LinkedIn ad campaigns give you a direct way to reach professionals and organizations within a highly targeted environment. By creating structured campaigns through Ad Manager, you can generate quality leads, drive website traffic, and build brand awareness among the audiences that matter most to your business. This guide walks you through setting up your campaign, from creating a Campaign Group to publishing ads and tracking performance.

How It Works #

Start by opening the Ad Manager section of the Marketing tool. Then, click the option to create a new LinkedIn Ad campaign. Ad Manager simplifies this process by organizing campaigns into three levels:

• Campaign Group: The top-level container for your campaigns.
• Campaign: Defines audience, budget, and schedule.
• Ad: Contains the creatives, such as media, text, call-to-action, and forms.

Create a Campaign Group #

A Campaign Group serves as the highest-level container for your campaigns. Choose a descriptive title for your group, then assign a campaign objective—whether the system should capture leads with LinkedIn forms or drive clicks to landing pages. Next, set a daily or lifetime budget, along with start and end dates. If necessary, enter manual bids (Cost Per Lead for Lead Gen or CPC for Traffic).

✍ Tip: Organize Campaign Groups by business goals for clarity and consistency.

Create a Campaign Within the Group #

Once a Campaign Group is created, add campaigns to define targeting and media. Assign a unique identifier as the campaign name, then choose whether to upload a single image or video, or a carousel of media. Choose the required targeting fields from the Language and Audience Controls sections. Here, you can target individuals with specific interests by including or excluding attributes such as their job title, industry, or skills. Use AND/OR logic to refine your search.

Create Ads Inside the Campaign #

Each campaign may include multiple ads. Assign a unique name to each ad, then enter an Introduction Text of up to 3000 characters and select a call-to-action from LinkedIn’s CTA list. Optionally, you can also include a description. Next, add a headline and destination URL for all media assets.

If the Lead Generation objective was selected, create a new form or select a LinkedIn lead form from the drop-down. Creating a new form requires you to customize it with pre-filled fields, custom questions, hidden fields, a privacy section, consent checkboxes, and a confirmation page. Once satisfied, click the Create Form button.

Review & Publish #

Before publishing, the Review screen appears. This section confirms campaign objectives, budget, schedule, desktop and mobile previews, and performs validation checks for URLs, budgets, and required fields. After verifying the campaign configuration, click Publish to launch it.

Monitor Campaign Group Performance #

You can track performance metrics from the campaign group level to the ad level under Statistics > LinkedIn. Ad Manager provides a structured framework to launch, monitor, and optimize LinkedIn campaigns. By organizing campaigns into groups, defining precise targeting, and leveraging multiple ad formats, you can maximize performance and gain deeper insights into what drives results.

Best Practices #

• Align Campaign Groups with business objectives (such as Awareness or Lead Gen).
• Limit each campaign to one clear audience definition.
• Run multiple ads per campaign to compare creative performance.
• Start broad, then refine targeting with filters.
• Use shorter Lead Gen forms for higher conversion rates.
• For traffic campaigns, always enable UTM tagging.

Frequently Asked Questions #

How are LinkedIn campaigns structured in Ad Manager? #

They are organized into three levels: Campaign Group (top-level container), Campaign (audience, budget, and schedule), and Ad (the creatives, text, CTA, and forms).

What does a Campaign Group define? #

A Campaign Group sets the title, objective (lead capture or traffic), budget type, schedule, and optional manual bids that apply to the campaigns within it.

How do I target a specific audience? #

Within a campaign, use the Language and Audience Controls sections to include or exclude attributes such as job title, industry, or skills, using AND/OR logic to refine your search.

How long can the ad introduction text be? #

You can enter Introduction Text of up to 3000 characters, along with a headline, destination URL, and an optional description.

How do I add a lead form to a LinkedIn ad? #

If you chose the Lead Generation objective, select an existing LinkedIn lead form or create a new one with pre-filled fields, custom questions, hidden fields, a privacy section, consent checkboxes, and a confirmation page, then click Create Form.

Where do I track LinkedIn campaign performance? #

Track metrics from the campaign group level down to the ad level under Statistics > LinkedIn.