LinkedIn Sponsored Content is any paid post that appears natively in the LinkedIn feed, labeled "Promoted", and targeted using professional data like job title, company, industry, and seniority. People also call these LinkedIn sponsored ads or a LinkedIn sponsored post, and all three names mean the same thing. It's LinkedIn's largest ad family.
It's every format that runs in the feed. The table below gives one example of each, and together they cover the most common LinkedIn Sponsored Content examples.
[table]
Format | Example use
Single image ad | One image and headline promoting a webinar or report
Video ad | A short product demo playing in the feed
Carousel ad | 2 to 10 swipeable cards walking through product features
Document ad | A PDF guide people can read in the feed, often gated behind a form
Event ad | Promotes a LinkedIn Live or virtual event with a register button
Thought Leader Ad | A post from an employee's personal profile, promoted by the company
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LinkedIn splits its main ad formats into two families. Sponsored Content runs in the feed. Sponsored Messaging, which covers Message Ads and Conversation Ads, lands in the member's LinkedIn inbox instead.
[table]
| Sponsored Content | Sponsored Messaging
Where it appears | LinkedIn feed | LinkedIn inbox
Formats | Single image, video, carousel, document, event, Thought Leader Ads | Message Ads, Conversation Ads
How it's billed | Cost per click, cost per impression, or automated bidding | Cost per send
Best for | Awareness through lead generation | One direct ask to a defined audience
[/table]
You build Sponsored Content campaigns in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. You choose an objective, define your audience, pick a format, and set a budget and bid. The ad then shows in the feed of people who match your targeting. Many campaigns can also run on LinkedIn Audience Network, which extends them to partner apps and sites outside LinkedIn.
Direct sponsored content is an ad that runs without first being published as a post on your company Page. It lets you test several versions of the same ad against different audiences without filling your Page feed with near-identical posts.
You can bid on a cost per click basis, a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis, or let LinkedIn's automated bidding manage delivery toward your objective. Third-party benchmarks give a rough sense of range: Stackmatix puts general CPC at $4 to $9 and CPM at $27 to $65, with senior and executive audiences at the top of those ranges. LinkedIn sets a minimum daily budget of $10 per campaign.
Sponsored Content is the default starting point for most B2B LinkedIn programs, because it's the only format family that covers the full funnel, from awareness through lead generation, in one place. Sponsored Messaging is the better choice when you have one direct ask for a defined audience. Text Ads have a narrower job as low-cost placements in the right-hand rail on desktop.
Paid posts that appear natively in the LinkedIn feed, labeled "Promoted", and targeted using professional data like job title, company, and industry.
Single image ads, video ads, carousel ads, document ads, event ads, and Thought Leader Ads. Message Ads and Conversation Ads are a separate family called Sponsored Messaging.
It depends on your audience and bid. Third-party benchmarks put typical CPC at $4 to $9, and CPM at $27 to $65, and LinkedIn requires a minimum daily budget of $10 per campaign.
You build a campaign in Campaign Manager, choose an objective, audience, format, and bid, and the ad appears in the feed of members who match your targeting.
An ad that runs without being published on your company Page first, which lets you test multiple ad versions without cluttering your Page feed.
Sponsored Content appears in the LinkedIn feed and is billed per click or impression. Sponsored Messaging, meaning Message Ads and Conversation Ads, appears in the inbox and is billed per send.
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms attach to Sponsored Content to capture leads in the feed.
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