LinkedIn advertising costs: Pricing and strategies to boost your ROI in 2026

I remember when LinkedIn first came out. It was the Wild West of networking, where you could share valuable insights with your peers and send Mark Cuban a connection request at 2 a.m. 

Now, it's rampant with corporate-approved memes and soulless posts from your college friends that they definitely didn't write with ChatGPT. Despite the decline in content, it still attracts businesspeople in droves—meaning it's one of the best places to spend your precious advertising budget, especially if you're in the B2B space.

I did a great deal of digging to compile everything you need to know about LinkedIn advertising costs and a few strategies you can use to optimize your ads. And once you use my tips to improve your bottom line, you can make a smug LinkedIn post gloating about your newfound success.

Table of contents:

• How much does LinkedIn advertising cost?

• Types of LinkedIn ads you can run

• What influences LinkedIn ad costs?

• 6 strategies to boost LinkedIn ad ROI

• Add AI orchestration to your LinkedIn ads

How much does LinkedIn advertising cost?

LinkedIn advertising costs around $2–$3 per click, $5–$8 per 1,000 impressions, and $0.26–$0.50 per message sent. But prices are based on an auction system, so you may pay more or less based on factors like your strategy, industry, audience, and ad relevance.

To give a little extra context on those figures:

• Cost per click (CPC) is what you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. This is direct, measurable engagement, so CPC is typically the highest on every ad platform. 

• Cost per impression, or cost per mille (CPM), is what you pay after showing up on 1,000 people's screens. These people don't need to interact with your ad, care about it, or even remember seeing it—if the pixels appear on a user's display, you're paying for it.

• Cost per message sent (CPS) is what you pay to send a DM to someone over LinkedIn Sponsored Messaging or InMail. Think of this like one of those car dealership ads you get in your mailbox; you pay for virtual postage to send the message, and your recipient can either open it or throw it in the circular filing cabinet.

LinkedIn isn't winning any prizes for transparency, though. They don't disclose pricing ranges until you've built out your Campaign Manager and have a credit card in hand, leaving you at the mercy of the auction system. So, your mileage may vary, but the prices above will give you a good estimate for what you could pay.

LinkedIn bidding strategy

The price of your LinkedIn ad is really only half of your consideration. You also need to factor in your bidding strategy to get a full picture of your potential spending. LinkedIn features three different options.

• Maximum delivery is a fully automated strategy that allocates your entire budget in the best way possible (as determined by the software). This offers less control since you're letting the LinkedIn algorithm take the wheel, but it prioritizes delivering the most conversions and key results possible.

• Cost cap allows you to set a maximum bid amount per action—for example, if you don't want to pay more than a $3 CPC—while also leaning on automation. So, the system will operate mostly the same as maximum delivery, but you'll be able to set guardrails on how much money it spends on your behalf. In other words, LinkedIn still has the wheel, but you're controlling the speed. 

• Manual bidding is ditching the technology and doing everything by hand. If you choose this option, you'll have to monitor your campaign closely at all times to make sure you're hitting your ideal ROI.

LinkedIn advertising minimum ad spend

LinkedIn has a minimum ad spend of $10 per day and a $100 minimum lifetime budget for new, inactive campaigns. In other words, you can't just start your LinkedIn ads with the change you found in your couch—you'll need to fund your account with enough money to learn the system and see if the ROI is worth it for you (which I suppose is by design).

LinkedIn also suggests starting with $25 per day for new advertisers, and going up to $100 per day for existing advertisers.

LinkedIn ads vs. other providers

You have the wealth of the internet at your disposal for your advertising strategy; here's how other popular platforms stack up compared to LinkedIn.

Keep in mind that all of these prices are averages—some of them large averages. I've learned pretty quickly that platforms don't like to outright tell you what you can expect to pay because of all the variables associated with auction-style advertising. Just like with LinkedIn, your price per ad will be unique to your business and use case; these estimates are as accurate as I can get without running your ad campaign myself. 

*This can swing significantly based on your industry.

Types of LinkedIn ads you can run

You can choose from a variety of LinkedIn ad types to spearhead your marketing campaigns. Follow the link above if you'd like to get down to the nitty-gritty details of each, but I'll give you a quick overview here as well.

LinkedIn offers four different categories of ads:

• Sponsored content: Ads that slot in between organic posts on a user's feed, showing up as the reader scrolls down their timeline. The best sponsored content consists of high-quality, storytelling-like posts that get customers hooked before they realize they're reading an ad. 

• Sponsored messaging: These are DMs that businesses can pay for to send a message directly to a targeted recipient. You could use it to invite a business prospect to one of your product demos. Or you could send one of the judges on "Shark Tank" your pitch for a heated knife to slice and melt butter in one swift motion (patent pending).

• Lead gen forms: Marketers need to navigate lead gen forms like a tightrope. On one hand, they want to get as much information from interested prospects as possible. On the other, too many fields will have prospects running the other direction. LinkedIn lead gen forms bridge that gap by allowing users to sign up for a lead magnet without leaving their feed—while also populating information from their LinkedIn profile so they don't need to fill out fields manually.

• Text and dynamic ads: These LinkedIn ads exist in the right rail of the platform and act as a virtual spotlight to call out important details. You could promote your business page and encourage users to connect, or you could promote a sale or service that catches the reader's eye by using their own profile photo and information (which seems a touch dystopian, but to each their own).

What influences LinkedIn ad costs?

At this point, you should know that LinkedIn loves its variables in ad cost structure. Here are some of the key factors that influence how much money you pay per ad:

• Target audience: A target audience is the lifeblood of an advertising strategy, but your target audience isn't really yours; there's likely a handful of other businesses trying to reach the same consumers. The more popular your target audience is—and by extension, the more businesses that are fighting for the attention of the same customers—the more you'll have to pay to win your advertising bid.

• Seasonality: If you haven't connected the dots yet, let me just say it: a huge factor in LinkedIn ad costs (and all ad costs in general) is demand. Seasonality is often tied to demand and can influence how much you pay. For example, a retail business will pay more for ads around the holiday season, while a swimwear brand's ad costs will spike around summer.

• Bidding strategy: As we've touched on, you can bid on LinkedIn ads in three different ways: maximum delivery, cost cap, and manual bidding. What you choose will directly impact your ad spend. 

• Objective: You want your consumers to do something after viewing your ad, and what you want them to do influences how much you pay. If you just want them to recognize or think about your brand, you'll likely pay on a CPM structure. If you want them to follow your link or fill out a lead magnet, you'll pay on a CPC framework, which can be much more expensive than the former.  

• Industry: Your industry has a pretty substantial impact on your advertising costs. If you're trying to reach New England-based lobster fishermen who compete in underwater basket weaving on the weekends, you'll pay less for advertising because, I assume, you may be the only business doing so. If you're a recruiter who is using LinkedIn Job Ads to promote your opening, you'll be paying a lot more.

• Ad relevance: LinkedIn doesn't want its platform flooded with annoying and low-quality ads. If you have a high-quality ad that promotes positive engagement, you'll pay less. If you publish a piece of AI-generated slop that doesn't resonate with anyone, let alone your target audience, you'll pay more.

6 strategies to boost LinkedIn ad ROI

At this point in the article, I've passed on nearly all of my LinkedIn knowledge. But before I give you your advertising black belt and let you leave the dojo, you'll need to know these LinkedIn Ads best practices to help you put theory into practice.

1. Optimize your sales funnel

You need some form of pipeline management, and optimizing your sales funnel is a good place to start. Your funnel dictates your outreach, and although your target audience doesn't change, their customer journey does. Some consumers may just need a well-placed ad to buy your product, while others don't even know how to pronounce your name. Don't market to the two the same. 

If you're in your TOFU era and want to build some awareness, think about a video ad that tells your brand story, a spotlight ad to get your name out there, or maybe even a thought leader ad to show your audience you really know what you're talking about. If you're BOFU-focused and want to rack up some conversions, then image ads, lead gen forms, and conversation ads can help get your customers to the finish line. 

If you'd like to take it one step further, think about what your prospects will do—and what you should do—after clicking your ad. This is a crucial moment when you need to jump on leads as soon as possible to maximize conversions, and adding a little bit of automation can help you do so. 

Zapier is an AI orchestration platform that can help you build no-code workflows, so you can automatically send LinkedIn form submissions or LinkedIn conversions exactly where you need them and notify your reps immediately. Follow up faster and make sure all your ads data is where you need it when you need it. Learn more about how to automate your LinkedIn ads, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows. 

2.  Dial in audience targeting

LinkedIn lets you target an audience based on location, audience attributes (like education, demographics, and job title), and custom preferences you can tweak to fit your needs. The platform will suggest some targeting preferences based on your business and similar campaigns, but you shouldn't take its suggestion and be done with it—do some experimentation.

You may find that targeting "30–50-year-olds in North Carolina who work in HR" is the perfect match with your ad copy to drive conversions. Or you may find that you also need to specify that they went to UNC-Chapel Hill and are married to someone who went to Duke (thus keeping things extra spicy) to really have your ads hit home. 

3. Experiment with bidding strategies

LinkedIn has three bidding strategies: maximum delivery, cost cap, and manual. As you run your ad campaigns, experiment with these strategies to find the right bidding method that works for you.

You could start with maximum delivery—in other words, letting LinkedIn take the wheel and spend your money how it thinks is best—but it's probably not wise to stay there for your entire campaign. You could use that data to see what's working, and pivot to a cost cap or completely manual strategy to maximize your ROI. 

4. Test different time slots

LinkedIn allows you to specify when you want to run your ads; take advantage of this by testing different time slots to maximize your ad effectiveness.

For example, let's say you're the founder of a SaaS company that helps HR teams with payroll. Given the context of your offering, you'd likely want to run ads during business hours or maybe until 7 or 8 p.m. to catch those last-minute workaholics who are checking their LinkedIn feed before leaving for the day.

Or you may be a dog walking service that targets busy executives and their families. A Saturday morning timeslot may be worth a shot—it could line up with the exact moment your ideal customer is browsing LinkedIn with a cup of coffee while their kids are throwing a tantrum and the dog is taking a tinkle on their Persian rug. 

5. Run A/B tests

A/B testing is one of the jewels of the marketing world. You can A/B test emails, ad copy, landing pages, websites, and even your opening line on a dating app to increase conversions and find exactly what resonates with your target audience. LinkedIn offers A/B testing directly in the Campaign Manager, and it makes it pretty easy to do so.

First, you'll want to create two different versions of the same ad campaign. They should be slightly different—for example, two different headings or ad pictures—so you can track what's making a positive impact. If they're too different, you won't know why or how a consumer prefers one ad over another. In culinary terms, you want to compare smooth peanut butter and chunky peanut butter, not peanut butter and wasabi. 

Once you have your two ads, LinkedIn will automatically split up your audience into two groups, with each group getting a different ad. Your results will be compiled in the Testing dashboard in the Campaign Manager so you can see which ad is performing better. From there, you can keep the better-performing ad, and maybe even include it in another A/B test so you can create the best ad you possibly can.

6. Assess your landing pages

Most LinkedIn ads allow you to include a hyperlink or CTA that drives consumers to another page. These landing pages are crucial, and you should be optimizing them just as obsessively as your actual ad.

Imagine you've created the perfect ad; it speaks to your target audience perfectly, and anyone who lays eyes on it is completely enamored. After clicking on the ad, the user is taken to a nonsensical landing page that leaves them confused, and they bounce. Congratulations, you just wasted roughly $3 (and will do so every time someone clicks the ad).

To avoid this nightmare, your landing pages should include:

• Benefit-led messaging that speaks directly to your consumer and acts as a continuation of the ad they just clicked on.

• A clear CTA that guides consumers to the next step, whether that's making a purchase or signing up for a lead magnet.

• An appealing user experience that's easy on the eyes and easier for devices to load.

• Social proof to establish credibility and stop objections in their tracks (this is a nice plus if you can fit it in, but not as crucial as the previous three).

You could even A/B test your landing pages to make sure you have the most effective spot possible for your consumers to land. After all, if they aren't converting on the back end, you're just handing money over to LinkedIn.

Add AI orchestration to your LinkedIn ads

Advertising on LinkedIn can be a great way to reach your audience and build new revenue streams. That said, it can be tough keeping your data and internal tools synced—and if you can't, you'll find yourself wasting ad spend and losing leads. 

Zapier connects with 8,000+ apps to help you build fully automated workflows. You can build a process that alerts your sales team on Slack whenever you get a new lead on LinkedIn, or you could build a comprehensive flow that uses AI agents to intelligently route leads, enrich lead information, and move prospects down the funnel while you sleep.

LinkedIn advertising costs FAQs

Is it worth it to advertise on LinkedIn?

Yes, it's worth it to advertise on LinkedIn. You'll need to optimize your campaigns and reach the right audience, but both B2B and B2C businesses can benefit from advertising on the platform.

How can I lower my LinkedIn advertising costs?

You can lower your LinkedIn advertising costs by engaging in methods like optimizing your sales funnel, testing different time slots, experimenting with bidding strategies, running A/B tests, and automating your LinkedIn workflows with Zapier.

How much does LinkedIn charge per 1,000 impressions?

LinkedIn doesn't have a set rate for how much it charges per impression. That said, businesses can expect to pay roughly $5–$8 per 1,000 impressions.

Related reading:

• How to monetize LinkedIn with brand partnerships

• An exhaustive guide to LinkedIn conversion tracking

• LinkedIn marketing tools to grow your business

• How to build a LinkedIn marketing strategy from scratch