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How do I used LinkedIn Targeting as part of my marketing strategy?

LinkedIn is the leading platform for reaching professionals and decision-makers. Members keep their profiles up to date with their job titles, companies, skills and education, which gives advertisers detailed, reliable targeting that's hard to match on other platforms. That makes LinkedIn especially effective for B2B marketing and financial services.

Step 1: Create a campaign and choose your objective

  1. Sign in to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and create a new campaign.
  2. Choose an objective that matches your goal:
    • Awareness: get your brand in front of more of the right people.
    • Consideration: drive website visits, engagement or video views.
    • Conversions: generate leads, for example through LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, or website conversions.

Your objective affects how LinkedIn delivers your ads and which ad formats are available.

Step 2: Define your audience

Start with location and, if needed, language. Then layer in LinkedIn's professional targeting.

Job experience

  • Job function and job title: reach people in specific roles, such as finance or operations. Campaign Manager suggests related titles.
  • Seniority: reach managers, directors, VPs and executives.
  • Years of experience and skills: reach people with specific expertise.

Combining job function with seniority is one of the most effective ways to reach decision-makers.

Company

  • Company name, industry and size: target specific organizations or types of businesses.
  • Company lists: upload a list of target companies for account-based marketing.
  • Exclusions: leave out companies you don't want to reach, such as competitors or very large enterprises.

Education
Target by school, field of study or degree. This is useful when combined with seniority or job function.

Interests and traits
Reach members based on the professional topics they engage with on LinkedIn.

Please note: targeting by Member Groups isn't available for new campaigns that target the European Economic Area or Switzerland.

Demographics
LinkedIn estimates age and gender rather than collecting them directly, so these options are less precise. They're rarely needed for B2B campaigns.

Step 3: Use your own data (Matched Audiences)

Matched Audiences let you reach people who already know you:

  • Website retargeting: show ads to people who visited your website. This requires the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your site.
  • Contact lists: upload your email list or connect your CRM, such as HubSpot, to reach existing contacts and prospects.
  • Company lists: reach decision-makers at specific target accounts.
  • Engagement audiences: retarget people who watched your videos, opened your Lead Gen Forms or engaged with your company page.

Step 4: Expand your reach (optional)

  • Predictive Audiences: LinkedIn's AI creates a new audience of members likely to behave like your best leads or customers. You build it from a contact list, conversion data or Lead Gen Form submissions, and your source needs at least 300 members. Predictive Audiences replaced LinkedIn's former Lookalike Audiences.
  • Audience Expansion: adds members with characteristics similar to your targeting. It isn't available when you use Predictive Audiences.

Tip: Audience Expansion and the LinkedIn Audience Network, which shows ads on partner sites outside LinkedIn, may be turned on by default. If you need precise targeting, review these settings before launching.

Step 5: Choose your ad format and launch

Campaign Manager suggests formats based on your objective, such as:

  • Single image
  • Video
  • Carousel
  • Document ads
  • Conversation ads
  • Thought Leader ads
  • Lead Gen Forms

You can also save your audience as a template to reuse or adjust for A/B testing.

Want LinkedIn to do more of the work? LinkedIn's Accelerate campaigns use AI to suggest targeting, creative and bidding based on your website. They're a quick way to get started, but review the results closely.

Targeting tips

  • Don't go too narrow. Start with location plus 2–3 targeting criteria, and aim for an audience of about 50,000–300,000 members. Retargeting audiences can be smaller.
  • Test and refine. Run variations with different audiences, then shift budget toward what performs best.
  • Track results. Install the Insight Tag and set up conversion tracking, and use Campaign Manager's demographics reporting to see which job titles, companies and industries respond.
  • Connect to your CRM. If you use HubSpot, connecting LinkedIn Ads lets you sync audiences and see which ads generate leads and customers.

For financial firms: LinkedIn ads and sponsored posts are marketing communications and may need compliance review and recordkeeping, just like your other advertising.

Need help planning or running LinkedIn campaigns? Contact the Gate 39 team through the Customer portal.

 

References
[1] Coegi – LinkedIn is Removing Lookalike Audiences
[2] LinkedIn Help – LinkedIn predictive audiences
[3] Microsoft Learn – LinkedIn Marketing API recent changes (2026)
[4] Kiin – LinkedIn Campaign Manager Tutorial 2026
[5] Factors.ai – LinkedIn Ads Targeting Best Practices 2026