It’s time to embrace the power of LinkedIn advertising. It lets you deliver timely, relevant messages to engage key decision-makers in a trusted professional environment.
This guide explores key strategies and best practices to help you get the most out of your LinkedIn advertising efforts.
Let’s begin 👇
What is LinkedIn Advertising?
LinkedIn advertising is a paid B2B marketing tool that enables companies to reach a professional audience through targeted ad campaigns on the LinkedIn platform. It allows you to promote content, drive website traffic, and generate leads by targeting users based on accurate professional criteria such as job title, industry, seniority, geography, and company size.
LinkedIn’s advertising tools support various campaign objectives—like brand awareness, lead generation, and conversions—making it ideal for reaching key decision-makers within complex buying journeys.
LinkedIn is no longer just a place for digital CVs. With over 950 million users, it’s become the world’s largest professional network. Although only a fraction of people use LinkedIn compared to Facebook or other social networks, the effectiveness of LinkedIn ads still triumphs over other platforms.
That’s because most LinkedIn users are influential decision-makers, making the platform a goldmine of selling opportunities. And LinkedIn advertising is an excellent tool for excavating this mine. It provides businesses a focused, data-rich space to connect with decision-makers seeking industry content and thought leadership. Unlike broader social platforms, LinkedIn is purpose-built for B2B engagement.
LinkedIn’s strength lies in its users’ high-quality, intent-driven behaviour. Professionals visit LinkedIn to research, learn, and discover new solutions, making it ideal for targeted advertising.
What are the benefits of LinkedIn advertising?
Success isn’t measured in impressions or vague engagement—it’s about building a consistent, data-backed pipeline of high-quality leads that convert at scale.
LinkedIn advertising delivers on this promise. Its unmatched professional targeting, robust analytics, and integration potential offer a strategic channel for long-term growth across global markets.
Here are the top benefits of LinkedIn advertising:
- Precision professional targeting: With a vast number of users globally, including a strong footprint across Europe, it enables access to key decision-makers and influencers in every industry.
- Superior lead quality: Research shows that leads generated via advertising on LinkedIn are of higher quality, helping to reduce sales cycles and improve return on investment.
- Comprehensive analytics: Detailed reporting allows for ongoing refinement based on metrics such as engagement rate, cost per click (CPC), and cost per lead (CPL).
- GDPR compliance: Its advertising environment is built to support data privacy requirements essential for European enterprises.
- Account-based marketing (ABM) capabilities: Marketers can target specific accounts and personalise messaging at scale.
- Brand integrity: Being a professional network ensures your campaigns maintain credibility and trust.
How much does LinkedIn advertising cost?
LinkedIn business advertising is considered a premium channel, ideal for organisations prioritising high-quality engagement and measurable business impact.
The platform uses objective-based pricing, meaning costs are directly tied to the goal of your LinkedIn advertising campaign.
For example, selecting the Website Visits objective means you’ll only be charged when someone clicks through to your website. Each objective has a corresponding billable event, and you’re charged solely when that event occurs.
Average LinkedIn advertising costs include:
- CPC (Cost Per Click): Ranging between $2 and $6.
- CPM (Cost Per 1,000 Impressions): Approximately $6 to $8.
- CPL (Cost Per Lead): Typically from $55 upwards, depending on audience and industry.
Costs can vary based on the competitiveness of the target audience, the selected ad format, bidding strategies, and campaign objectives. Allocating an appropriate LinkedIn advertising budget to campaigns is essential for achieving high-quality B2B lead generation.
How does LinkedIn advertising work?
LinkedIn paid advertising has two facets that affect how well your ads perform. It’s a two-pronged approach that requires you to identify the best ad type and correct targeting for your content. Fit them together properly, and you’ll achieve much greater engagement.
LinkedIn advertising types
Single image ad
A straightforward and highly effective format featuring a strong visual and compelling copy. These ads appear directly in users’ feeds, blending with organic content, making them excellent for boosting brand awareness, promoting webinars, or highlighting product launches.
Document ad
A powerful way to showcase thought leadership. You can share whitepapers, case studies, brochures, or guides directly within LinkedIn with Document Ads. Prospects can preview or download content without navigating away from their feed, streamlining lead generation.
Carousel ad
Carousel ads let you tell a richer story by showcasing multiple images that users can swipe through. Each card can have its own link, making it perfect for product showcases, step-by-step guides, or storytelling campaigns.
Video ad
Video content reigns supreme for engagement. LinkedIn Video Ads enable brands to demonstrate products, tell customer success stories, and share brand narratives dynamically. Videos auto-play silently in the feed, so captivating visuals are key.
Text ad
Text Ads appear in LinkedIn’s sidebar. They are minimalist and cost-effective, with simple headline and description ads, ideal for budget-conscious campaigns focusing on website clicks or quick lead captures.
Dynamic ad
Personalisation is the selling point of Dynamic Ads. They automatically populate with each viewer’s profile data—like name, photo, and company—to create a highly personalised experience, making them ideal for job openings, events, or product recommendations.
Sponsored messaging
These ads deliver personalised messages directly into a user’s inbox. Message Ads are one-off sponsored messages with a CTA, while Conversation Ads offer multiple CTAs to drive deeper engagement, ideal for nurturing prospects through complex buying journeys.
Types of LinkedIn targeting
Matched Audiences
Leverage your first-party data by uploading lists of companies or contacts. You can retarget website visitors, engage CRM contacts, or re-engage with those who have interacted with your LinkedIn content.
Demographic Targeting
Build audiences based on professional demographics, including job title, seniority, industry, function, company size, and education. This ensures laser-focused precision on your ideal buyer persona.
Interest Targeting
Reach LinkedIn members based on their professional interests, including groups they’ve joined, topics they’ve engaged with, and content they’ve shared. This approach ensures you connect with individuals who have already shown intent or curiosity within your niche.
Setting up LinkedIn ad campaigns
Here are some of the key steps you need to follow when getting started with your ad campaigns:
- Create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager Account: Sign up and link it to your company page to gain access to advanced ad management and analytics.
- Define your campaign objective: Select an advertising goal that matches your broader marketing strategy. LinkedIn offers options like Brand Awareness, Website Visits, Engagement, Video Views, Lead Generation, and Conversions.
- Select your audience: Drill down with demographic filters such as location, company name, industry, job title, seniority, job function, skills, and interests. You can also upload custom Matched Audiences for hyper-targeted campaigns.
- Choose your ad format: Pick an ad type that suits your business goal and content. For example, choose Video Ads for storytelling, or Single Image Ads for quick promotions. Align the format with the funnel stage you’re targeting.
- Set your budget and schedule: Determine whether you want a daily or total (lifetime) budget per campaign. Choose between Automated Bidding for convenience or Manual Bidding for tighter cost control. Carefully set your start and end dates to align with your campaign plan.
- Build your creatives: Design attention-grabbing visuals, compelling headlines, and concise, action-driven copy. Ensure your Call-To-Action (CTA) is strong and aligns with your campaign objective.
- Launch, monitor, and optimise: Once live, monitor your LinkedIn ads closely. Track critical performance indicators, identify patterns, and make iterative improvements—whether refreshing ad creatives, adjusting audience segments, or reallocating LinkedIn advertising costs to better-performing campaigns.
Best practices for LinkedIn advertising
In an economic environment where accountability and ROI matter more than ever, B2B advertising on LinkedIn isn’t just a good idea—it’s an absolute necessity.
From the types of ads you choose to your overall advertising strategy. Here are a couple of tips to make the most out of your LinkedIn advertising campaigns:
Know your target audience
Precision is everything. Use detailed buyer personas, CRM data, and intent signals to segment audiences effectively. The more you understand your target audience’s pain points, goals, and behaviours, the more relevant and engaging your ads will be.
Localise content
Consider your customer journey and, where appropriate, adapt creatives and messaging to cater for linguistic, cultural, and regulatory variations across different markets.
Test creatives
Don’t settle for a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Continuously implement conversion tracking and A/B test headlines, images, CTAs, ad formats, and messaging. Small changes—like tweaking the headline or adjusting the CTA—can result in significant performance gains over time.
Keep copy concise
Your ideal audience’s time is precious. Your copy should immediately communicate your value proposition in a clear and compelling way. Focus on short, punchy sentences and avoid sales jargon that could dilute your message.
Use lead gen forms
Native LinkedIn lead gen forms reduce friction by auto-populating fields with users’ profile information. This increases form completion rates and results in high-quality leads, making nurturing them through the B2B marketing funnel easier.
Set clear objectives
Always align your campaign with a single, measurable marketing goal—whether driving webinar sign-ups, boosting brand visibility, or generating MQLs. Clear objectives help set the right KPIs and accurately measure ROI.
Monitor and optimise
Treat LinkedIn Advertising Manager like your mission control centre. Regularly analyse CTR, CPC, conversion rates, and lead quality metrics. Use these insights to fine-tune your bids, ads audience, creatives, and placements for maximum impact.
Is LinkedIn advertising worth it?
Advertising with LinkedIn remains one of the most effective investments for B2B companies.
While LinkedIn advertising pricing can be higher than other platforms, the precision, professional context, and lead quality justify spending, particularly when targeting decision-makers in complex buying cycles.
Unlike broader ad networks, LinkedIn provides access to verified professional data, enabling unparalleled targeting granularity based on company size, job title, industry, and more. This reduces budget waste and delivers stronger conversion rates over time.
In terms of ROI, these are some key benefits:
- Higher lead quality: LinkedIn users are professionals actively engaging in industry-specific content, resulting in leads that are more informed, relevant, and sales-ready.
- Better conversion rates for enterprise sales: Because LinkedIn targets based on job roles and seniority, your ads are more likely to be seen by those with actual buying power.
- Efficient spend on Matched Audiences: CRM and intent data integration ensure you’re only paying to reach those who already resemble your best-performing customers.
- Stronger attribution and insights: LinkedIn’s built-in analytics tools and integrations with platforms like Cognism make tracking campaign performance and adjusting based on ROI outcomes easier.
Enhance your LinkedIn ads with Cognism
By applying the right LinkedIn advertising strategies—from precision targeting and clear campaign objectives to leveraging powerful tools like Cognism—you’re not just running ads but building influence, nurturing intent, and accelerating revenue.
Combining LinkedIn’s sophisticated targeting capabilities with Cognism’s market-leading data intelligence significantly reduces wasted ad spend and dramatically improves lead conversion rates.
By integrating Cognism with your LinkedIn advertising campaigns, you can:
- Build highly targeted matched audiences with unparalleled accuracy, ensuring your ads reach the precise accounts and decision-makers that matter most.
- Accelerate sales cycles by identifying and engaging prospects who actively demonstrate buying intent. This will allow your sales teams to prioritise high-converting opportunities.
- Enhance lead quality by using compliant, verified contact information across European and US markets, improving both the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts.
- Unlock real-time intent signals to prioritise outreach towards prospects actively researching your solutions or similar services.
- Optimise multi-channel engagement strategies by enriching your CRM with up-to-date, actionable contact and company insights, strengthening overall marketing and sales coordination.
Start generating better leads on LinkedIn with Cognism. Click to book a demo. 👇
