Get 46% better audience match rates on LinkedIn

When planning LinkedIn campaigns, we always return to this: Audience. Creative. Execution.

It’s a simple framework that keeps us grounded in what matters. Here’s how we apply it:

Audience comes first

We start by identifying exactly who we want to reach. This means going beyond broad filters and basic firmographics. Instead, we look at real-world indicators like pipeline data, recent funding, job changes, or active hiring. 

These are the signals that show us who’s likely in-market now. Without this step, you’re likely targeting the wrong people, or possibly the right people, but at the wrong time.

Without context and signals guiding your audience, you can be flying blind and wasting budget. 

Creative follows strategy

Once we’ve nailed the audience, we craft messaging and visuals that speak directly to them. We adapt ads based on persona, company size, seniority, and buying triggers, so each campaign feels relevant and timely.

Our entire LinkedIn ad account is structured based on segments—company size, persona, and seniority.

So we’ll have a set of SMB, mid-market, and enterprise campaigns. Within each, we split further by persona, including sales, marketing, and RevOps. Then, we break it down again by seniority—decision-makers versus influencers.

Once your campaigns are structured like that, tailoring the creative becomes much easier and more obvious. You might run the same concept across SMB and enterprise, but tweak the messaging depending on company size. Or build entirely different creatives for sales versus marketing because they care about completely different things.

Execution brings it to life

Only after the audience and creative are locked do we move into platform setup—budgeting, bidding, placements, and testing. This is where we refine performance, but it only works if the strategic groundwork is solid.

The first step in running effective LinkedIn ads isn’t the platform—it’s the data. We always start by revisiting our ideal customer profile. That means auditing our current pipeline, opportunities, and closed-won deals to understand where we see the most traction. 

Which industries are converting best? What size of company are we most successful with? Who are the personas involved in those deals? We’ll repeat this process once per quarter to ensure we have a timely view on who to target. 

Top tip: If you’re in early stages of your business and aren’t sure who your best customers are yet, you can look at your best leads instead.

Next, we turn to Cognism to build out the audiences. We apply filters based on the ICP criteria - like industry, company size, seniority level, and job titles - to create clean, accurate lists of target accounts or contacts. 

We’ll usually break these out by segment - for example, having separate lists for SMB, mid-market, and enterprise. That gives us flexibility to tailor messaging and creative later on.

We also differentiate between the types of campaigns we’re running. We’ll go wider with our targeting if it’s a broad demand gen campaign. If it’s an ABM-style play, we’ll narrow the audience to a more focused list, often built around specific buying triggers.

This is where signal data becomes a powerful differentiator. Rather than relying on static firmographics alone, we layer live signals to find accounts more likely to be in-market. 

For example, we’ll target companies that have recently raised a funding round, or are actively hiring for roles like SDRs - both signs of growth and investment. We also look for job changers, such as new Heads of Marketing, who are more likely to be open to evaluating new tools and strategies in their first 90 days.

By combining historical performance data with live buying signals, we’re able to build accurate, timely, and relevant audiences. This gives the rest of the campaign a chance to perform.

Sometimes, LinkedIn’s native targeting doesn’t cut it - especially for newer or more niche job titles. A good example is Revenue Operations.

When RevOps roles first started becoming common, LinkedIn didn’t recognise the job title. Even now, only a handful of standardised RevOps titles are available in-platform, making it challenging to build a campaign using native targeting alone.

To circumvent this, we build contact lists in Cognism using keyword-based title filtering, capturing anyone with “Revenue Operations” or “RevOps” in their job title. We then upload that contact list to LinkedIn and run campaigns directly to that audience. This gives us better reach, higher match rates, and more control over who sees our ads.

It’s a great example of how layering tools can fill the gaps in platform limitations and ensure you’re not missing high-value prospects just because their job title doesn’t appear in a dropdown menu.

Once we’ve built our audience lists in Cognism, we will get them into LinkedIn. At this stage, we’ll export either an account list (companies) or a contact list (individuals), depending on the type of campaign we’re running.

We typically use account lists for broader, volume-based campaigns - like demand gen across a segment. These allow us to target a large group of companies and then apply job title or function filters within LinkedIn to narrow the audience.

We lean on contact lists for more precise campaigns - especially ABM plays or persona-specific targeting. This gives us tighter control over who sees the ads, since we’re uploading named individuals based on exact job titles, seniority, or departments. It also allows for better alignment with sales since we can pass the same list to SDRs and know they’re working with the same names that are seeing the campaign.

One of the most underrated LinkedIn ad optimisations? Your LinkedIn audience match rate. This is the percentage of people in your uploaded list that LinkedIn can actually identify and serve ads to. Most B2B marketers don’t realise how much this varies depending on the data source.

A LinkedIn expert tested standard contact uploads using first name, last name, and company – and saw a match rate of just 50%. Our average match rate from Cognism-sourced contact lists is around 73%. That’s a 46% lift in match efficiency, just by using better data.

When you include company LinkedIn URLs (which Cognism provides as standard), match rates go even higher. We consistently see 65–85% plus for contact lists and over 90% for account lists.

Top tip: Always include company LinkedIn URLs in your upload files for the highest match accuracy.

Better match rates mean:

• Less wasted ad spend.
• More of your ICP, seeing your message.
• Tighter alignment between marketing and sales lists.

If you’re running ABM or persona-specific campaigns on LinkedIn, using contact lists built with Cognism data gives you the best possible foundation to succeed.

For us, LinkedIn is a demand creation channel, which means we’re not just chasing form fills. We’re focused on driving meaningful engagement that influences the pipeline over time. 

Because of this, we take a blended approach to measurement, examining both direct conversions and earlier signals of buying intent.

Conversions

First, we track conversions, both online and offline. On the online side, that includes traditional metrics like demo requests. But to get a fuller picture, we also track offline conversions by connecting our Salesforce data to LinkedIn through the Conversions API. 

This allows us to see when someone from our LinkedIn audience becomes an MQL, progresses to an opportunity, or even closes, giving us a clearer sense of the actual campaign impact, not just clicks.

Engagement 

Alongside conversion data, we pay close attention to engagement signals. That includes in-feed activity like click-through rates, likes, shares, and dwell time. These metrics help us understand what’s resonating with our audience - even if they’re not ready to convert immediately. 

Over time, we use this insight to optimise creative and messaging.

By tracking both long-term and short-term signals, we get a much more complete view of performance, and we make better decisions because of it.

Bonus tip: Align with sales using LinkedIn’s Company Engagement Report

Upload your Cognism lists to LinkedIn and use the Company Engagement dashboard to see:

• Which target accounts are most engaged?
• How are both paid and organic performing per account?

This gives your sales team a simple list of warm accounts to prioritise.

Focus on one segment

Pick the audience that matters most to your pipeline right now — maybe it’s mid-market marketers, or sales leaders in SaaS. Start with a single, high-quality contact list from Cognism that aligns to that audience.

Keep the structure lean

 Start with just two campaigns:

One for awareness (e.g. educational content, social proof)

One for conversion (e.g. a product offer or demo CTA)

This gives you coverage across the funnel without needing a complex structure.

Test creatives, not audiences

 If your audience is clean and tightly matched to your ICP, your biggest lever becomes messaging. Try 2–3 variations of your ad creative to see what resonates. Don’t overcomplicate the setup — use the ACE framework to keep it grounded.

Track warm account activity

 Use LinkedIn’s Company Engagement Report to see which accounts are engaging. That way, even with a small campaign, your sales team can focus on the right prospects.

What are LinkedIn Matched Audiences?

LinkedIn matched audiences are custom audiences built from uploaded accounts or contact lists. LinkedIn matches your data to its users so you can target specific companies or individuals.

Why does using Cognism improve LinkedIn targeting?

Cognism’s verified data with LinkedIn URLs boosts match rates, often up to 90, ensuring more of your ideal buyers see your ads.

What is the ACE Framework?

A simple strategy: Audience first, then Creative, followed by smart Execution. This keeps campaigns focused and effective.

How do I build better LinkedIn audiences with Cognism?

Use live buying signals, such as funding rounds, hiring activity, and leadership changes. Build segmented lists in Cognism and upload them directly to LinkedIn.

How do I track success?

Consider conversions (like demo requests and pipeline progression) and engagement (clicks, dwell time). LinkedIn’s Company Engagement Report helps align with sales.

What’s the best way to start?

Focus on one key segment, launch two simple campaigns (awareness + conversion), and test your creative — don’t overcomplicate your targeting.