Glossary

How To Run LinkedIn Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to master LinkedIn Ads? This step-by-step guide walks you through campaign setup, audience targeting, creative best practices, and budgeting strategies so you can create efficient, measurable ads that boost your business visibility and drive leads on the world’s leading professional network.

Glossary: LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads: Paid advertising served on LinkedIn that lets businesses target professionals by job title, company, industry, skills, and other professional demographics using formats like Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Text Ads, and Dynamic Ads to drive brand awareness, lead generation, website visits, or recruitment.

Why Use LinkedIn Ads?

Reach a professional audience: LinkedIn is the largest professional network, allowing you to target decision-makers, executives, recruiters, and niche professionals by job title, seniority, company, industry, skills, and groups—so your message reaches people who influence buying and hiring decisions.

Precision targeting improves ROI: Granular targeting reduces wasted spend by serving ads to high-intent, relevant audiences (e.g., enterprise IT leaders, HR managers, or finance directors), increasing lead quality and conversion rates.

Ideal for B2B lead generation: LinkedIn users come for professional content and networking, making them more receptive to business offers. Formats like Lead Gen Forms streamline data capture, boosting cost-per-lead (CPL) efficiency and pipeline quality.

Strong brand and thought leadership positioning: Sponsored Content, Video, and Carousel Ads let you showcase research, case studies, and executive insights, building credibility with peers and buyers over time.

Multi-format flexibility for campaign goals: Use Sponsored Content for awareness, Message Ads for direct outreach, Text Ads for cost-efficient visibility, and Dynamic Ads for personalized creative—so you can align format to the objective (awareness, consideration, conversions, hiring).

High-intent audiences for recruitment and employer branding: Target specific roles and industries to promote openings, attract passive candidates, and elevate your employer brand among professionals most likely to be a fit.

Robust measurement and optimization: Campaign Manager provides detailed metrics (engagement, leads, cost per action) and conversion tracking for data-driven optimization and clear ROI reporting.

Account-based marketing (ABM) support: Company and account targeting enable hyper-focused ABM campaigns to engage named accounts and cross-sell or upsell to specific enterprise customers.

Integration with your CRM and marketing stack: Lead Gen Forms and partner integrations let you push leads directly into CRM, marketing automation, and sales workflows for faster follow-up and higher conversion velocity.

Premium audience quality vs. other platforms: Compared to social channels focused on broad consumer reach, LinkedIn’s professionally oriented audience typically yields higher lead quality for B2B use cases and higher-value transactions.

Types of LinkedIn Ads

Sponsored Content — Native ads in the LinkedIn feed (Single Image, Video, Carousel)

What: Feed ads that blend with organic content.

Use when: Building brand awareness, driving website visits, promoting content, or generating leads with Lead Gen Forms.

Video Ads (a Sponsored Content type)

What: Auto-play videos in the feed.

Use when: Telling brand stories, demoing products, or increasing engagement and conversions with strong visuals.

Carousel Ads (a Sponsored Content type)

What: Swipeable multi-card ads in the feed.

Use when: Showcasing multiple features, product lines, or step-by-step messaging to drive clicks and conversions.

Sponsored Messaging

Message Ads (formerly Sponsored InMail)

What: One-to-one messages delivered to inboxes.

Use when: Sending targeted offers, event invites, or time-sensitive promotions.

Conversation Ads

What: Multi-choice, interactive message paths with clickable CTAs.

Use when: Driving lead capture, qualifying prospects, and guiding recipients through personalized journeys.

Text Ads

What: Simple pay-per-click or pay-per-impression ads that appear in the desktop sidebar or at the top of LinkedIn.

Use when: Cost-effective lead generation or traffic with clear CTAs and simple targeting.

Dynamic Ads

What: Personalized ads that auto-populate with member profile data (e.g., name, photo, company).

Variants: Follower Ads, Spotlight Ads, Job Ads.

Use when: Driving follows, conversions, or recruitment with highly personalized creative.

Lead Gen Forms (paired with Sponsored Content or Message Ads)

What: Pre-filled forms that capture member contact info without leaving LinkedIn.

Use when: Maximizing form completion rates for downloads, demos, or webinar sign-ups.

Conversation Ads + Chatbots (via third-party integrations)

What: Automated chat-style experiences to qualify and route leads.

Use when: Scaling interactive lead qualification and appointment booking.

Spotlight & Follower Ads (subtypes of Dynamic/Sponsored)

Spotlight Ads: Drive traffic to a specific landing page or offer with personalized creative.

Follower Ads: Promote LinkedIn Page follows to grow audience and social proof.

Choosing the right format

Awareness: Sponsored Content (video), Carousel, Dynamic (Spotlight)

Consideration/Traffic: Sponsored Content (single image/video), Text Ads

Lead Gen/Conversion: Sponsored Content + Lead Gen Forms, Message/Conversation Ads

Recruitment/Retention: Dynamic Job Ads, Sponsored Content targeted to talent

Quick tip: Match the format to your objective—use feed-based visuals for storytelling and engagement, messaging formats for direct outreach and action, and dynamic/personalized ads for higher relevance and follow-through.

How To Run LinkedIn Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to master LinkedIn Ads? This step-by-step guide walks you through campaign setup, audience targeting, creative best practices, and budgeting strategies so you can create efficient, measurable ads that boost your business visibility and drive leads on the world’s leading professional network.

How to Set Up and Launch a LinkedIn Campaign

Create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account — Sign up or sign in to Campaign Manager and link your company page and billing information to run and track ads.

Set your campaign objective — Choose an objective (awareness, consideration, or conversions) that aligns with your business goals to optimize bidding and ad delivery.

Define your target audience — Use LinkedIn’s targeting options (location, company, job title, skills, interests, matched audiences) to precisely reach the people most likely to engage.

Choose your ad format — Pick the best ad type (Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Text Ads, or Dynamic Ads) based on your creative assets and how you want to engage your audience.

Set your budget and schedule — Define a daily or total budget, bidding strategy (CPC, CPM, or automated), and start and end dates to control spend and timing.

Create the ad — Write compelling copy, include a clear CTA, upload visuals or video that meet LinkedIn specs, and preview across formats before saving.

Launch and monitor performance — Activate the campaign, track key metrics (impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, cost per result), and iterate with A/B tests and optimizations.

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