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.
LinkedIn’s advertising cost and pricing
Last updated: 2 months agoHow 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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Members in your target audience sign in to LinkedIn and scroll through their feed or visit pages that have available ad placements.
- When ad placements become available for member accounts who meet your target audience criteria, auctions are run to determine which ads are shown.
- Your ad campaign competes with other advertisers’ ad campaigns that have similar ad formats and target audiences to determine which ads are shown to members.
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Your ad is shown to members as it wins auctions.
- As your ads are shown to member accounts, you’ll gain impressions, clicks, video views, or message sends which will accrue ad spend.
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Your ad account’s payment method is charged.
- You’ll be charged for accumulated ad spend on a regular basis, depending on your ad account’s payment method.
Ad cost factors
The factors that determine the price you pay for ads are:
- Target audience - You bid against other advertisers trying to reach the same LinkedIn members accounts. The cost required to win the auction depends on the desirability of your target audience.
- Bidding strategy - The bidding strategy you select for your campaign or ad set will influence how much you pay per key result.
- Maximum delivery bidding strategy uses automated bidding to ensure your ad set is competitive in the ad auction. It’s designed to maximize your results while utilizing your full budget.
- Manual bidding strategy gives you the most control over your bid in the ad auction.
- Cost cap bidding strategy allows advertisers to set the maximum cost per action (CPA) that they are willing to pay for results.
- Objective - The marketing objective you choose will determine the optimization goals and bidding strategies available for your campaign or ad sets. Your optimization goal and bidding strategy will determine how your campaign or ad set is charged.
- Your ad relevance score - The LinkedIn auction rewards relevant, engaging ads. Your ads receive relevance scores based on factors like click-through rate, comments, likes, and shares. The more relevant your ad, the lower the price you pay.
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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.
Available bidding strategies include:
- Maximum delivery (automated)
- Cost cap
- Manual bidding
If you choose cost cap or manual bidding, you can review bid suggestions.
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There are various places within an ad where a user can click. The following factors determine if the click is chargeable or not:
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Campaign or ad set objective
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Bidding optimization goal and strategy selected for the campaign or ad set
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Ad format
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Where the user clicks within the ad format
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- Chargeability for brand awareness campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeable clicks for website visits campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeable clicks for engagement campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeability for video views campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeable clicks for lead generation campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeable clicks for website conversions campaigns and ad sets
- Chargeable clicks for job applicants campaigns and ad sets
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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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On August 14, 2024, LinkedIn’s Ad Set Quality Score has been discontinued. This means that when you export your ad set performance report, you’ll no longer have access to this metric. We recommend using your ad set's Click Through Rate (CTR) and engagement rates as alternatives to the Ad Set Quality Score. You can find your Average CTR and engagement rates as part of your engagement metrics in Campaign Manager.
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The marketing objective you select determines which ad formats, bidding strategies, and optimization goals are available for your ad set. The sections below outline which bid strategies and optimization goals are available for each objective, and how the ad set will be charged based on those selections.
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