Simple Guide to LinkedIn Ads with Expert Tips (2025)19 min read

LinkedIn is the platform for B2B marketing; over 1 billion professionals use it, and millions of them are in decision-making roles. With unmatched targeting capabilities based on job title, industry, seniority, and more, LinkedIn Ads offer precision, brand safety, and a high-intent audience—all within a business-first environment.

So, you’re ready to run LinkedIn Ads—awesome! Let’s walk through the setup step-by-step in a way that feels natural and totally manageable, even if you’re starting from scratch.

Step 1: Sign in to LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Head over to LinkedIn Campaign Manager. This is your command center—where all the magic happens.
If you’ve never used it before, don’t worry. It’s free to create an account. You’ll need to link your LinkedIn Company Page, so make sure that’s already set up (or create one quickly if you haven’t yet).

Once you’re in, click that “Create” button in the top left corner and select “Campaign”. 

Step 2: Create a Campaign Group (Optional—But Super Helpful)

Think of Campaign Groups like folders. If you plan to run multiple campaigns—maybe one for brand awareness and another for lead generation—it’s smart to keep things organized from the start.

Name your group something easy to recognize (like “Q2 Lead Gen” or “Product Launch – Summer 2025”), especially if you’re collaborating with a team.

You can use the default group if you’re only running one campaign, but trust me, you’ll thank yourself later for staying organized as things grow.

Step 3: Choose Your Campaign Objective

Now this is an important one. LinkedIn wants to know what you’re trying to achieve with your ad, and you’ll pick from three core marketing goals:

Brand Awareness (Top of Funnel)

This objective is all about visibility. If you’re introducing your brand to a new audience, entering a fresh market, or launching a product for the first time, brand awareness is the perfect starting point. It helps you get your content in front of as many relevant people as possible—people who may not know you yet but should. 

You’re not asking them to take action just yet. You’re simply making sure your name, your message, and your value are seen, recognized, and remembered. Think of it as planting the seed for future engagement.

Consideration (Middle of Funnel)

At this stage, it’s all about sparking interest and starting a conversation with your audience. If you want people to explore your website or check out a specific landing page, driving website visits is the way to go. You’re encouraging them to take that next step—click, learn more, and see what you’re offering.

Another powerful focus here is engagement. This means getting your audience to interact with your content—to like, share, comment, watch your videos, or even follow your company page. It’s not just about impressions anymore—it’s about getting people to show they’re interested, involved, and ready to learn more.

Conversions (Bottom of Funnel)

If your goal is to drive action, this is where LinkedIn advertising really starts to deliver measurable results. 

The Lead Generation objective is great when you want to collect leads without asking people to leave LinkedIn. The platform’s built-in forms make it incredibly easy—users just click, and their information is auto-filled from their LinkedIn profile, making conversion seamless and fast.

If you’re looking to encourage specific behaviors on your own site, such as signing up for a webinar, downloading a whitepaper, or completing a purchase, then Website Conversions is the right objective. This lets you track those actions directly and tie them back to your LinkedIn campaigns. And if you want more data about your conversions try using LinkedIn Ads with Keitaro.

And if you’re in hiring mode, Job Applicants is your go-to. You can promote open positions directly in the feed and reach qualified candidates who are already in a professional mindset—making it easier to attract top talent where they already spend time networking and job-hunting.

Step 5: Define Your Target Audience

Now for the fun part—who do you want your ads to reach?

LinkedIn’s targeting is one of its biggest strengths. You can get very specific, which is perfect for B2B campaigns. Here’s what you can target:

• Location (Required): Country, city, metro area—you name it.
• Job Title & Seniority: Think “Marketing Manager” or “C-level Executives.”
• Function: Broader categories like marketing, sales, HR, and finance.
• Company Name or Size: Target specific companies or company types (e.g., 11–50 employees).
• Industry: Healthcare, SaaS, education, etc.
• Education: School attended, degree, field of study.
• Skills & Interests: Based on profile info and group memberships.

You can also upload your own contact lists (email addresses), retarget website visitors (via LinkedIn’s Insight Tag), or use Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to go after key companies using Matched Audiences.

Start with essential targeting options. Don’t go overboard by layering too many filters—your audience could become so narrow that your ads barely reach anyone.

Step 6: Select Your LinkedIn Ad Format

So you’ve set your campaign objective, you know who you’re targeting, and your budget is in place. Now comes the fun part: choosing your ad format.

Each LinkedIn ad format has its own personality—it serves a slightly different purpose, works better at specific stages of the funnel, and appeals to audiences in unique ways. 

Your job is to match the right ad type with your objective and audience behavior.

Here’s a quick reference table, then we’ll break them all down in plain English:

Single Image Ads

These are the bread-and-butter of LinkedIn ads. They look just like regular posts in your feed—except with a “Promoted” tag—and they include one image, a short caption, and a CTA.
They’re easy to set up and ideal for driving traffic to a landing page or blog post. Think of them as your clean, concise elevator pitch. These work well when you have a strong, attention-grabbing visual and a clear message.

Use contrasting colors to stand out in the sea of LinkedIn blue. Canva and Grammarly both use this to great effect.

Video Ads

Want to explain something complex, show off your product in action, or tell a compelling story? Video ads are your go-to. Whether it’s a 15-second teaser or a minute-long explainer, video ads bring movement and emotion to your brand.

They’re especially powerful for building brand awareness, educating your audience, or even recruitment campaigns where you want to showcase company culture.

Shorter is better—aim for under 30 seconds unless you’re telling a deeper story.

Carousel Ads

These are like a mini presentation right in the LinkedIn feed. Carousel ads let you upload multiple cards (images or videos), each with its own headline and CTA. You can use them to showcase:

• Different product features
• Steps in a process
• Customer testimonials
• A “story” with a beginning, middle, and end

They’re super interactive, so they tend to grab more attention and encourage engagement. People love swiping through to see what’s next.

Document Ads

If you’ve got a great whitepaper, research report, or toolkit, document ads let you preview and promote it directly in the LinkedIn feed. Users can flip through a few pages of your PDF and, if intrigued, download the full version.

It’s a smart way to capture leads from folks who are clearly interested in your offer—especially when you gate the full document behind a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form.

Titles like “2024 Industry Trends” or “Your Ultimate Guide to X” tend to perform really well. Make the first few preview pages valuable enough to hook people.

Event Ads

Got a webinar, virtual summit, or live demo coming up? Use event ads to drive registrations directly from LinkedIn. These ads display the date, time, and a registration CTA—all natively.

They’re a great way to build buzz around your event and get warm leads into your funnel.

Pair this with a reminder email campaign or retarget people who viewed the event but didn’t sign up.

Message Ads

Message ads land right in your target audience’s LinkedIn inbox. They feel personal, because they’re formatted like one-to-one messages—even though they’re automated and scalable.

Use them when you want to invite someone to a demo, offer a free trial, or follow up after content engagement. Just be sure it’s relevant and well-targeted, or it can come across as spammy.

Use LinkedIn macros to personalize with names and job titles. Ex: “Hi [First Name], I noticed you’re a [Job Title] at [Company]…”

Conversation Ads

These are like smart message ads with multiple CTAs. Instead of sending one message, you create a branching path of choices. Think: “Want to book a demo?” vs. “Just browsing for now.” Each option leads to a new message, link, or offer.

It’s a brilliant format for engaging prospects based on their intent and letting them choose how they interact with your brand.

Use this for product exploration journeys—“Learn more about [Product A]” vs. “[Product B]”—or create fun decision trees.

Text Ads

They’re simple. They’re cheap. And they sit on the right rail of the desktop LinkedIn.

Text ads don’t have all the bells and whistles, but they’re a cost-effective way to build brand awareness and drive clicks, especially when paired with sharp copy and a bold headline.

These only show up on desktops, so they’re best for targeting professionals at their desks (think B2B niches like finance or SaaS).

Dynamic Ads

These ads are automatically personalized based on who’s seeing them. They pull data like the user’s name, profile picture, job title, and company into the ad itself.

Formats include:

• Follower Ads (grow your company page followers)
• Spotlight Ads (drive traffic to a website or product)
• Content Ads (promote whitepapers or downloads)

They’re perfect for hyper-personalized outreach at scale. Great for building awareness or nurturing warm leads.

For example: “Hey Sarah, see how marketers at [Sarah’s Company] are using [Your Product] to boost ROI.”

The beauty of LinkedIn’s ad formats is how modular and versatile they are. You’re not stuck with one format forever—try a few, compare performance, and double down on what gets results. The key is knowing where your prospect is in their journey and serving them an ad that feels helpful—not pushy. Mix formats. For example, pair Sponsored Content with Message Ads to boost CTR by 70%.

Step 7: Set Your Budget & Bidding Strategy

This is where you get control over how much you’re spending and how aggressively LinkedIn delivers your ads.

You’ll choose:

• Daily Budget: How much you want to spend per day. Minimum is $10.
• Lifetime Budget: A total cap for your entire campaign.
• Combination: You can set both if you want day-to-day control and a total limit.

Then, you pick your bidding strategy:

• Manual Bidding: You set the cost per click (CPC), per 1,000 impressions (CPM), or per message (CPS). More control but needs more monitoring.
• Cost Cap: You tell LinkedIn your max price per result—they’ll try to stay within that.
• Maximum Delivery: Hands-off, an auto-bidding option where LinkedIn uses machine learning to get the most results within your budget.

Next, schedule your campaign:

• Continuous: Runs until you manually stop it or run out of budget.
• Set Dates: Choose a start and end date, which is great for event promos or time-sensitive offers.

Start with a smaller budget, maybe $30–$50/day, and A/B test a few things (like creatives and audiences), then increase spend on what’s working.

Step 8: Choose Your Ad Placement

You’ll get two choices here:

1. LinkedIn Feed – Your ads will appear natively in users’ feeds, just like a regular post (but marked as “Promoted”).
2. LinkedIn Audience Network – Want to extend your reach beyond LinkedIn? This shows your ads on a curated network of trusted third-party websites and apps—more visibility, still B2B-focused.

You can exclude categories or domains if you want more control over where your ads show up.

Add Conversion Tracking

Okay, let’s get real: running ads without conversion tracking is like shooting arrows in the dark. You might hit something, but you’ll never know what—or why. So even though LinkedIn lists conversion tracking as “optional,” it’s absolutely essential if you want to actually understand what’s working and where your ad dollars are going.

Here’s how to set it up the right way:

First, install the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website. Think of it like the LinkedIn version of a Facebook Pixel—it quietly collects valuable data about how visitors interact with your site after clicking on your ads. 

You can generate your unique Insight Tag inside Campaign Manager, then paste it into the global footer of your website (or use Google Tag Manager to simplify things). Once installed, it starts tracking behavior immediately.

Now, let’s talk about what you can do with that data.

You can retarget visitors who clicked your ad but didn’t take action—maybe they visited your pricing page or read a case study but bounced before signing up. With the Insight Tag, you can re-engage them with a second wave of ads, like a gentle nudge saying, “Hey, still thinking about us?”

You can also track meaningful on-site conversions—like newsletter signups, demo bookings, whitepaper downloads, or purchases. These actions tie directly to your campaign objectives, especially if you’re running conversion-focused or lead-gen ads.

And yes, if you’re using LinkedIn’s native Lead Gen Forms, the platform automatically tracks those form submissions within Campaign Manager—no extra setup is needed. But that only gives you a piece of the puzzle.

Now, here’s where things level up: by pairing LinkedIn ads with Keitaro Tracker, you go from having a blurry snapshot to a full-color, high-definition picture of your campaign performance.

Keitaro acts as your central analytics powerhouse. It can:

• Track every visitor journey across multiple ad platforms (LinkedIn, Google Ads, Facebook, TikTok—you name it).
• Show you exactly which traffic sources, creatives, or audience segments are converting.
• Let you build custom funnels and paths to see where people drop off—and optimize accordingly.
• Provide real-time data so you can stop wasting your budget on underperforming ads and double down on the ones that are crushing it.
• Detect bots and filter fake clicks so your ROI calculation stays clean.

With LinkedIn’s Insight Tag feeding campaign-level data and Keitaro tying everything together across your full ad ecosystem, you get a unified, data-driven command center. You can A/B test ad formats, track downstream funnel actions, and even segment performance by geo, device, or time of day.

If you’re running campaigns across multiple geos or using local landing pages, Keitaro helps you create location-specific tracking links and funnels so you can compare conversion rates between different markets with pinpoint accuracy.

Bottom line? Conversion tracking turns your campaign from a guess into a strategy—and Keitaro makes sure actionable insights, not just assumptions, back that strategy. If ROI matters to you (and it should), don’t skip this step.

4 Game-Changing Tips to Elevate Your LinkedIn Ads Campaigns

Whether you’re dipping your toes into LinkedIn ads for the first time or you’ve already launched a few campaigns, these tips will help you go from “just running ads” to running ads that actually convert. Ready? Let’s go deep:

1. Think Funnel-Wide – Don’t Just Spray and Pray

LinkedIn is a B2B platform, which means the sales cycles are often longer and more deliberate. People aren’t going to buy from you after seeing a single post in their feed. That’s why you need a full-funnel strategy—because different ad formats and messages work better at various stages of the buyer journey.

Let’s break this down like a pro:

Top of Funnel (TOFU) – Create Awareness

Your goal here is to get noticed by the right people. You’re not selling just yet—you’re planting seeds. Go for visual, scroll-stopping ads like:

• Single Image Ads – Easy to digest, great for product teasers or big headlines.
• Video Ads – Perfect for brand storytelling, thought leadership, or “Why we exist” narratives.
• Carousel Ads – Great for showcasing benefits, features, or storytelling in a swipe-friendly format.

Middle of Funnel (MOFU) – Spark Engagement

Now that they know you exist, it’s time to educate, nurture, and qualify. Show that you’re not just noise—you’re valuable.

• Lead Gen Forms – Let users download something useful (whitepaper, checklist, ebook) without leaving LinkedIn.
• Conversation Ads – Ask prospects questions, let them self-select their journey, and drop them into personalized funnels.

Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) – Drive Conversions

This is where things get serious. You’ve built familiarity and trust—now it’s time to move them to action.

• Message Ads – Send direct offers like demos, consultations, or discounts—right into their inbox.
• Text Ads – Cheap, efficient, and great for retargeting warmer leads on desktop.
• Matched Audiences + Retargeting – Combine LinkedIn’s audience targeting with Keitaro’s traffic data to retarget high-intent users who clicked but didn’t convert.

Advanced combo: Set up Keitaro to track users who clicked a LinkedIn ad but didn’t submit a form. Then, run a retargeting campaign with a stronger CTA or incentive.

2. Test Everything (And Then Test Again)

Your first campaign is rarely your best. Don’t “set it and forget it”—LinkedIn is made for iteration.

Here’s what to test:

• Creatives – Try different visuals, from clean product shots to people-centric images. Bright colors (especially those that contrast LinkedIn’s blue/white palette) grab more attention.
• Copy – Experiment with tone: formal vs. conversational, pain point-driven vs. benefit-led.
• CTAs – “Download Now” vs. “Get Your Free Guide” vs. “See It In Action”—minor tweaks can make significant differences.
• Audience Segments – Run the same creative to two job titles in different industries or seniority levels to see who resonates more.

3. Repurpose Across Platforms (Steal from Yourself)

Just because you wrote killer copy for Google Ads or a Meta campaign doesn’t mean it should live and die there. Repurpose your best-performing assets across platforms to save time and amplify what already works.

Here’s how to do it smartly:

• Take a Google ad that crushes and turn it into a LinkedIn Message Ad, with a more personal tone.
• Convert a top-performing Facebook carousel into a LinkedIn Document Ad—especially if the audience overlap is high.
• Use consistent brand visuals and messaging across all platforms for recognition and trust.

Watch for differences in behavior. LinkedIn users are more research-focused than Instagram users. That means your CTA might need tweaking even if the visual stays the same.

4. Organic + Paid = 🔥 Results

Too many brands treat organic and paid LinkedIn like separate universes—a big mistake.

Here’s the truth: when someone sees a paid ad and then checks out your profile or company page, they’re going to scroll through your recent posts. If all they see is silence—or worse, outdated or irrelevant content—they’ll bounce.

So, how do you make organic and paid work together?

• Coordinate content calendars: Align your ad campaigns with your organic themes.
• Use employee advocacy tools like LinkedIn Elevate (or just smart internal sharing prompts) to encourage your team to post and reshare relevant content.
• Repost your paid content organically, especially when it performs well.
• Pin top-performing content to your Company Page to reinforce credibility for ad clickers who browse.

And yes, Keitaro can help you track performance across channels, provide data for analysis and optimization, and see and improve the real ROI of the combined strategy.

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