How does LinkedIn pricing work and what should you budget?
LinkedIn ads are bought at auction, by click, impression or lead, with a daily or total budget you set. It reaches a narrow professional audience, which suits a business where one customer is worth a lot.
How LinkedIn ad pricing works
LinkedIn ads are sold at auction in Campaign Manager. You set a daily or total budget and choose what you pay for, such as clicks, impressions or leads. What you pay depends on the audience you choose, the competition for it and the quality of the ad, so we don't quote a typical price here.
What decides whether it's worth it
- The audience. A list has to match at least 300 LinkedIn members before it can serve, so a very small niche needs a wider audience.
- The value of a customer. A narrow professional audience suits a business where one customer is worth a lot.
- The alternatives. Google Ads reaches people while they search for what you sell. LinkedIn reaches people who aren't searching yet.
We check a list's match rate, then follow leads into the CRM so the cost is judged against opportunities, not form fills. To work out what a customer is worth to you, the Pacing Numbers calculators are free and don't ask for an email. LinkedIn is part of our paid marketing work. See how we use LinkedIn.
Also worth asking
Other answers about the same tools.
What is paid marketing and how does it work?
Paid marketing means paying to put your business in front of people, usually through ads on Google, Meta or LinkedIn. You set a budget and an audience, and you pay per click or per thousand views. The hard part is knowing which ads bring customers.
What platforms do you use for paid marketing campaigns?
Google Ads and Meta (Facebook and Instagram), plus LinkedIn for B2B work. We use Microsoft Ads where a campaign needs it. Which ones we use depends on whether people search for what you sell.
How much should I budget for paid marketing?
Start from what a customer is worth to you and what a lead costs in your market. The budget then needs to be big enough to get meaningful conversions in a month, and small enough that you can afford to find out it isn't working.
Want a quick starting figure from your revenue and a growth goal? Try the budget planner.
What’s the difference between paid search and paid social campaigns?
Paid search (Google Ads) shows your ad to people typing a query. Paid social (Meta, LinkedIn) shows it to people browsing. Search catches demand that's already there, and social creates interest in something new.
What are the common mistakes to avoid in LinkedIn advertising?
The usual ones: spending before checking the audience, judging on form fills instead of opportunities, and writing ads as if the reader were a consumer.
Still have questions?Talk to us
Bring your numbers.
We'll tell you if the spend makes sense.
- A 15-minute callYour goals, your challenges, and whether we're the right fit.
- A 1-hour discovery callWe dig into your numbers. Worth a hundred emails.
- A concrete planAds, a custom build or both, as a one-off project or ongoing.