LinkedIn Ads for B2B: Campaign Manager, Targeting and Lead Gen Forms

How Campaign Manager is organised

Paid ads are separate from your LinkedIn Page. The Page is where you post organically, which our guide to setting up a LinkedIn Page for a B2B company covers; ads are built in Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's self-service advertising tool. Its help page on how the advertising tool works describes four levels:

• Ad account: billing, user roles, the connection to your LinkedIn Page, and shared items such as audiences and conversion tracking.
• Campaign: a way to group several ad sets and control their budget, schedule and status together.
• Ad set: the strategy. Objective, audience targeting, ad format, bidding, budget and schedule are set here.
• Ad: the creative people see.

LinkedIn has renamed these levels recently, so older articles may say "campaign group" where Campaign Manager now says campaign, and "campaign" where it now says ad set. Some feature names still carry the old wording: LinkedIn's About Campaigns page describes Dynamic Group Budget, which sets one budget, schedule and bidding strategy at campaign level and spreads it across up to 50 ad sets using Sponsored Content formats. Without it a campaign can hold up to 2,000 ad sets. An ad set cannot be moved to another campaign once added; you duplicate it instead.

For agencies and companies with several ad accounts, LinkedIn points to Business Manager, which gives people and partner businesses access to ad accounts and Pages from one place, manages billing and shares audiences across accounts. As on any platform, the business should own the ad account and give its agency access, not the other way round.

Choosing an objective

Each ad set has one objective, and it decides which ad formats, bidding strategies and optimisation goals you can use. LinkedIn's marketing objectives page groups them by funnel stage:

• Brand awareness: reach more people.
• Consideration: website visits, engagement and video views.
• Conversions: lead generation (Lead Gen Forms on LinkedIn), website conversions (leads or actions on your own site), job applicants, and talent leads (only with an active LinkedIn Recruiter contract).

For most B2B advertisers the choice is between lead generation, where the form opens inside LinkedIn, and website conversions, where people go to your landing page and the Insight Tag records the enquiry. The first usually asks less of the visitor; the second gives you your own page, your own form and the full story. Our guide to turning a B2B website into a lead source covers what that page needs.

Targeting and audience size

LinkedIn's targeting options page lists what you can target, subject to members' preferences:

• Location and profile language (both required). Location can be permanent (from the profile), recent (by IP address) or either.
• Company: name, industry, size, business type, funding stage and more.
• Job experience: job title, function, seniority, skills and years of experience.
• Education, demographics, interests and traits.
• Matched Audiences: uploaded company or contact lists, retargeting of website visitors, video viewers and people who engaged with your Lead Gen Forms, and third-party integrations.

You can build the audience yourself or use Auto-Targeting, which combines LinkedIn's data with your inputs. LinkedIn warns that reach for some attributes and audiences may be limited in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, where Matched Audiences only include members who have opted in.

Its audience size best practices set the numbers: an ad set needs at least 300 member accounts to run, but LinkedIn suggests at least 50,000 to drive results, and at least 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging. Several values within one facet (for example, several job titles) widen the audience; adding a second facet under Narrow audience further means people must match both, which shrinks it. A tight B2B niche can easily fall below the suggested sizes, so check the forecast before launch.

Lead Gen Forms

With the lead generation objective, people who click your ad see a form pre-filled with their LinkedIn profile data. Forms can be attached to single image, carousel, video, event, document, message and conversation ads. LinkedIn's Create Lead Gen Forms page lists the sections: form details (headline and description), lead details (the fields you collect), data privacy, a confirmation message with an optional landing page or booking link, and settings for hidden tracking fields.

The form specifications include:

• a headline of up to 60 characters and details of up to 160;
• up to 12 questions in total, with first name, last name and email selected by default;
• up to three custom questions of up to 100 characters each, which count toward the 12 and must be answered;
• a privacy policy URL, which LinkedIn says is required for form approval.

Every extra question lowers the number of people who finish, the same trade-off as on a website form (see contact and quote forms that people finish). Leads do no good sitting in Campaign Manager: connect them to your CRM or download them daily so someone follows up quickly. Our guide to connecting your website to a CRM covers the receiving end.

Insight Tag and Conversions API

LinkedIn's conversion tracking guide lists four data sources for conversions:

• Insight Tag: JavaScript on your site. LinkedIn rates its reliability as medium, because it is cookie-based and subject to browser limits.
• Conversions API: a server-to-server connection for online and offline actions, rated high reliability.
• CRM Sync: conversions from a connected CRM through Business Manager, suited to qualified leads, opportunities and closed deals.
• CSV upload: manual, for small volumes.

LinkedIn also receives data from Microsoft's UET tag where one is installed, excluding data from the EEA and Switzerland; our Microsoft Advertising guide covers that tag. According to the Conversions API page, using the API with the Insight Tag gives a more complete view, and LinkedIn deduplicates events sent through both so each counts once. You can set it up through a partner (Google Tag Manager, HubSpot and Zapier are among those listed) or build a direct integration, which LinkedIn says takes two to four weeks on average. It also says you are responsible for getting any necessary permissions from customers before sharing their data.

The API matters most for B2B because of qualified leads: if you send back which leads turned out to be worth pursuing, a lead generation ad set can optimise for those instead of every form fill. This is the LinkedIn version of the offline conversion import described in our Google Ads guide. Add UTM parameters to every ad URL as well, so LinkedIn traffic is labelled in your analytics (UTM tracking links), and make sure the Insight Tag respects your cookie consent setup.

Ad review and rejected ads

LinkedIn's Ads under review page says new ad sets, and changes to existing ones, do not run until the ad or Lead Gen Form passes review against the LinkedIn Advertising Policies. Review is usually done within 24 hours. If something is rejected, the reason may concern the content, the landing page or the form. You can see it on the rejected status, in a notification or by email, then edit the ad (which resubmits it) or appeal. LinkedIn recommends setting ad sets up at least 48 hours before their start date so there is time to fix anything.

Before you launch

• The ad account belongs to the business and is linked to your LinkedIn Page; your agency has its own access.
• The objective matches what you will measure: Lead Gen Forms or conversions on your website.
• The audience forecast is above LinkedIn's suggested minimum for the format.
• Lead Gen Forms ask only what sales needs and link to a privacy policy page.
• Leads reach your CRM, and someone owns follow-up.
• The Insight Tag is installed behind consent, conversions are defined, and the Conversions API is planned if you want to optimise for qualified leads.
• Ad URLs carry UTM parameters, and ad sets are ready 48 hours before the start date.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum audience size for LinkedIn ads?

LinkedIn says an ad set needs at least 300 member accounts to run, but suggests a minimum of 50,000 to drive results, and at least 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging.

Should I use Lead Gen Forms or send people to my website?

Lead Gen Forms open inside LinkedIn, pre-filled from the member profile. The website conversions objective sends people to your own landing page and tracks the enquiry with the Insight Tag or Conversions API. Many B2B advertisers test both against the leads that turn into sales.

Do Lead Gen Forms need a privacy policy?

Yes. LinkedIn says a valid privacy policy URL is required for form approval, and it is shown to people so they know how you will use the data they submit.

Do I need the Conversions API if I have the Insight Tag?

Not to start, but LinkedIn recommends using both for a more complete view and deduplicates events sent through each. You need the Conversions API if you want lead generation ad sets to optimise for qualified leads.

How long does LinkedIn ad review take?

LinkedIn says it usually reviews ads and Lead Gen Forms within 24 hours, and recommends setting up ad sets at least 48 hours before their start date in case changes are needed.

Want landing pages, forms and tracking ready before you spend on LinkedIn? See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].