Despite boasting a user base of more than 500 million professionals, LinkedIn has historically derived a relatively small portion of its revenue from advertising. The social networking giant is now taking an important step toward changing that.

LinkedIn today introduced a display advertising network that allows marketers to reach its members on other parts of the web. LinkedIn Audience Network uses several ad marketplaces, including Google LLC’s leading DoubleClick Ad Exchange, to show promotions on other websites and apps. Tens of thousands of pre-vetted properties are accessible on launch, according to the Microsoft Corp. subsidiary.

Audience networks are already used extensively throughout the tech industry. Google has its own version, as do Facebook Inc., Yelp Inc. and several other web giants. The appeal is that marketers can draw on precise demographic data from a popular platform to target prospects via smaller channels with more fine-grained advertising opportunities.

LinkedIn had already attempted to apply this model before through partnerships, most recently with AppNexus Inc. in 2015. Divye Raj Khilnani, a product manager with the social network, told VentureBeat that the new platform features several key improvements.

The first is an expanded set of advertising controls. An industrial equipment supplier, for example, can have LinkedIn only show their promotions on relevant trade publications. The social network claims that advertisers can see a 3 to 13 percent increase in unique impressions and up to 80 percent more unique clicks.

LinkedIn has paired the expanded controls with an automated reporting tool that provides data about ad performance. These features appear to have struck a chord: The company said some 6,000 advertisers joined the beta program for the LinkedIn Audience Network ahead of today’s rollout.

The launch comes as digital ad spending is expected to increase 15.9 percent in the U.S. this year to a hefty $83 billion. Harnessing this growth could make it easier for Microsoft to realize a return on the $26.2 billion that it spent acquiring LinkedIn. But doing so will won’t be easy given Facebook’s and Google’s strong grip on the market.

Image: LinkedIn