page

While company pages are very useful — and in some cases the best option — most people look at your personal page for information about your background and what you do. This means you’ll likely want to focus a great deal on filling out your complete profile so others can know exactly what you do, who you are, who you help, and why they should reach out.

Where to start

Similar to the company page, once you have a full profile you’ll want to start analyzing your posts, who visits your profile, and how many new connections you’re making. On your profile page, you’ll find your personal dashboard near the top which provides a few helpful numbers from the previous week. If you have a LinkedIn Premium account (starting at $29.99/month), you can also view historical data.

You’re able to click on each of these numbers and view more information such as what the visitors do and what terms they used in their search. For instance, ‘search appearances’ shows the number of times you appeared in search results on LinkedIn. This is based on the words you use in your profile so be sure to update it when needed to include vital terms you want to be found for.

Put those keywords in your title, your About section, or your past jobs, but be clear with who you serve and how. The right people will be able to contact you with more confidence and ease if you don’t use ‘fun’ titles like “feel-good wizard”. Use words people know and understand exactly how you can help them.

Post Metrics

Now that your profile is ready, you can begin to review your post analytics. (If you don’t have any posts yet, it will take time to compile this information.) When you click on the number of views below a post you’ve put out, you can view details about those who have interacted with it:

If people are viewing your post that you would like to get in contact with, message the most relevant person from that company and mention the topic they’d be interested in. (Don’t make it weird and directly say ‘hey I know you viewed my post’.) Notice the location as well because it might tell you to focus your efforts on a region that would be interested in what you do. 

To get more interactions —which gets you more views by more people — you can ask questions, have them comment for a digital ‘gift’ (ie. “Comment “yes” if you want the white paper”), or tag a colleague or partner. Just be sure you’re willing and able to put in the work it will take to contact each person who ends up commenting.

Social Selling Index

One interesting tool with LinkedIn Analytics is the Social Selling Index (SSI). While logged in, open this link. It will provide you with detailed information on how you score in terms of the opportunity to sell through your profile. 

You’re able to view how much improvement you can make in your profile and with your posts and outreach. While it may not look like much information, it tells you if you need to post more, engage more with others, or provide more interactive content like LinkedIn articles or surveys.

Choose your Adventure

Now that you know where you can track your LinkedIn analytics and what it means, you can choose the data that is most relevant and important to you. It’s not necessary to track all of them, especially with the limited time you have. Simply choose one or two you’d like to focus on for the month and track where you start and where you are at the end. 

Then, see if it worked and determine if you’d like to continue that focus or try something else. Improve your sales using data and you’ll reduce stress!

Tools of the Trade

Here are some tools that will help you with your LinkedIn analytics collection and analysis:

1. Inlytics — This is a service that connects directly to your profile so you can collect data on your connections. You can review the companies, job positions, and regions you’re most connected with.

1. Social Pilot — With an API-connected software like this, you’ll be able to connect to multiple social profiles. It will, however, often provide less detailed information and data than a tool like Inlytics which is deeply focused on one social platform.
2. Shield App — This service also will help you understand a bit more about your audience, but it will also help guide you with when to post so that it gets the best engagement.
3. Scheduler apps — these will be a life-saver for you if you let them. Web-based tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social allow you to schedule your posts ahead of time. 

• Whatagraph – this tool can help you organize your social media KPIs in one place and quickly build a detailed analysis of your LinkedIn profile performance. The pre-made template includes a performance overview, tracking your Linkedin follower growth, or viewing the entire engagement funnel.

Pro tip: Create and schedule 1-4 weeks at a time!

5. LaGrowthMachine — Our tool is built to help you close more deals. For example, you can import your LinkedIn followers (or your company’s) every week to send them personalized messages and start a conversation with them. 

New tools are always popping up as well, so keep an ear out for helpful ones you can try. Be careful not to get tool-happy though, sometimes less is more.

How to take action using your data?

Send personalized messages to connect or reconnect (with examples)

Create a message that will go to (at least) two different types of contacts: those with who you are already connected and those you are not. For example, You can use the names of people who have viewed your posts or profile to start with.

Here is an example of connecting with someone new that you’d like to get in touch with:

Hello ____,

I noticed that you’re in the ____ industry and thought it would be great to connect with someone who understands ____(ie. how important relationships are; what clients need, etc). 

Remember that requests for new connection notes are limited to 300 characters so keep it short and sweet. 

If you’re looking to contact people you’ve met before, try to find a way to customize the note just enough so that you can save yourself time and send it to many people at once. For example:

Hello ____,

I saw your name come across my profile and realized we haven’t spoken in a while. Would love to catch up again and see how things are going at your company these days. Are you free next week for a quick coffee chat?

If you have a calendar link to schedule directly (ie. Calendly) at a convenient time, it’s also a good way to make scheduling easier (that back and forth is dreadful, no?).

Create a connection workflow

Another way to use your ‘views’ insights is to use LaGrowthMachine to create a workflow that allows you to reach out to the people you want to connect with. Via different platforms, you can send a message to specific lists at specific times. 

Creating a sequence like the above will allow you to plug anyone into it and save tons of time. Say goodbye to the manual follow-ups and calendar alerts!

Are you attracting the right people? 

In order to be in touch with your ideal clients, you’ll need to provide information that is relevant to them. Whether this is through your profile or your posts, it’s important they feel they can trust you with the job. This requires a circular method of revising, evaluating, and posting, but once you have done the work, it will make your profile and posts easier to find and interact with.

Start by reviewing who has commented and viewed your posts and profile. Review the positions of these people and determine if they are a match for who you want to attract. If they are, great! You’re already on your way.

For many people, however, this is not the case. If this is true for you right now, you can then go back and review your post and profile content again. Do your posts and profile use terminology your audience uses? Do they contain keywords that are relevant to their industry? Does it resonate with their challenges?

Make a list of keywords, pain points, and topics around what’s most important to your audience. You can also see which keywords they used in their search and determine if that’s the term(s) you’d like to be found for. If not, edit your profile and posts as needed.

Next, reach out to those you want to connect with. Communicate also using those terms and personal challenges so they understand exactly why you’re contacting them.

Stay the course

Hopefully, all of this data and LinkedIn analytics talk hasn’t caused you to run away by now but if it hasn’t, then congratulations! You’re on your way to developing a LinkedIn profile and strategy that will attract your ideal clients.

Consistently improve upon and learn from what you find and you’ll always be ahead of the game. People and needs change very regularly so check in as often as possible. We recommend monthly but shoot for at least quarterly. Keep sight of what’s important to your audience and you’ll always be relevant and vital to the industry.