Marketing on LinkedIn: What you need to know

We’ve updated this guide with data on the little-used feature that LinkedIn’s algorithm loves.

Using LinkedIn personally is very different from using it for marketing. Fully understanding the business social media site can boost your marketing efforts, but there is a lot to learn. To help you, we’ve put together this guide.

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What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest social network for businesses and business people and an essential site for B2B marketing. 

On LinkedIn, people can connect with colleagues, industry peers and potential employers. Companies can showcase products and services, generate leads, build brand awareness and establish “thought leadership” within their industry. This professional focus makes it an ideal place to find the people who may be interested in purchasing your product. 

Demographics and usage

According to LinkedIn:

• It has more than 830 million users worldwide.
• More than 70% are from outside the United States.
• The United States has the most LinkedIn users at over 180 million.
• India, China and Brazil follow the US in terms of users.
• There are approximately 310 million monthly active users (MAU).
• 40% of monthly active users visit daily.
• 48.5% of US users are monthly active users.
• 60.1% of users are between 25 and 34 years old.
• 52% of users have a college degree.

These numbers are self-reported, and it’s wise to keep that in mind. For example, LinkedIn says it has more than 199 million users from the U.S. That’s two-thirds of the nation’s total population and four-fifths of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 64. Many of these accounts are businesses, not individuals, so the numbers aren’t crazy. However, all social media sites have a certain percentage of ghost accounts. 

They must be doing something right: LinkedIn’s 2022 ad revenue was $5.91 billion, It is projected to reach $10.35 billion by 2027.

Culture and language

Culture. Every social media site has its distinct culture and jargon. The site and its users put everything in the best possible light. As a result, many posts have all the liveliness and personality of a press release. This allows businesses and leaders with distinct personas to stand out. Think twice before directly dissing the competition, though. This is best done passive-aggressively: “It’s great to see [competitor] getting back up to speed. [Product] is their best work in years.”

Jargon. As with many products, LinkedIn’s descriptions can have confusing jargon. Consider these:

• LinkedIn is the most used platform among Fortune 500 companies for CEO engagements. (“Engagements” means doing pretty much anything on the site) 
• There are 61 million senior-level influencers (A person with enough followers that LinkedIn considers them someone who can influence decision-making and public opinion) and 65 million decision-makers (A person who can decide whether to purchase a solution) on LinkedIn.
• There are 17 million opinion leaders on LinkedIn. (People invited to participate in the LinkedIn Top Voices program)

LinkedIn marketing tools

Everything on LinkedIn is marketing. Ads, posts, conversations, messages, etc. are all part of your campaign and need to be focused on achieving a goal. Here are the tools the site provides.

Company Page

Your digital storefront on the platform. It’s where you showcase your brand, share company updates and connect with your audience.

• Brand visibility: Just like websites, a well-optimized company page improves your search engine ranking.
• Content distribution: This isn’t a place for press releases — content must be focused on the audience’s interests. Blog posts, industry news and thought leadership pieces all need to provide useful information.
• Community building: Nothing fancy about this. Respond to comments, follow people who you want to connect with, and comment on their posts. Be interested and interesting.

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn offers a variety of ad formats to reach your ideal customers and drive specific actions.

• Sponsored Content: Promote organic posts to a wider audience.
• Text Ads: Simple, text-based ads that appear in the LinkedIn feed.
• InMail Ads: Send sponsored messages directly to targeted LinkedIn members.
• Dynamic Ads: Personalized ads that display a specific product or service based on the user’s interests.
• Thought Leader Ads: A post from an employee or industry expert is marked “Promoted by [company]” and distributed to a targeted audience. It looks like an organic post, and LinkedIn says they have a 2.3x higher click-through rate than single-image ads.
• Live Event Ads: There are two different types of ads specifically designed to promote live events on a company page. One is a Thought Leader Ad linked directly to the event to drive registrations, views and engagement. The other is a “sneak peek” 30-second video that lets people preview during and post-event.

All of these can be targeted according to factors such as:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location and job title.
• Interests: Groups, pages and topics.
• Company: Size, industry and seniority.
• Behaviors: Website visitors, lead generation forms and event attendance.

Accelerate campaigns

LinkedIn Accelerate is a specialized campaign type designed to drive specific business outcomes, such as lead generation or website visits. It offers a streamlined setup process and pre-optimized targeting options, making it a more efficient choice for businesses with clear goals. 

Accelerate also has gen AI tools to generate images, videos and other content.

New campaign objectives are being added — including brand awareness, engagement, website conversions and video views. That said, standard LinkedIn campaigns have more customization options and the ability to handle complex objectives.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator helps sales professionals identify and engage with potential customers. Its key features and functionalities include:

• Advanced search: Look for leads based on specific criteria such as job title, industry, company size, location and more.
• In-depth lead profiles: Get detailed information about each lead, including their contact information, recent activity and connections.
• Lead recommendations: Suggests potential leads based on your saved search criteria and engagement history.
• Lead lists: Organize and manage your leads into different lists for easy tracking and follow-up.
• Team collaboration: Lets sales team members by sharing leads and insights.
• Integration with LinkedIn Sales Solutions: Works seamlessly with other LinkedIn sales tools like InMail and Sales Insights.

LinkedIn Analytics

This lets you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. It has metrics and reports to help understand your audience, track content performance, measure campaign effectiveness and benchmark performance against industry standards.

Key features and functionalities:

• Audience insights: Information about your followers, including demographics, interests and engagement patterns.
• Content performance: Tracks the reach, impressions, clicks, and engagement of your posts, including organic and sponsored content.
• Campaign tracking: Measures the effectiveness of your LinkedIn advertising campaigns, including click-through rates, conversion rates and cost per lead.
• Benchmarking: Compares performance to industry benchmarks, allowing you to identify areas for improvement.
• Custom reports: Create custom reports based on specific needs and goals.

LinkedIn Stories 

These are similar to Instagram Stories and allow users to share short, ephemeral content directly with their network. They can include photos, videos, text, and GIFs. The key features and benefits include:

• Ephemeral nature: Stories disappear after 24 hours, encouraging users to share more casual and timely content.
• Visual appeal: The format is visually engaging, making it a great way to share behind-the-scenes content, personal updates, or company news.
• Reach: Stories appear prominently in the feeds of your first-degree connections, increasing their visibility.
• Engagement: Stories encourage interaction through comments, likes, and direct messages.
• Brand awareness: Businesses can use Stories to showcase company culture, share product updates, and run contests or giveaways.

LinkedIn Showcase pages 

These are specialized company pages that highlight specific products, services,or brand initiatives. They offer a focused platform for businesses to tailor their content and messaging to a particular audience, increasing engagement and interaction. Showcase Pages can also help build brand awareness and credibility for your featured offering, ultimately driving leads and sales. 

Marketing strategies for LinkedIn 

As an experienced B2B marketer, you already know the basics of LinkedIn marketing. Content marketing and social selling work the same everywhere. So, let’s look at things you may not be familiar with.

LinkedIn Live

This is the site’s version of event marketing. It lets you connect with your audience in real time. You can do this through:

• Interactive Q&A sessions that let you and your audience get to know each other better, building relationships and providing valuable insights. 
• Sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes content giving viewers a glimpse into your company or industry. 
• Showcasing your products or services with a live how-to helps you educate viewers and generate interest.

LinkedIn Live is also useful for generating leads. You can get contact information by offering exclusive content to viewers who sign up for your email list. Contests or giveaways can also increase engagement and generate leads by offering prizes or discounts to people participating in the event or sharing it with others. And you can identify potential leads by seeing who has engaged with your content, asked questions or otherwise shown interest.

Employee advocacy

Employees can be a powerful force multiplier for marketing on LinkedIn. However, they need to know how to do it. Train them on best practices for LinkedIn usage and content sharing. Also, use a content calendar to ensure they share the right content at the right time. Of course, this means one more thing for them to do. So, recognize and reward employees who take the time to do this. 

This has the additional benefit of encouraging employee ownership of the brand, which can contribute to a positive company culture. Furthermore, authentic comments from employees can build trust with potential customers and improve the company’s reputation. 

LinkedIn Groups

Joining and participating in relevant LinkedIn groups lets you build relationships, network and share your expertise. Look for groups that align with your target audience and industry. Regular participation is the best way to raise your profile.

Marketing tips

• Video is king of content: According to LinkedIn, 63% of B2B buyers say that short social videos really help them make purchasing decisions. Plus, 80% of those who watch video content trust influencer-led videos more than other types of content in the B2B space. On top of that, video is the fastest-growing format on their platform, with a 34% increase in uploads year-over-year.
• Influencer content is key during consideration: About 67% of buyers who know about B2B influencer marketing say it is crucial when weighing their options in the IT buying process.
• B2B influencers need to be experts: More than half (53%) of B2B buyers say subject expertise is the most important quality for influencers in this space.
• Expert content builds trust: Around 67% of buyers who engage with B2B influencer content feel that expert insights help establish brand trust and raise awareness about various products and solutions.
• Use LinkedIn Showcase Pages to target niche audiences: Showcase Pages are a great way to tailor your messaging and content to distinct audience groups, which can help you enhance engagement and relevance.
• Use polls to boost engagement: Polls are a simple and effective way to get your audience to interact with content.
• Stay updated on LinkedIn trends: LinkedIn is constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, such as LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Stories. This will help you keep your LinkedIn marketing strategy fresh and compelling.
• Hashtags: These can be a useful way to increase visibility. To use them effectively, research relevant industry-specific hashtags and incorporate them into your posts. Avoid using too many hashtags, as it can make your posts appear spammy. Monitor trending hashtags to stay up-to-date and engage with relevant conversations. MarTech Editorial Director (and resident LinkedIn guru) Mike Pastore says not to put too much faith in hashtags as they seem to be decreasing in popularity.

Post-boosting tool for lead generation

LinkedIn introduced a new feature for enhancing lead generation efforts. Users can now select “Lead Generation” as an objective when boosting posts on their LinkedIn feed. Previously, the quick boost option was limited to reach and engagement goals.

This simplified ad setup allows businesses to set a budget, target a specific audience, and attach a lead form template to their boosted post. The feature lets companies build their contact lists and gain valuable insights into their audience. And it can transform organic content into targeted ads that generate high-quality leads.

Boosting LinkedIn posts can be a valuable tool for extending the reach of your top-performing content, while also serving as a data-gathering mechanism. This lightweight approach, however, lacks the granular targeting capabilities offered by LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager. For comprehensive campaign management, it’s essential to utilize the full suite of tools available within the platform.

Companies Hub in Campaign Manager

LinkedIn’s new Companies feature in Campaign Manager is designed to provide B2B marketers with deeper insights into account-based marketing (ABM) performance. It is a centralized hub for viewing company-level engagement data across organic and paid LinkedIn campaigns. 

It lets marketers:

• Prioritize accounts: Identify high-value accounts by sorting and filtering based on key metrics like engagement level, organic interactions, and paid clicks.
• Tailor strategies: Focus on low-engagement companies by developing targeted marketing campaigns to increase visibility and drive conversions.
• Measure campaign effectiveness: Track campaign performance at the account level, including impressions, engagements, and leads generated.

Use cases include:

• Account discovery: Identify and target new accounts exhibiting organic engagement with your content.
• Brand awareness expansion: Explore new verticals by building audiences based on companies with low engagement levels.
• Lead generation: Launch targeted lead generation campaigns focused on high-engagement accounts.
• Full-funnel marketing: Execute comprehensive campaigns with dynamic segments tailored to awareness, consideration, and conversion stages based on account engagement.

Companies data and functionality:

• Comprehensive data: Includes data from company lists and all companies reached through organic and paid LinkedIn advertising.
• Key metrics: Review, sort, and filter by engagement level, organic interactions (impressions, engagement), paid interactions (impressions, engagement, clicks, leads), company information (country, size), and date of activity.
• List creation: Save customized reports as dynamic lists (automatically updated based on filters) or static lists (fixed and unchanging).

With Companies, B2B marketers should get valuable insights, refine their ABM strategies, and reach and engage audiences more successfully.

New video presentation and discovery features

LinkedIn has rolled out several updates focusing on enhancing video presentation and discovery. They include bringing the full-screen, vertical video display format to desktop to make it more like the mobile app. The platform is also testing a larger video display in mobile and an option to display a member’s video uploads in a profile mini-view. These updates aim to make video posts more prominent and improve video discoverability.

Discovery is also a key focus, with LinkedIn now surfacing more videos in search results through a swipeable carousel. Additionally, LinkedIn is launching new video analytics, providing data on average watch time to help users understand video performance. To help users maximize video content, LinkedIn has also launched new nano-learning courses covering topics such as crafting compelling video hooks, editing, repurposing, and collaborating on video content.

These updates are significant because video content is on the rise on LinkedIn, with a reported 36% increase in watch time year-over-year. LinkedIn is actively trying to attract video creators by launching a TikTok-style vertical feed and prioritizing video content in its algorithm. By improving video presentation, discoverability, and providing analytics and learning resources, LinkedIn aims to capitalize on the growing popularity of video and encourage more users to incorporate video into their LinkedIn strategy.

Conversions API and Revenue Attribution Report updates

LinkedIn updated its ad targeting and attribution features to help improve ad targeting and demonstrate return on investment. These updates include the Conversions API (CAPI) and Revenue Attribution Report (RAR) enhancements.

Conversions API:

• CAPI enables marketers to securely connect first-party online and offline data to capture conversions across multiple touchpoints.
• It enhances attribution accuracy, optimizes campaigns and maximizes ROI.
• The updated connection flow allows for easier data integration from various CRM platforms.
• The streamlined connection enables marketers to utilize client data for better ad targeting.
• On average, marketers using CAPI have seen a 31% increase in attributed conversion, a 20% decrease in cost per action and a 39% decrease in cost per qualified leads.

Revenue Attribution Report:

• RAR allows marketers to review CRM data over an extended period of 365 days, providing more specific insight into how CRM data drives lead generation over time.
• It helps demonstrate opportunities driven by direct data integration.
• RAR connects users’ CRM data to their LinkedIn marketing campaigns to provide data-driven insights to optimize campaigns and boost ROI
• RAR enables advertisers to tie marketing efforts to real business outcomes with metrics, such as revenue influence, return on ad spend and pipeline.
• LinkedIn is testing new RAR functionality that allows advertisers to see how customers engage with a campaign to drive business revenue.

Influencer marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is now a place for brands to leverage influencer marketing, according to The Sprout Social Index. The site offers a largely untapped opportunity for influencer marketing (only 12% of brands say LinkedIn is their preferred channel for influencers). Here’s why:

• Expanded video: The new vertical video and dedicated video tab shows the growing demand for short-form videos. Along with new video analytics, these measures position LinkedIn as a legitimate channel for influencer marketing campaigns.
• Influencer marketing rising with high-performing content: 69% of US marketers plan to partner with more influencers in 2025 than they did in 2024. Ninety-two percent said sponsored influencer content outperforms organic content in reach and 90% report higher engagement rates.
• Credibility with influencers: B2B and B2C marketers rank credibility and trust among their top goals for influencer marketing (55% and 54%, respectively).

Example: Brandon Smithwrick partnered with Typeform, an online form-building software, for a LinkedIn post about how the platform enhances efficiency. The video got 380 engagements (reactions, comments and reposts), according to Sprout.

(The 2025 Sprout Social Index – registration required)

Campaign Manager updates

LinkedIn updated its Campaign Manager, focusing on three key areas: campaign planning and strategy, campaign creation and measurement and optimization. 

The updates include a new Media Planner for forecasting campaign results, an Ads Duplication feature to streamline campaign creation, Dynamic UTMs for improved tracking, a Marketing Overview dashboard for small businesses, enhanced Measurement Insights for detailed performance analysis and an AI-driven Campaign Performance Digest for quick understanding of results.

Media Planner

• Forecasts campaign results, including likely ROI, before launch.
• Provides estimates for incremental reach, impressions, leads, cost-per-key-result for campaign objectives like brand awareness, video views and lead generation.
• Enables saving and sharing media plans with team members.
• Identifies optimal audience segments, placements and budget allocations.

Ads Duplication

• Duplicates ads across campaigns and accounts.
• Makes it easier to broaden campaigns without cutting and pasting information.
• Helps maintain consistent messaging and branding.
• Saves time when launching multiple campaigns.

Dynamic UTMs

• Automates UTM generation.
• Easier tracking of responses to promotions.
• Automatically generates unique URL parameters for tracking each ad.
• Improves consistency in performance reporting.

Marketing Overview

• Tailored to provide small businesses with more insight into account-wide campaign performance.
• A centralized view of account-wide performance metrics.
• Displays key metrics like spend by objective, key results, cost-per-result and return-on-ad-spend.

New Measurement Insights

• A centralized dashboard for analyzing full-funnel performance and business impact across campaigns.
• Helps marketers refine their approach and maximize return on ad spend.
• Provides insights into the buyer journey from awareness to lead generation.
• Improves audience targeting through multi-level data analysis.

AI-driven Campaign Performance Digest

• Offers concise, digestible takeaways about campaign performance.
• Highlights key performance metrics such as cost-per-result and click-through rate.
• Provides AI-driven recommendations for campaign optimizations based on specific campaign data.
• Benchmarks campaign performance against industry peers.

The underused formats LinkedIn’s algorithm loves

Polls, the least used format on LinkedIn, are getting a lot of push from the site’s algorithm, according to Metricool’s “2025 LinkedIn Study.” The report also suggests that marketers should make more use of carousels and video.

Here are the highlights:

• Polls are the least used format (0.00034% of publications) but achieve the highest reach, 206.33% above average.
• Polls and surveys appear to be getting high visibility from LinkedIn’s algorithm.
• Carousels are the top-performing content format, with the highest engagement (45.85%) and the most interactions. They also attract a high number of clicks.
• Video publications increased by 53%, and video content is growing faster on LinkedIn than on other platforms. This increased video content also shows significant growth in impressions (+73.39%) and views (+52.17%), indicating that LinkedIn is prioritizing this format.
• Engagement has increased by 13.75% for pages with more than 1,000 followers.
• LinkedIn interactions have steadily risen, with significant increases in clicks (28.13%) and comments. Pages with over 100K followers have seen a nearly threefold increase in clicks in the last two years.
• Shares are mostly down on small and medium-sized pages, but impressions are still growing, suggesting content is spreading differently.
• Growing followers on LinkedIn can be challenging compared to other platforms, with only 17.68% of accounts gaining followers.
• More followers doesn’t always mean more interaction. Industries like manufacturing and utilities can generate higher engagement per post than those with larger audiences.
• The sectors with the highest clicks per post are financial services, utilities, oil, gas, and mining, indicating LinkedIn is a strong platform for technical content.
• Including links in posts does not limit reach; posts with links have +4.90% impressions and +13.57% interactions.
• Click-through rates have seen impressive growth, especially in accounts with over 100K followers (+55.36%), making LinkedIn a top network for driving traffic.

Metricool’s 2025 LinkedIn Study is based on an analysis of 47,735 accounts and 577,180 posts between January 2023 to January 202. It is available here. (Registration required)

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