LinkedIn Ads are a battlefield. An expensive one. If you’re treating it like a passive advertising platform and think budget alone is enough, then you’re already losing. LinkedIn is not just about pouring money into campaigns, it’s about knowing how to play the system. CPC too high? CTR too low? Bids are consistently draining your wallet? There’s work to be done there.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to take control of your ads and make every dollar you pour into them work harder. I’ll break down how to get ahead of the LinkedIn auction system, lower your CPC, and make campaigns that boost your CTR. I’ll also throw in some advanced bidding strategies from industry experts. Keep on reading and find out.
LINKEDIN’S AUCTION SYSTEM
Being the highest bidder won’t help you here, being the smartest bidder, however, will. Most advertisers (especially the ones with deep pockets) waste their budgets because they don’t get how the system works. Don’t be like most advertisers. LinkedIn rewards relevance over raw spend. They consider both your bid and your relevance score when deciding who wins the auction. A high quality, relevant, and well thought out ad can outcompete higher bids any day of the week.
If you want to win here, you have to start with good targeting. Instead of trying to cast the widest net, be specific with who you want to show your ads to.
Job titles, Industries, Company sizes, Geo locations…
You can filter by all of those and end up with a much smaller audience that you know is a good fit for your product/service. Broad targeting will kill your budget because it inflates your CPC by making you compete with irrelevant advertiser
Always opt for manual bidding and set your own budgets. Don’t let LinkedIn guilt trip you into wasting more money than needed.
HOW TO LOWER YOUR CPC WITHOUT KILLING PERFORMANCE
If your cost per click is way up in the sky, it means you’re not getting as much as you could out of every dollar you spend. Lowering the CPC doesn’t mean cutting corners. It just means using the right means to optimize your campaigns.
One way to immediately reduce CPC is what I’ve mentioned before, making your audience smaller.
A smaller, highly targeted audience leads to less competition and ultimately lower costs. But that’s not all there is to it. Engagement matters too. A lot. LinkedIn will reward you for running ads that drive interaction.
That means you should primarily be focused on making creatives that people actually want to click on and interact with. The higher your click through rate(CTR), the less LinkedIn charges you per click.
Another key strategy: Retargeting. Warm audiences, in other words, people who’ve interacted with your campaigns already, or visited your website. They’re the ones that are way more likely to convert and are cheaper to convert than cold leads. Use LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences feature to retarget these people with more personalized ads that’ll move them closer to a conversion.
MAXIMIZE YOUR CTR
Click-through rate is the bread and butter of your ad campaign, not just a metric you can glance over and think nothing of it. If your CTR is high, it means LinkedIn’s algorithm loves your ad, and you’ll end up paying less per click. Low CTR means you’re pretty much just wasting money and barely making an impression.
You can start by taking a look at your ad creatives and fixing them. Headlines need to grab attention and clearly point out what value you’ll bring to the user if they decide to click on your ad. For the love of God, avoid the generic corporate-speak BS. Be direct and specific with it.
“Cut your ad costs in half with these proven LinkedIn strategies” will beat “Learn more about LinkedIn ads…” every single time.
Next, rethink the visuals you’re using. Bland stock photos are absolutely not the way to go in a feed full of decision makers. Instead, you should be using clean, professional imagery or simple graphics (not the corporate ones) that make sense combined with your brand’s message. Authenticity is king here.
Finally, make sure your Call to Action is clear and direct, not vague and generic. “Learn More” is pretty much as weak as it gets with CTAs, try something like “Get the Strategy Now” or “Boost Your ROI Today”.
BID SMARTER
Bidding isn’t just about throwing money into the system. It’s about knowing how much and when to bid to maximize your impact.
LinkedIn offers both CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per mille, or cost per thousand impressions) models.
If you’re just starting out as a newbie, or you’re testing out some new campaigns, stick to CPC for better control. It lets you pay only when someone clicks, which means your budget won’t be spent on negligible results.
When your CTR improves, you can consider testing CPM bidding for a broader reach. But before you do this you should check out LinkedIn’s suggested bid range, however, take it with a grain of salt, they’d like nothing more than to squeeze more money out of you. Feel free to bid slightly below the recommended range and if your ad is good, you’ll still win the auction.
AD FATIGUE
Ad fatigue is a silent killer of LinkedIn ads, frankly any ads for that matter. If you’re running the same creative for weeks, or even months on end, and wondering why your CTR went below sea level, you’re witnessing it firsthand. Ad fatigue happens when your audience sees your ad so often they get sick of it and stop engaging with it, or even worse, they start ignoring your brand completely because of it.
In short: Keep your ads fresh, test new formats, keep your audience engaged.
LET’S SUM THIS UP
LinkedIn Ads aren’t about spending more, they’re about spending better and smarter. If you understand the auction, lower your CPC, up your CTR and bid strategically, you can turn them into an insanely good revenue driver.
Stop throwing more money at the problem hoping it fixes it. Start implementing these tips and you’ll see your campaigns go from money pits to money printers.
