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LinkedIn Ads has a stubborn reputation: it is expensive. The reputation comes from the unit price, but the useful question is not the price of a click, it is what that click buys: the ability to show an ad to “finance director, company of 200 to 500 people, in Belgium”, and to nobody else. For some businesses that targeting is well worth its cost; for others it charges a lot for precision they do not need. This article helps you tell which side you are on; it follows on from our comparison of Google Ads and Meta for a B2B SME.
In short
LinkedIn sells targeting by job function, company and seniority, drawn from its members’ profiles.
It is worth its price when a signed customer brings in enough to absorb a high cost per enquiry.
LinkedIn’s audience thresholds rule out targets that are too narrow: check them before building the campaign.
Pre-filled forms make sending easy; qualification then happens in your CRM.
Why LinkedIn is expensive, and what the price buys
On Google, you pay for intent: someone typed a search. On LinkedIn, you pay for a professional identity. According to LinkedIn’s help, targeting draws in particular on job title, job function, seniority and location, and it combines: several values within one facet widen the audience, each extra facet narrows it.
On LinkedIn, you do not pay for a click: you pay for the right to choose who makes it.
That targeting is worth something precise: it avoids paying for clicks from people who could never buy. If your customer is a procurement director in manufacturing, an audience built on those criteria wastes less than a broad one, even at a higher unit price.
What you need to commit to start
LinkedIn states its minimums plainly, in dollars in its examples:
minimum daily budget, whatever the ad format
minimum lifetime budget for a new campaign
a day, the starting budget LinkedIn suggests for a new advertiser
These minimums do not say what a test must cost to be readable. The calculation is the same as on Google: how many enquiries you need to judge, at what rate an audience sends an enquiry, and at what price. We set it out in our article on the minimum budget that gives a signal, and it applies here as it is.
Who LinkedIn is worth the price for
When the buyer is defined by their job
Many B2B purchases are better described by a job function than by a search: treasury software is aimed at finance departments, regulatory training at quality managers. If your customers are not yet searching for your solution on Google (Keyword Planner shows little volume), LinkedIn lets you find them where they present themselves by their trade.
When a customer is worth a lot
The cost of an enquiry is compared with what a customer brings in, not with the price of a click elsewhere. A signed deal worth tens of thousands of euros over its lifetime absorbs a cost per enquiry that would ruin a product sold for a few hundred euros. Run the numbers with your own figures: value of a customer, share of enquiries that sign, cost per enquiry observed.
When you target a list of companies
LinkedIn lets you target a list of companies you provide. Its help page requires the list to match at least 300 member accounts to be used, and recommends 1,000 companies or more. It is the tool of a sales approach that already knows its target accounts.
Who it is not the right tool for
- A low-value product sold online in one click: the cost per enquiry quickly exceeds the margin.
- Demand people already search for: if your customers type your category into Google, the intent there is closer to purchase, and you pay for it as such.
- A target that is too narrow: LinkedIn requires an audience of at least 300 member accounts per ad set, and suggests aiming for at least 50,000 to drive results, 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging.
To reach a specific job function while starting from a search, Microsoft Advertising offers targeting based on LinkedIn profiles in its campaigns: our reservations about its reach in Europe are in our Google Ads or Meta comparison.
Pre-filled forms: convenient, then qualify
LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms fill in automatically with the member’s profile information, according to LinkedIn: name, contact details, company, job title. They accept up to twelve fields and three custom questions, and LinkedIn notes that using fewer will likely improve conversion rates. Leads can be downloaded as a CSV file or synced to a CRM.
That is convenient for the prospect, and exactly why qualification has to follow. A form that sends in two clicks produces more enquiries, some of them from the merely curious. Add a question that takes real effort (the project, the timeline), then follow each enquiry in the CRM through to a meeting or a refusal. On our own site, since 18 October 2026, every enquiry carries the origin of the visit (UTM parameters, landing page, referring site), and Twenty, the CRM we have run ourselves since early 2025, is where that kind of follow-up lives: the source of each enquiry is what lets you compare platforms on sales, not on forms. The principle is set out in our guide to sending CRM sales back to an ad platform.
If the ad sends people to your site instead, the landing page matters as much as the ad: see why the ad is never the only problem.
Watch out
LinkedIn tracking on your site needs consent
Measuring visits from LinkedIn on your site relies on its tracking tag, an advertising tracker. The CNIL’s rules on cookies make such trackers subject to prior consent in France: the tag should only fire once the visitor agrees, and your statistics will only count those who did.
Before you launch: the checklist
- Describe the buyer.
Job function, seniority, company size and sector, area.
- Check the audience.
Its estimated size in Campaign Manager, against LinkedIn’s thresholds.
- Do the maths.
Value of a customer, share of enquiries that sign, cost per enquiry you can afford.
- Connect tracking.
Every enquiry reaches the CRM with its campaign, before the first spend.
- Judge on sales.
After at least one sales cycle, compared with the other platforms.
If you sponsor posts written with the help of AI, transparency matters: our article on AI and disinformation recalls what the law expects of those who publish. And if you run Google Ads alongside, negative keywords and what Performance Max does not show stop the other platform from spending for nothing while you test this one.
To decide whether LinkedIn belongs in your budget, and connect it to your CRM before spending, our digital marketing offer starts from the real value of a customer.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum budget for LinkedIn Ads?
According to LinkedIn, $10 a day at minimum, whatever the format, and a $100 lifetime budget for a new campaign; LinkedIn suggests $25 a day for a new advertiser. These are technical floors: the budget for a readable test comes from the number of enquiries you need to judge and the observed cost of each.
LinkedIn Ads or Google Ads in B2B?
If your customers already search for what you sell, Google Ads captures intent that is closer to purchase. If your buyer is defined by job function and is not searching yet, LinkedIn lets you target them directly. A sensible order: start with search, then add LinkedIn for specific target accounts.
What audience size should you aim for on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn requires at least 300 member accounts per ad set, and suggests at least 50,000 to drive results, 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging. A smaller audience is still possible for a list of target accounts, accepting slower delivery.
Are LinkedIn form leads good quality?
They are reliable on identity, since the fields come from the profile, but not necessarily on intent: a pre-filled form sends very quickly. Add a question about the project or timeline, and follow each enquiry in your CRM through to a meeting. It is the rate of qualified enquiries that judges the campaign.
Sources
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help, target audience size best practices (new tab)linkedin.com
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help, company list targeting (new tab)linkedin.com
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help, Lead Gen Forms (new tab)linkedin.com
- CNIL, cookies and other trackers: what the law says (new tab)cnil.fr
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help, target audience size best practices
Read on linkedin.com(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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