5 LinkedIn Advertising Tips For 2026

1. Use account-based targeting with Matched Lists

Account-based targeting with Matched Lists focuses your budget on businesses that are already commercially valuable, improving lead quality and reducing wasted spend.

LinkedIn's Matched Audiences feature lets you upload lists of target companies or individual contacts, aligning your advertising with wider sales and account-based marketing (ABM) strategies (see LinkedIn's company list targeting guidance for the current upload requirements). Rather than relying only on industry or job title targeting, you can advertise directly to decision-makers within priority accounts.

This approach works best when marketing and sales teams share the same target account lists and work towards common pipeline goals.

Benefits include:

• Higher relevance, by reaching people who fit your ideal customer profile (ICP) and are more likely to engage
• Stronger lead quality, through a focus on qualified prospects
• Coverage of multiple stakeholders within a company, by combining company lists with job function targeting
• Support for full-funnel marketing, from awareness through to retention

Layering Matched Lists with criteria such as job seniority and job function narrows your audience without making it overly restrictive. If you're already investing in paid social, this tactic should form part of a broader account-based advertising approach.

To measure performance, LinkedIn's Company Engagement Report (found in the Audience section of Campaign Manager once you select your uploaded company list) shows paid impressions and clicks for each target company, so you can see which accounts are engaging most with your campaigns.

2. Use personalisation macros in the right ad formats

Personalised messaging drives stronger engagement, because copy that reflects a prospect's role, industry or business priorities feels more relevant than a generic pitch. This matters most in competitive B2B categories, where decision-makers expect ads that show a clear grasp of their challenges.

LinkedIn's personalisation macros, dynamic placeholders such as %FIRSTNAME%, %JOBTITLE%, %COMPANYNAME% and %INDUSTRY%, insert a viewer's own profile data into your ad copy in real time. It's worth knowing exactly where these work: LinkedIn's advertising specifications confirm macros are supported in Sponsored Messaging (Message Ads and Conversation Ads), Dynamic Ads, and conversation assets used in click-to-message ads. They aren't available in standard single image or carousel Sponsored Content, so plan your personalised creative around the right formats from the outset.

An example, for a Message Ad greeting:

Generic: “Achieve your goals faster with the right tools. See how leading teams are improving productivity.”

Personalised: “%FIRSTNAME%, achieve your goals faster with the right tools. See how leading teams are improving productivity.”

A recent copy test we ran for a Red C client in industrial manufacturing saw a 38% stronger click-through rate once the %FIRSTNAME% macro was added to the opening of a Message Ad greeting. The only change was placing the macro naturally at the start of the copy.

Making one small, deliberate change to existing copy tends to produce clearer results than a full creative rewrite. A single variable lets you attribute the shift in performance with confidence; overhaul the whole creative and you lose the ability to say what actually worked.

Macros only render when a member has ad personalisation switched on and the relevant profile field completed, so always write a strong generic fallback for when the macro doesn't fire.

“Personalisation works best when it feels natural. Small, relevant changes to your messaging can increase engagement, build trust and improve campaign performance.”

— Sam, Senior Search Manager, Red C Marketing

3. Choose the bidding strategy that fits your objective

LinkedIn offers three bidding strategies, and the right choice has a real impact on campaign efficiency. Your best option depends on your campaign objective, audience size and stage in the funnel.

Maximum Delivery is a fully automated option: LinkedIn's system sets the bid and aims to spend your full budget while generating the highest possible volume of results.

Cost Cap is available for CPC, CPM, CPV and CPL campaigns. You set your preferred cost per result, and LinkedIn's system works to stay close to that figure, which makes it a strong choice for cost control, particularly on lead generation campaigns.

Manual Bidding gives you the most control: you set the bid value yourself, and that's exactly what enters the auction. It's the most hands-on option and needs regular monitoring to stay efficient.

Manual Bidding is the strategy our Paid Social specialists use most at Red C. A hands-on approach to bid management lets us keep driving down cost per action as a campaign matures.

Give new campaigns time to settle before making significant bidding changes. LinkedIn doesn't publish an exact figure for how long its learning phase lasts, but as an industry rule of thumb, 7 to 10 days is a reasonable window to allow before judging performance or adjusting bids.

4. A/B test creative, copy and CTAs

Running structured A/B experiments identifies which creative elements influence performance, so you improve results through evidence rather than assumptions.

A/B testing, also known as split testing, compares two versions of an ad to determine which produces the strongest results. Testing individual elements is the most reliable way to learn what works, so you can make sharper decisions about future creative and copy.

Rather than changing multiple variables at once, isolate individual elements such as:

• Headlines
• Ad copy
• Images
• Video thumbnails
• Calls to action

For example, you might test two headlines on a single image ad: one benefit-led (“Cut supply chain costs by 20%”) against one feature-led (“AI-powered supply chain planning software”). Or, for imagery, product-based visuals against people-based shots of employees at work.

Keeping every other variable consistent makes it easier to identify what actually influenced the outcome. Useful metrics to review include:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Cost per click (CPC)
• Lead conversion rate
• Cost per lead (CPL)

Many campaigns plateau because advertisers stop testing once they find one successful advert. High-performing LinkedIn ads need ongoing optimisation, since audiences grow familiar with creative over time.

“Successful LinkedIn advertising requires ongoing optimisation. Regularly reviewing campaign insights and refining your targeting, bidding and creative helps maximise ROI and improve long-term performance.”

— Sam, Senior Search Manager, Red C Marketing

5. Retarget members who've engaged with your ads

Retargeting helps you reconnect with people who've already shown interest in your business, making it one of the most effective ways to improve conversion rates.

With LinkedIn retargeting, you can nurture prospects who've already interacted with your brand and guide them towards becoming customers. Since few buyers convert after a single interaction, consistent follow-up matters.

LinkedIn's Matched Audiences feature lets you build retargeting audiences based on previous engagement across different ad types, including:

• Video ad views
• Lead Gen Form opens or submissions
• Website visits
• Company Page engagement
• Document Ad engagement
• Event registrations and interactions

By tailoring your messaging to where prospects sit in the buying journey, you can deliver more relevant content and improve campaign performance. A typical nurturing sequence might look like this:

• Share educational content that introduces a business challenge
• Retarget engaged users with case studies or success stories to build credibility
• Follow up with customer testimonials or product comparisons to strengthen trust
• Present a consultation offer, demo or free trial to encourage conversion

Rather than placing every website visitor into a single audience, create separate retargeting audiences based on engagement type and intent. Someone who watched 75% of a product video is likely much closer to a decision than someone who briefly visited your homepage; someone who opened a Lead Gen Form has already shown enough interest to justify a dedicated retargeting approach.

Best practice: create separate audiences for different engagement types and buying stages. Tailoring your creative and offer to each audience generally beats a single, generic retargeting campaign.

Bringing your LinkedIn advertising strategy together

Getting the most from your LinkedIn ad campaigns means combining audience targeting, creative testing, bidding optimisation and retargeting into one structured framework.

Successful LinkedIn advertising in 2026 depends less on any single tactic and more on how those tactics work together. Account-based targeting puts your adverts in front of the right people. Personalised messaging, used in the right formats, builds stronger engagement. The right bidding strategy drives efficiency. Ongoing testing uncovers incremental gains, and retargeting turns interested prospects into qualified leads.

Businesses that bring these elements together with a thorough LinkedIn advertising strategy are best placed to drive stronger returns. If you'd like support from a specialist team, explore Red C's Paid LinkedIn Advertising Services to see how a LinkedIn advertising agency can help transform and grow your campaigns.