Beginner's Guide: How to Run LinkedIn Ads

There are plenty of fantastic social media ad platforms like Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and TikTok ads. But if your goal is to connect with small business owners or key decision-makers at major organizations — especially for B2B campaigns — LinkedIn ads should be your first stop

In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to start with LinkedIn ads: why you should use them, the different ad types, and expert best practices. Let’s dive in!

How effective are LinkedIn ads?

LinkedIn has seen explosive growth in recent years and is expected to grow its user base another 22% by 2028. Unlike most social platforms, LinkedIn is focused on our professional lives. And people aren’t just networking and looking for the jobs on the platform — they’re also building personal and company brands.

It's a place where professionals are hanging out and engaging with professionals from other brands — and the brands themselves. That’s why LinkedIn ads are a goldmine for B2B marketing.

Its advanced targeting system lets you zero in on audiences with detailed career and education insights. And you can boost your brand’s visibility quickly by paying for specific actions, like clicks, video views, or impressions.

Case studies on LinkedIn ads are pretty impressive, showing increased reach (40 million social impressions!), higher click-through rates (3% CTR!), and more leads (600+ sales qualified leads!).

Who should use LinkedIn ads?

LinkedIn ads are ideal for reaching a very specific audience — people thinking about work. This makes this ad platform especially useful for B2B brands who are trying to reach business decision-makers. But LinkedIn ads might not be for everyone, so we asked the experts.

AJ Wilcox, host of The LinkedIn Ads Show and founder of B2Linked, highlights LinkedIn’s effectiveness for targeting business professionals, making it a top choice for B2B brands.

He's found that B2B businesses with customer lifetime values (LTV = the the total revenue a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire relationship) of $10K or higher are the best fit for LinkedIn ads.

That doesn't rule out smaller brands or even B2C brands, though. As AJ says, "It's possible to have success with lower LTVs as well, depending on how efficient your ads, testing, and optimization are." And he notes that there may be niche uses for B2C brands trying to recruit, or those in financial, travel, or luxury goods industries.

TL;DR: LinkedIn is fantastic for B2B brands. B2C brands might benefit if recruiting or selling products and services that are adjacent to users' professional lives (like how they manage their income or their vacation time).

How much do LinkedIn ads cost?

Let’s get real — LinkedIn Ads can be pricey compared to other platforms. AJ explains it well: "One thing everyone needs to know is that LinkedIn Ads are pricey, compared to other forms of media."

The cost of advertising on LinkedIn varies depending on factors like competition, placement, and objectives. For example, if you’re targeting a high-demand audience, you’ll pay more.

Here are some average cost benchmarks:

Cost per click (CPC): $5-10
Cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM): $30-35
Cost per send (CPS) for Message ads: $0.50-1

Your actual costs might be higher or lower, depending on the factors described above.

Monthly ad spend

LinkedIn ads require a minimum daily budget of $10 (around $300/month). While that’s the base, getting significant results on such a low budget can be tricky. One click a day might not cut it if your conversion rate is around 5%.

While it is possible to get results on this small of a budget, it’s much, much more difficult. In fact, that budget might hardly get you one click a day!

One expert I spoke to recommended planning for a monthly budget of at least $5k for reaching new prospects. If that's too steep, remarketing might be the better bet. Since B2B sales cycles are long, you'll want to budget for at least 3-6 months of runway to evaluate performance.

Types of LinkedIn ads

There are four main types of LinkedIn ads, each with different formats to choose from. Here’s a breakdown, which covers how and where LinkedIn ads appear.

Text and dynamic ads

These small ads appear on the right-hand side of LinkedIn’s desktop feed and can be personalized with the user’s name or photo. Formats include:

Text ads: Contain a short headline, two lines of text, and your logo
Spotlight ads: Show a user’s photo next to your brand logo, plus a headline and CTA
Follower ads: Show a user’s photo and your logo, with a CTA to follow your brand

Example of a LinkedIn spotlight ad by GoDaddy

Lead generation ads

Lead generation ads help you capture prospects directly from LinkedIn. When a user clicks a Lead generation ad CTA, a customizable form will open pre-filled with their LinkedIn profile details, like their name and email.

Example of a LinkedIn event ad that opens a lead gen form by Everybody Agency

Lead gen forms can be added to your sponsored content and sponsored messaging ads. They're often used to deliver content like ebooks, and to generate sign-ups for webinars, events, and newsletters.

LinkedIn ad examples

Want to see what different ad formats look like? Use the LinkedIn Ad Library to see examples of a variety of ads from the last year or so. The best part is you can see your competitor ads on LinkedIn by using this library — just type in their company name and set parameters like country, date, and specific keywords.

How to run LinkedIn ads

Ready to explore your first LinkedIn Ad campaign?

Get started by signing up here.

First you’ll see your campaign manager. Find the Create button towards the top left part of the dashboard, and click to get started.

You’ll start by creating a campaign group, then a campaign, and then individual ads that fall under that campaign.

Follow these steps to launch your first LinkedIn Ad campaign:

Step 1: Choose campaign objective

Step 2: Set campaign group details

Step 3: Set targeting criteria

Step 4: Choose ad format and placements

Step 5: Set your budget

Step 6: Create your ads

Choose an objective: Your campaign objective tells LinkedIn what specific result you want to see from your campaigns. It determines the campaign’s focus and what action you’ll be paying for. Options include brand awareness, website visits, engagement, video views, leads, website conversions, and job applications.
Set campaign group details: Name your campaign group, set a start date, and choose if you want an optional end date or budget optimization. This will distribute group budget based on bid strategy and best performing campaigns.
Set your targeting criteria: LinkedIn’s targeting is unmatched. You can target users by location, job title, industry, skills, and more. You can also set exclusionary audiences to hone in on your ideal customer, and use retargeting and lookalike audiences to reach users similar to your ideal customer profiles. Keep in mind that you can stack different audience targeting options to get super specific about your audience if you want.
Choose ad formats and placements: Select how your ad will appear and decide if you want to use third-party tracking parameters. You may have the option to further define your placements. Website clicks with a single-image ad, for example, must have LinkedIn selected as a placement, but you can choose to enable or disable audience network targeting (which places your ad on third-party publishers where LinkedIn audiences engage).
Set your budget: Choose between a daily or lifetime budget. Daily budgets can help you pace your campaigns, while lifetime budgets are a good option if you aren’t as concerned about when the budget runs out. You'll also set bidding options — we’ll talk more about bidding strategies (and specifically manual bidding) in our tips section.
Create your ads: Add your copy, images, CTAs, and destination URLs. Preview your ad on desktop and mobile, then save and submit it for review.

7 tips for running effective LinkedIn ads

LinkedIn ads operate differently from most platforms, and the best practices for success reflect this difference.

Fortunately, many of these practices are straightforward. John and AJ shared several key tips for optimizing your LinkedIn ad campaigns.

1. Choose the right objective

Your campaign objective tells LinkedIn what user action to prioritize and it impacts both cost and performance, so it’s crucial to choose wisely. For example, if you want engaged video views, avoid selecting the "website traffic" objective. 

Say you're creating a video ad — consider if you want to drive clicks to your site, or if what you really want is engaged views that help you build awareness. If that's the case, you won’t want to select the “website traffic” objective.

“LinkedIn charges differently based on the objective you choose,” AJ explains, and certain objectives can drive up your costs.

2. Don't default to LinkedIn Audience Expansion 

LinkedIn’s Audience Expansion tool uses AI and demographic targeting to broaden the audience who sees your ads. It sounds good in theory, but AJ cautions against it.

"You're already paying a premium to advertise on LinkedIn to reach the exact audience you want, and you don't need LinkedIn to throw additional audience members in there that you haven't specified,: he says.

3. Wait to use LinkedIn Audience Network

LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN) allows your ads to appear on third-party sites and apps, but it might be wise to avoid this option initially. 

"Don’t use LinkedIn Audience Network when you first start," AJ says “The traffic is cheaper, but it also tends to be much lower in quality. So most advertisers will want to just shut it off and test into it later.”

4. Set location targeting to "Permanent" 

By default, LinkedIn’s location targeting is set to "Recent or permanent," which includes users who have recently visited the targeted area.

AJ recommends changing this to "Permanent" to ensure you’re reaching people who actually live in the specified area. That's much more reliable audience targeting.

5. Choose the right CTA 

Your call to action (CTA) should align with where users are in the buying journey. Cold audiences won’t respond to a "purchase now" button — they’re more likely to click to learn more or access a lead magnet. 

"Cold audiences are not ready to talk to your sales department," AJ says. His advice is to use retargeting to convert them later, but start by showing them content that piques their interest.

6. Don’t rely too heavily on AI 

LinkedIn now offers AI tools like the Accelerate feature, which promises to create your entire campaign based on a single URL. This option, if available, shows up after you select an objective.

AJ suggests using AI generated creative for inspiration rather than relying on them fully. AI-generated content can get you started, but manually refining it based on your audience’s needs and your brand will lead to stronger campaigns.

7. Work your way up to manual bidding

LinkedIn’s default bidding method is maximum delivery, aka maximizing the number of results for while spending the entire budget.

“Maximum delivery is the most expensive way to pay for your traffic 90% of the time," says AJ. "Instead, bid by the click, and bid significantly lower than what LinkedIn recommends. You can always increase it later if you're not spending what you want to be spending.”

Manual bidding is more advanced, however, so it may be best to get your feet wet with automated bidding until you understand the platform and your results better.

Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn ads typically require a larger investment, but if your audience is on the platform and you have the budget, it’s worth testing. The platform’s targeting capabilities and ability to reach users in a professional mindset make it a powerful option.

Not ready for LinkedIn ads? Start with organic LinkedIn marketing. Check out our guide to building a LinkedIn content strategy.

Marketing, Advertising, LinkedIn, Guides, Paid Ads

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