LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads reach members through several formats, including Sponsored Content in the feed and dynamic ads.14 LinkedIn's Help Center says Sponsored Content lets organizations raise awareness, build relationships and drive quality leads through their Page updates.1 It is shown to members who follow the sponsoring organization and may also be shown to members who fit the advertiser's audience criteria, while most feed updates remain organic content from a member's network.1 LinkedIn's 2022–2023 DSA report describes dynamic ads, which are customized for each member, appear to the right of the feed rather than in it, are not shown on the mobile app and carry an "Ad" label.4 A Microsoft patent describes the people who run ads as content producers such as advertisers, who create a campaign to deliver a series of sponsored items to an audience over a set time.5

LinkedIn's Help Center says advertisers define their audiences with member attributes such as general location, job title or skills listed on a profile.2 Advertisers may also build a target audience from their own data that they share with LinkedIn.2 LinkedIn's 2022–2023 DSA report adds that targeting can use information inferred from a profile and usage, for example years of experience added up from work history and professional interests inferred from feed posts.4 A LinkedIn patent from 2017 describes storing each campaign's target audience as short numeric codes, so that a request for a given member can quickly find the campaigns whose audience includes that member.6 A Microsoft patent from 2021 describes audience expansion, which also reaches members similar to the group an advertiser chose.7

LinkedIn's Help Center says Campaign Manager's ad-set settings start with choosing a marketing objective, followed by configuring audience, placement, spending and schedule, with optional tracking.2 Another Microsoft patent describes attributes such as the objective (for example brand awareness, conversions or engagement), overall and daily budget limits, and a bidding strategy that can favor clicks, impressions or acquisitions.8 A further Microsoft patent says a campaign has a start date and time and, optionally, an end date and time.9 Boosting is a way to expand the reach of your content: LinkedIn's Marketing Blog says to choose a post already getting strong engagement organically and use clear visuals and concise copy.3 It also says to pick an objective such as impressions, website visits or video views that matches the goal, and to budget at least $25 and run for 3 or more days so the system can learn.3

LinkedIn Ads come with limits on targeting, described in its DSA reports and an independent audit.1314 Advertisers must agree to LinkedIn's terms and conditions before creating a campaign, and an independent auditor reported in 2025 that LinkedIn does not use special categories of personal data for ad targeting.13 LinkedIn's DSA reports say it does not allow targeting on protected characteristics other than age and gender, and that targeting by age or gender requires the advertiser to certify first that ads about employment, housing, education or credit will not discriminate.1415 Advertisers cannot exclude people by age or gender, and ad targeting of members in Europe using LinkedIn Groups is not allowed.14 The same reports say lookalike audience features, such as predictive or expanded audiences, do not use sensitive demographic attributes such as sex or age within the model.1415

Members have some control over the ads they see.2 LinkedIn's Help Center says a member can click the More icon on an ad, choose "Why Am I Seeing This Ad?" and learn why they were in the audience, who the advertiser is and who paid.2 The member can mark the ad relevant or not and, if they mark it not relevant, remove it from the feed.2 In ad settings, members manage general advertising preferences and how data collected on LinkedIn and third-party data are used, and a member who limits this information still sees ads, but they may be less related to the member's interests or experience.24 LinkedIn also says a member's social actions, such as likes and comments, influence the ads shown.16