LinkedIn ads. In front of the people who sign off.
LinkedIn lets you choose people by their work: job function, seniority, company, industry and company size. That precision is why a click costs more than on Meta, and why the channel pays when one new client is worth thousands. We build the audience, track it through to the meeting and tell you plainly when it is not paying.
What it looks like
A sponsored post in the LinkedIn feed.
Sponsored Content sits in the feed among posts from people's connections, marked Promoted under the company name. This one is a single-image ad that links to a downloadable checklist. The example is an illustration, and the business in it is made up.
- Aimed by job function, seniority, industry and company size, not by interests.
- Instead of the link, the button can open a Lead Gen Form that fills itself in from the member's profile.
- In the EEA and Switzerland, age and gender targeting may be limited and Member Groups are not available.
Preparing for your first ISO 27001 audit? Our checklist lists the documents auditors ask for, with a template for each one.
- Minimum daily budget
- $10
- Smallest audience that runs
- 300 members
- Company list limit
- 300,000
- Facts checked
- 7 Nov 2026
What you get
What we run on your account.
The ad budget is paid to LinkedIn from your company's ad account, in a currency chosen once at the start. We charge a management fee, never a percentage of spend.
Audience
On LinkedIn you pay to reach a precise person, so building the audience is most of the job. Every filter is checked against how many people it leaves.
- Job function and seniority, not just job titles
- Industry, company size and location
- Company lists for ABM, up to 300,000 names
- Existing clients and competitors excluded
- At least 300 members, or the ad set will not run
Formats
The format follows what you want the person to do: read, download, leave their details or book a call.
- Single image, video and carousel ads
- Document ads for guides and checklists
- Thought Leader Ads from your people's posts
- Conversation Ads, within the consent rules for the EEA and Switzerland
- Lead Gen Forms filled in from the profile
Tracking
B2B enquiries arrive slowly, often from several people at the same company. Without tracking you cannot tell which campaign produced the meeting.
- Insight Tag on the site
- Conversions API, deduplicated with the tag
- Lead Gen Forms synced to your CRM
- Conversions for enquiry, demo request and download
- Meetings and deals from the CRM fed back into reporting
Reporting
We report cost per qualified enquiry and per meeting, not cost per click. One expensive click from the right company beats ten cheap ones from nowhere.
- Spend, clicks and form fills per campaign
- Cost per qualified enquiry and per meeting
- Which job functions and companies respond
- LinkedIn set against Google Ads, if you run it
- A recommendation to keep, narrow or stop
Comparison
LinkedIn and Meta ads for B2B.
Meta is cheaper per click and reaches more people. LinkedIn knows where people work and what they do there. In Dreamdata's 2026 benchmarks, drawn from the B2B companies that use its platform, the average click cost €5.98 on LinkedIn and €1.60 on Meta. These are one vendor's figures, not official averages.
| What differs | Meta (Facebook and Instagram) | |
|---|---|---|
| How you choose people | Location, age, interests, contact lists | Job function, seniority, company, industry, size |
| US reach, late 2026 | 198 million on Facebook, 180 million on Instagram | 300 million registered members |
| Average B2B click (Dreamdata) | €1.60 | €5.98 |
| Account-based lists | People, matched by email or phone | Up to 300,000 companies, by name |
| A person's post run as an ad | Partnership ads, with consent | Thought Leader Ads, with the author's approval |
| Political ads | With authorisation, none in the EU since October 2025 | Banned |
How it runs
From the buying committee to the first meeting.
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Week 1
Who buys
We map the job functions, seniority levels and companies that sign off a purchase. If you have a target account list, it becomes an ABM audience.
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Week 2
Account and tracking
The ad account is tied to your LinkedIn Page and a billing currency, and neither can be changed later. Then come the Insight Tag, the Conversions API and the link from forms to your CRM.
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Months 1 - 3
Format test
Two or three formats against the same audience, such as a document ad, a Thought Leader Ad and a Lead Gen Form. LinkedIn's floor is $10 a day, and it suggests $25 for new advertisers.
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Ongoing
Enquiries and meetings
Every month we look at cost per qualified enquiry and per meeting. If LinkedIn is not reaching the right companies, we say so and move the budget.
Who this is for
Who it works for, and who it does not.
It makes sense if:
- You sell to businesses, and one contract is worth several thousand
- You know which roles make the buying decision at your clients
- Your sales team can follow up an enquiry within a working day
- You can give the channel three months before judging it
It does not make sense if:
- You sell a low-priced product to consumers, where a LinkedIn click costs more than the margin
- You need political or campaign advertising, which LinkedIn bans
- You expect qualified leads in week one from a small test budget
Let us be plain: LinkedIn is an expensive channel and rarely produces an enquiry in the first week. It pays when the buyer is a business, the deal is large and sales will chase an enquiry for days. Everything on this page was checked on 7 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about LinkedIn ads.
How much does a LinkedIn click cost?
It depends on the audience and on how many other advertisers want the same people. As a rough guide, Dreamdata's 2026 benchmarks put the average at €5.98 per click across the B2B companies that use its platform, against €1.60 on Meta. With manual or cost-cap bidding, Campaign Manager shows bid suggestions for your audience.
What is the minimum budget?
$10 a day for any format, and $100 for a new campaign on a lifetime budget. LinkedIn suggests $25 a day to new advertisers. The account currency is chosen once, together with the LinkedIn Page the account belongs to, and neither can be changed later.
What are Thought Leader Ads?
Ads made from a person's post rather than the company page, for example your founder's or a senior engineer's. Since March 2024 you can also promote posts by members who do not work for you, once the author approves. We use them where someone in the business already posts on LinkedIn.
Can we send messages to people's LinkedIn inboxes?
Yes, with Conversation Ads or Message Ads. Conversation Ads are charged per send, and LinkedIn strictly limits how often a member receives sponsored messages. In the EEA and Switzerland, only members who have opted in can receive them, so reach there is smaller.
How does account-based marketing work on LinkedIn?
You upload a list of the companies you want to reach: up to 300,000 names, with at least 300 rows, and LinkedIn recommends 1,000 or more. The list has to match at least 300 members before an ad set can use it, and building the audience can take up to 48 hours.
Which targeting limits apply in Europe?
In the EEA and Switzerland, age and gender targeting may be limited and Member Groups are not available. Anywhere, ads may not target sensitive categories such as health, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation or political views. LinkedIn bans political ads outright, and in the EU it applies the definition in Regulation (EU) 2024/900.
How do you measure results?
The Insight Tag and the Conversions API record enquiries on the site, and Lead Gen Forms send contacts straight to your CRM. Meetings and signed deals are logged in the CRM, and we pull them back into the report. Without that step, LinkedIn looks either much better or much worse than it is.
Are you an official partner of LinkedIn?
No. We work in Campaign Manager, in an ad account that belongs to your company and is tied to your LinkedIn Page. The account, audiences and data stay yours if we stop working together, and monthly work ends with 30 days' written notice.