LinkedIn ads through chat: campaign management reference

This page covers your own LinkedIn ad account (LinkedIn Campaign Manager at linkedin.com/campaignmanager). The ads are Sponsored Content: a single-image ad in the LinkedIn feed, posted by your company Page.

See a competitor's LinkedIn ads

Ask for a competitor's LinkedIn ads by name and you get what they run on LinkedIn, from LinkedIn's own Ad Library: how many ads, which formats (image posts, video, documents, events), when they were shown, where in Europe they were seen most, and the targeting LinkedIn discloses for them, such as languages, locations, job areas and the companies they include or exclude. Mention LinkedIn in your question; asking for a competitor's ads without it shows their Facebook and Instagram ads as before.

A few things to know:

• You get links, not pictures. LinkedIn's Ad Library publishes the facts around each ad but not its text or image, so each ad comes with a link that opens it on LinkedIn.
• Dates, countries and targeting come from ads shown in the EU. European rules make LinkedIn disclose them there; for ads shown elsewhere LinkedIn publishes less.
• No spend or results. LinkedIn does not publish what a competitor spends or how their ads perform.
• Counts start with "at least". AdWhispr reads LinkedIn's library a page at a time, so a big advertiser may run more ads than it counted.
• Names that match several companies. If a name also matches other advertisers (Notion and Notion Korea, for example), the answer names the others so you can ask for the right one.

You do not need a LinkedIn account connected to use this.

Before you start

LinkedIn has three requirements that no launch can skip:

1. A connected LinkedIn ad account. Say Connect my LinkedIn ad account in the chat, or open Settings, then Connected accounts, in the dashboard. You grant access on LinkedIn's own screen. Your LinkedIn login needs a Campaign manager or Account manager role on the ad account.
2. A company Page linked to the ad account. Every LinkedIn ad runs as a post from a Page, so the ad account must be tied to one, and your login needs a Page role that can post ads for it (Super admin, Content admin or Sponsored content poster).
3. A payment method on the ad account, under the Billing center in Campaign Manager. LinkedIn does not let AdWhispr add one.

Connect the account

After you approve, every ad account that login holds a role on appears under Connected accounts, and in the chat when you ask what is connected.

Find the people to target

Targeting by profession is what LinkedIn does best: you choose people by what they do, not only where they live. Describe them in plain words in your launch request, and LinkedIn matches each one to its own targeting. The preview names every match before anything is created, so you can correct one that is off.

You can name job titles, seniorities, job functions, industries, company sizes, skills and member interests, plus countries or places. Two combinations are not allowed by LinkedIn: job titles together with seniorities or job functions, and specific companies together with industries or company sizes. The chat tells you if a launch mixes them.

Create a campaign

One request builds the campaign and its ad together, paused.

What you can set today:

• Goal: traffic (default), sales, leads, awareness or engagement. LinkedIn sets the bid within your daily budget. Sales and leads optimize for a conversion you track on your website with the LinkedIn Insight Tag; the chat picks a purchase conversion for sales and a lead or sign-up conversion for leads. LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, video views and job ads are set up in Campaign Manager.
• The ad, written from the chat: introductory text above the image (up to 600 characters, and only about the first 150 show before "see more", so lead with the point), an optional headline under the image (up to 200 characters), your own image and a landing link. The image can be a link, or the name of an image in your Creative Library. Give two or more and they run as a creative test in one campaign.
• Targeting in the same request: locations, job titles, seniorities, job functions, industries, company sizes, skills, member interests, age and gender. LinkedIn will not run a campaign that reaches fewer than 300 members, and the preview shows the estimated audience before you confirm.
• Daily budget, in the account's currency. LinkedIn usually asks for at least 10 a day.

Two settings are always off on campaigns AdWhispr creates: LinkedIn Audience Network (ads on other apps and sites) and Audience Expansion (people outside your targeting). Both are on by default in Campaign Manager and can spread a budget far beyond the audience you chose. You can switch them on in Campaign Manager if you want them.

The words of an ad cannot be edited once it exists, because they live on the post. To change the copy, create a new ad and pause the old one.

Pause, resume, budgets and renaming

• Pause stops spend immediately, no confirmation.
• Resume goes live and starts spending; the chat warns you and waits for your confirmation. If the campaign's group was paused, resuming switches it on too, and the chat says so.
• Budget changes are previewed, then applied.
• Rename a campaign, on its own or together with a budget change, previewed then applied.

Performance reads

Ask how your LinkedIn ads are doing and the chat reads spend, impressions, clicks, landing page clicks, click rate, cost per click, conversions, conversion value and engagement, for the last 30 days or a date range you give. The same numbers live on the Ad Campaigns page in the dashboard, down to each ad.

LinkedIn adds a little noise to small daily numbers to protect member privacy, so a campaign with very few clicks can differ slightly from Campaign Manager.

When LinkedIn refuses

The chat shows LinkedIn's own message plus one sentence on what to do. The common ones:

• The change was not allowed: if your role on the ad account is Viewer, ask an account manager to make you a Campaign manager. Otherwise the change can be made in Campaign Manager meanwhile.
• The ad could not be posted for the Page: ask a Page super admin to give your login the Content admin or Sponsored content poster role.
• No conversion for a sales or leads campaign: create one in Campaign Manager under Analyze, then Conversion tracking, with the Insight Tag on your site (type Purchase for sales; Lead or Sign up for leads). Or launch with the traffic goal.
• The conversion could not be attached: the campaign and its ad are saved as a draft, which cannot spend. Open it in Campaign Manager, choose the conversion the chat names under Conversion tracking, save, then resume it.
• The audience is too small: widen the targeting with more locations, titles or industries.
• The image was not accepted: use a JPG or PNG under 5 MB at a public link.
• Access expired: reconnect LinkedIn under Settings, Connected accounts.

Frequently asked questions

Is LinkedIn a good fit for my business?

LinkedIn clicks usually cost more than Meta's, and it pays off when the person you want is defined by their job: software, services and products sold to businesses, recruiting, and high-value customers. For everyday consumer products, Meta or TikTok is usually cheaper.

Can I run LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?

Not from the chat yet. A leads campaign here sends people to your own website and counts the leads your Insight Tag tracks. Lead Gen Forms can be added in Campaign Manager.

Can I edit the ad after it is created?

Budget, targeting, name and on or off can all change. The text and image cannot, because they live on the post itself. Create a new ad with the new words and pause the old one.

Can AdWhispr run video ads on LinkedIn?

Not from the chat yet. Launches here use a single image. A video ad can be added to the same campaign in Campaign Manager.

Does the ad appear on my company Page?

No. AdWhispr creates it as a sponsored-only post: it shows in the feed of the people you target, not on your Page's own feed.