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 👇
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 media platforms, the effectiveness of LinkedIn ads still surpasses that of other platforms.
That’s because most LinkedIn users are influential decision-makers, making the platform a goldmine of selling opportunities. LinkedIn advertising is an excellent tool for tapping into this market. 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.
Check out our LinkedIn ad creative report for the top-performing types of LinkedIn creative.
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:
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.
According to reported sources, the average LinkedIn advertising costs include:
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.
LinkedIn paid advertising has two key facets that impact the performance of your ads. It’s a two-pronged approach that requires you to identify the best ad type and the most effective targeting for your content. Fit them together properly, and you’ll achieve much greater engagement.
Discover how Cognism executes its demand generation-led paid strategy in the DG Playbook.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
Boosted LinkedIn posts appear in the main feed. They are inconspicuous because they look so much like normal posts that appear when you’re scrolling. We’ve used them in our LinkedIn marketing at Cognism to provide thought leadership and social proof.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here are some of the key steps you need to follow when getting started with your ad campaigns:
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:
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.
Consider your customer journey and, where appropriate, adapt creatives and messaging to cater for linguistic, cultural, and regulatory variations across different markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Advertising with LinkedIn remains one of the most effective investments for B2B companies.
While LinkedIn advertising pricing may be higher than that of other platforms, the precision, professional context, and high-quality leads justify the investment, particularly when targeting decision-makers in complex buying cycles.
Unlike broader ad networks, LinkedIn offers access to verified professional data, enabling unparalleled targeting granularity based on factors such as 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:
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:
Start generating better leads on LinkedIn with Cognism and learn how we achieve higher audience match rates.👇