LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads: Promoting an Employee's Post

This guide uses LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions Help: Thought Leader Ads, Create Thought Leader Ads in Campaign Manager, Manage permissions to sponsor organic posts as Thought Leader Ads, Manage auto-approval settings for sponsored posts, Disclosure of endorsement for sponsored posts, Creator Marketplace in Campaign Manager, Create an article and newsletter ad using a Thought Leader Ad and Create Thought Leader Event Ads. Checked on 8 November 2026. LinkedIn updates these pages often and rolls some options out gradually, so check them before you rely on a detail.

What a thought leader ad is

A thought leader ad is a paid ad made from a post that a person published on their own LinkedIn profile, not on your company Page. The post can come from one of your employees, a creator, or another LinkedIn member. LinkedIn describes the format as a way to promote content from "LinkedIn members, creators, or employees of your company", using "authentic member experiences".

The ad runs under the person's name, so it reads like their post, with a label saying which company promoted it. LinkedIn says the ads "can appear in the LinkedIn feed and on the LinkedIn Audience Network." The author must approve each sponsorship (or turn on auto-approval), and can withdraw it at any time. Meta has a similar format for Instagram and Facebook; see our guide to Instagram partnership ads.

Campaign structure, targeting, budgets and the Insight Tag work as for any other LinkedIn ad; our LinkedIn ads guide covers them. This guide only covers what is different about sponsoring a person's post.

Who can run them

On the company side, LinkedIn asks for two kinds of access:

• On the Page linked to the ad account: super admin, content admin, or Sponsored Content poster. If the ad account belongs to a Showcase Page, the role is needed on the parent company Page.
• On the ad account: creative manager access or higher.

Our LinkedIn company Page guide explains the Page admin roles and Showcase Pages.

On the author's side, the post must be public and the profile must show the person's full name. LinkedIn adds a regional limit on its permissions page: "content from authors and creators located in DMA countries is not discoverable and cannot be sponsored as Thought Leader Ads." DMA here means the EU Digital Markets Act. If the colleague you had in mind lives in an EU country, check this first.

Which posts can be sponsored

LinkedIn's main page lists three kinds of content:

• Member posts: public text, single image, video, document, or article and newsletter posts from employees, creators and members who are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-degree+ connections. Eligible collaborative posts are supported too.
• Event posts: posts from attendees of a LinkedIn Live Event created by the Page linked to your ad account. The post must link directly to that event; events from other companies are not eligible.
• Articles and newsletters published natively on LinkedIn.

Not eligible, per the same page: celebrations, polls and multi-image posts, and reposts. For a repost, LinkedIn says to "request permission from the original author and promote the original post." Creator Marketplace adds that you can't promote posts from Company Pages there. You also can't duplicate a thought leader ad.

Where you find posts depends on the connection. Posts from 1st and 2nd-degree connections can be searched in Campaign Manager or Creator Marketplace. Posts from 3rd-degree+ connections only in Creator Marketplace. The post content must also meet the normal single image, video or document ad specifications.

Formats and objectives

The ad format must match the type of post, and only some objectives are available. LinkedIn's table:

One page differs: LinkedIn's article and newsletter ad page says sponsored articles also support the lead generation objective, while newsletter articles do not. If you plan a lead generation campaign around an article, check in Campaign Manager whether the option is there for you.

Website visits and conversions don't appear in the table, so treat these ads mainly as a way to get people to know and trust a person and your company. For turning that attention into enquiries on your own site, see our B2B website lead generation guide.

Creating one in Campaign Manager

1. Create an ad set with brand awareness, engagement or video views as the objective, and pick the ad format that matches the post. You can also add the ad to an existing ad set with the same objective and format.
2. On the Ads in this ad set page, click Browse existing content.
3. In the Content Library, click LinkedIn members, then search on the Posts tab by member name or post URL.
4. Select the post and click Request approval, then Send. You can also click View Request and Copy link to send the request to the person as a direct message.
5. Watch the Requests tab, which filters by Approved, Declined or Pending. When the author approves, Campaign Manager notifies you and you can sponsor the post.

Creator Marketplace (Content & assets, then Creator Marketplace) is the other route. It can filter by content type, by members who mentioned your company, by date and by creator, and it shows a status for each post: Permission Needed, Auto-approved, Approved, Requested, Declined or Revoked. LinkedIn notes that "There's no limit to the number of requests that you can send to each thought leader."

The approval flow for the post's author

The author gets an email that opens the post with options to approve or reject, to turn auto-approvals on or off, and the terms and conditions. Everything is managed on the Sponsorship Permissions page:

• Approve or decline each request in the Requests section of the Requests and Posts tab.
• Auto-approval per brand, for all pending and all later requests. LinkedIn's advice: "Make sure to only enable auto-approval for advertisers you trust."
• Turning auto-approval off either for new posts only (earlier posts stay approved) or for past and new posts (earlier approvals are revoked).
• Revoke approval on a single post from My posts, or revoke all permissions.

When an author revokes, the ad stops at once. In LinkedIn's words, "the ad will immediately turn off." The ad set keeps delivering if it has other ads; if not, it stays active but stops delivering. The advertiser gets a notification.

Disclosure and the "Promoted by" label

LinkedIn labels the sponsored post depending on who pays:

• If the author's employer promotes it, the post shows "Promoted by [company name]".
• If another company promotes it, it shows "Promoted - Partnership with [company name]".

LinkedIn places part of the duty on the person. An employee who approves a request is "responsible for ensuring the disclosure of your relationship with that company". The examples it gives are adding your role at the company to your profile headline, or a hashtag such as #[InsertCompanyName]Employee or #SponsoredPost in a visible part of the post. Its permissions page lists this disclosure among the things to have in place before a post can be discovered for sponsorship. A non-employee "should also add any additional disclosures necessary".

Links, buttons and lead forms

LinkedIn's main page says a call-to-action button "isn't available for single image, video, or document ads, but URLs can be added to the intro text"; event thought leader ads do include a button. If a link matters, the author has to put it in the post itself.

LinkedIn's permissions page describes a newer option that is still rolling out ("We're gradually making this feature available"): after approval, the advertiser may add an ad headline, a call-to-action button, a destination link or a lead generation form to the sponsored version. These additions appear only on the ad. They "don't appear on or change your original LinkedIn post." If you don't see these fields, your account doesn't have the feature yet. For an ad with several buttons that opens in the inbox instead of the feed, see our guide to LinkedIn conversation ads.

Reporting

Campaign Manager reports the ad's performance like any other campaign. Two engagement metrics apply only to sponsored member posts: member follows (someone follows the person's profile through the ad) and clicks to member profile.

The author sees a combined total of organic and paid impressions and reach on the post from their profile. LinkedIn notes that this total "doesn't reflect LinkedIn Audience Network metrics", so the author's number and yours will not match exactly.

Making it work for a small company

Our suggestions, built on the rules above:

• Agree before you ask. Talk to the colleague first, then send the request. A request out of the blue for a personal post can feel odd, even though LinkedIn makes it easy.
• Get the basics right on the profile: public post, full name shown and the job title in the headline, so the disclosure is already there.
• Pick posts that already did well organically. Choose one you're happy to see in front of a cold audience.
• Plan for revocation. If the person leaves the company or changes their mind, the ad stops. Keep a company Page ad in the same ad set so delivery continues.
• Prefer per-request approval unless the person really wants auto-approval for your company.

FAQ

Can we promote a post from someone who doesn't work for us?

Yes. Posts from creators and members who are 1st, 2nd or 3rd-degree+ connections can be sponsored with the author's approval; 3rd-degree+ posts are found through Creator Marketplace. The ad then shows "Promoted - Partnership with" your company name.

Which objectives can thought leader ads use?

Brand awareness and engagement for all eligible formats, plus video views for video posts. LinkedIn's article ad page also lists lead generation for sponsored articles, but not for newsletter articles.

What happens if the author revokes permission?

The ad turns off immediately and you get a notification. The ad set keeps delivering if it holds other ads.

Can I add a link or button to a thought leader ad?

LinkedIn says a button isn't available for single image, video or document thought leader ads, but URLs can go in the intro text. A newer option, being rolled out gradually, lets advertisers add a headline, button, link or lead form to the sponsored version only.

Why can't we find a colleague's post?

The post may not be public, the profile may not show the full name, the post may be a repost, poll, celebration or multi-image post, or the author may be located in a DMA (EU) country, whose content LinkedIn does not make available for sponsorship.

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