When you create an advertising campaign in Campaign Manager, you can choose from bidding strategies that are aligned with your marketing objective. The bidding strategies available vary by the objective and ad format selected for your campaign or ad set.
Campaign and ad set bidding strategies
Last updated: 2 months agoAvailable bidding strategies include:
- Maximum delivery (automated)
- Cost cap
- Manual bidding
If you choose cost cap or manual bidding, you can review bid suggestions.
Maximum delivery (automated)
The maximum delivery bidding strategy uses machine learning to automatically bid for you while aiming to deliver your entire budget. The goal of this bidding strategy is to generate the most key results for your campaign or ad set, while using your entire budget with the most efficiency.
When you launch a new ad set with maximum delivery bidding, the ad set enters a learning phase, which allows Campaign Manager to gather auction data to better optimize the its performance. Please note, results might fluctuate during the learning phase.
Campaigns or ad sets using maximum delivery bidding might be optimized for clicks, impressions, reach, qualified leads, leads, or conversions, depending on the marketing objective selected. Maximum delivery ad sets are charged by impressions (CPM) and don't have an option to set a bid or cost cap.
Cost cap
Campaigns or ad sets using cost cap bidding charge by impressions. With the cost cap bidding strategy, you can set a cost per key result which Campaign Manager uses as a benchmark when automatically setting and adjusting bids for your ad set in the ad auction. The maximum cost per key result you provide is an average amount Campaign Manager tries to stay under by first going after the lowest cost events available in the ad auction.
Manual bidding
With manual bidding, you can specify the amount you’re willing to bid for a key result. Manual bidding might charge by impressions, landing page clicks, engagement clicks, sends, or video views, depending on the ad set objective, ad format, and optimization goal. Manual bidding gives you the most control over your bid amount, but it might not deliver the same ad set results as optimized bidding strategies.
Accelerated delivery
Important to know
Accelerated delivery is currently being tested, and we’re gradually making it available, so you might not have access to it at this time.
Accelerated delivery will maximize reach and delivery during a live event as it works to deliver your ad set budget to your target audience as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that accelerated delivery is only available for:
- The engagement objective which supports all bidding strategies, or the website visits objective that only supports manual bidding
- The event ad format
- Lifetime budget
You’ll also need to create two or three event ad sets to run an end-to-end live event ad promotion incorporating accelerated delivery.
Bid suggestions
If you select cost cap or manual bidding, Campaign Manager recommends a bid range for your ad set. The suggested range represents an estimate of the current competing costs or bids by other advertisers who are targeting the same audience.
Here's a tip
If you select a Sponsored Content ad format and manual bidding for your ad set, the bid suggestion adjusts to your budget to help you deliver your full budget.
In general, the higher your cost cap or bid, the more competitive your ads, making it more likely that you’ll hit your campaign goals and utilize your full budget. Since you're competing with other advertisers for results, there isn't a set cost per result. It's auction-based and not guaranteed inventory.
Bidding strategies overview
Use the following table to get an overview of our different bidding strategies.
| Maximum delivery | Cost cap | Manual | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Using machine learning, we automatically bid for you to deliver the maximum results with the best budget efficiency. | You set a cost per result, which we use as a benchmark to automatically set and adjust bids for your campaign or ad set in the ad auction. | You set an amount to bid in the auction. |
| When to use | When you want to maximize your results with full budget delivery using a hands-off, no bid management approach. | When you’d like to set a maximum cost per result but still get the most results possible for your chosen optimization goal. Cost cap also allows for cost control for Leads. | When you prefer to manually monitor and update your bidding for maximum control. |
| Benefit overview | High volume of results Uses your full budget Most time efficient | Cost control, specifically for Leads High volume of results Time efficient | Most control over bid values |
| Charge by | CPM | CPM | CPC, CPM, CPV, CPS |
| Budget utilization | Designed to deliver the full budget. | Depends on the cost cap. | Depends on the bid. |
| Available marketing objectives | All | Brand awareness, Website visits, Engagement, Video views, Lead generation | All |
| Learn more in our Help Center | Maximum delivery bidding strategy | Cost cap bidding strategy | Manual bidding |
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When you create an ad set, you can set a budget, schedule, and bid at the ad set level to control your spending. If your campaign uses budget optimization (also known as Dynamic Group Budget), budgets and schedules are managed at the campaign level, but you can still set a cost cap or bid amount with a supported bidding strategy.
Learn more about:
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When you launch an ad campaign on LinkedIn, what you’re charged for is determined by your campaign or ad set’s optimization goal and bidding strategy, while the cost of your ads is determined by an online auction system.
How advertising cost and billing works
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You create and launch an ad campaign.
- As you create your campaigns and ad sets, you’ll select optimization goals and bidding strategies that align with your marketing objectives. Together, the optimization goal and bidding strategy determine what the chargeable event is for your ads, such as impressions.
- You can also set a limit for how much your campaigns or ad sets can spend by setting budgets and schedules.
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With manual bidding, you can control your bid value and specify the amount you would like to bid per key result. Depending on your objective and ad format, you might also use enhanced manual bidding, optimized manual bidding, or accelerated delivery.
Basics of manual bidding
Manual bidding is available for all marketing objectives, ad formats, and optimization goals. Ad sets that use manual bidding are charged depending on the objective, ad format, and optimization goal selected. For example:
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
- Cost-Per-1,000 impressions (CPM)
- Cost-Per-Video View (CPV)
- Cost-Per-Send (CPS)
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Campaign and ad set budgets in Campaign Manager
To learn more about campaign and ad set budgets, check out LinkedIn's free, expert-built training course on this topic.
Budgets control how much you spend on your advertising. You can set budgets at the campaign level to distribute spending across multiple ad sets, or at the ad set level for precise control over individual ad set spending. Understanding your budget options helps you choose the right approach for your goals and maintain control over your investment.
Choose your budget type
LinkedIn offers three budget types to match your planning style and campaign needs. Each budget type is available at different levels depending on your campaign structure:
- Daily budget - Daily budget is the average amount you’d like to spend per day on your ad set. You can set a daily budget on a continuous schedule or with a set schedule.
- Lifetime budget - Lifetime budget is the total amount that you’ll spend for the entirety of your ad set’s schedule from start date to end date. You must set a lifetime budget to set a custom schedule.
- Daily and lifetime budget - Setting both a daily and lifetime budget allows you to guide both the daily pace and total spend of your ad set. Lifetime budget is the total amount you will spend for the entirety of your ad set schedule. Daily budget is the amount you would like to spend per day.
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When you create an ad set, you’ll choose from settings to determine who your ad is displayed to, where your ad is displayed, how much your ad set spends, and when your ad set runs. Optionally, you can also add tracking such as conversion tracking or URL tracking parameters.
The first step when you select your ad set settings is to choose a marketing objective. An objective is the goal you’d like to achieve with your ad set. Ad sets are optimized for delivery to people most likely to take the action you want based on the objective you select. Each objective offers ad formats and bidding strategies that align with the goals of that objective.