In a nutshell: Monitoring the right LinkedIn ad metrics gives you a clear idea of how to refine your campaign strategies. Right from brand awareness to running sponsored InMail ads, you must know which key metrics deliver the right impact. On the other hand, you must keep track of important factors that play a major role in optimizing your LinkedIn ads performance. This step-by-step plan will help you streamline your campaign fundamentals to achieve the bigger picture.
LinkedIn is the most trusted professional network, with over 1 billion active users globally. It is one of the best social media platforms for B2B marketers to prospect high-quality leads.
By targeting decision-makers and stakeholders, and key executives, you can connect with the right people, build a loyal community, and maximize your online impact.
So, if you’re considering LinkedIn as one of the advertising channels, you’ve made the right decision.
However, to gauge meaningful campaign insights, you must track the right LinkedIn ad metrics. This will give you a clear idea of the nuances, the insights, and the next opportunities to maximize your advertising efficiency.
How do you get started? That’s precisely what this blog aims to answer. We’ll explore the 20 crucial LinkedIn ad metrics that you should focus on while running your LinkedIn ad campaigns. We’ve also shared some practical (tried and tested) insights on optimizing your (client’s) LinkedIn ad performance.
Let’s get started.
What are LinkedIn Ad metrics?
LinkedIn ad metrics give detailed insights into how your campaigns perform against pre-defined goals. These metrics signal whether your campaigns are effective in nurturing target prospects into potential customers. Tracking real-time metrics allows you to assess campaign performance and explore creative ways to improve your advertising ROI.
You can track and monitor the LinkedIn ads metrics by navigating to the Campaign Manager dashboard. From clicks to conversions, it offers a wide range of ad metrics to identify growth opportunities and measure ad performance.
Image Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
However, choosing the right LinkedIn ad metrics depends on your overall campaign objective and the marketing goal. For example, if you choose brand awareness, you should track impressions, reach, cost per mile, and frequency. If it is engagement, the crucial LinkedIn ad metrics include CTR, average dwell time, clicks to the landing page/LinkedIn page, etc.
Knowing what key LinkedIn ad metrics to track is the real game changer. Ultimately, these numbers play a crucial role in the LinkedIn ROI report that explains the insights and the next steps to your clients and stakeholders.
Now that you’ve got an idea let’s explore the key LinkedIn ad metrics categorized based on specific metric types in the next section.
Top 20 LinkedIn Ad Metrics to track
In this section, let’s explore the different LinkedIn ad metrics based on the following metric categories available in the campaign manager dashboard:
- Performance metrics
- Engagement metrics
- Delivery metrics
- Sponsored messaging metrics
Now, let’s explore the most significant LinkedIn ads metrics under each category and their importance in optimizing your LinkedIn ad performance.
Performance metrics
Performance metrics indicate how well your campaigns are performing and the effectiveness in accomplishing the desired goal.
1. Amount Spent
What it is: The total amount you’ve spent for your LinkedIn ad campaign. This is the key LinkedIn ad metric for calculating other cost-based metrics like CPC, CPM, and cost per conversion.
Why it matters: The average amount you spend indicates how effectively you plan to maximize your campaign budget. Instead of spending more and getting fewer conversions, strategically allocate the right resources to improve your campaign efficiency. Ultimately, your goal must be to reap more benefits at a minimal cost, by optimizing your budget, bidding strategy, and other supporting ad elements (ad relevance score and objective).
The bidding strategy you select will decide your cost for each result. Here’s how:
- Maximum delivery bidding is an automated bidding strategy designed to enhance your campaign results by utilizing the full budget.
- Manual bidding gives you complete control over setting bids for your campaign.
- Cost cap bidding lets you set the maximum cost per action you’re willing to pay, preventing you from overspending.
So, manage your amount spent by understanding how the above-mentioned factors influence your ad campaign.
2. Total Conversion Value
What it is: Refers to the total value generated by your conversions. In simple terms, this metric tells you the revenue generated from your ads based on people’s actions.
How is it calculated: Value per conversion x number of conversions.
If your product is worth $50 and 10 people purchase it, then the total conversion value will be $500 ($50 x 10).
Why it matters: When your client asks, “What is the average value you assign for each conversion generated by your ad campaign?” total conversion value will be your go-to metric. You can garner insights into whether you get the expected profits, have set the right pricing targets, and identify which strategies deliver the most value, enabling you to focus on what works best.
The total conversion value lets you understand how your revenue-generating efforts impact your overall bottom line.
Pro Tip: Set realistic financial goals by analyzing your past conversion value to optimize profits for your future campaigns.
3. Cost Per Lead
What it is: The total cost incurred to generate one lead from your campaign.
How is it calculated: CPL = Total amount spent/Number of leads generated
Consider that your campaign has generated 50 leads by spending $500. Then your CPL will be $10, i.e., you’ve spent $10 for each lead collected.
Why it matters: This is one of the crucial LinkedIn ads metrics as it highlights your campaign efficiency in generating actionable leads. A higher CPL indicates that you need to optimize your lead targeting strategy, whereas a lower CPL garners interested prospects who are eligible to become paid customers. By analyzing CPL closely, you can identify the number of leads required to achieve sales targets, manage pipelines, and allocate the best resources that yield better outcomes.
4. Event Registrations
What it is: Total number of member accounts that successfully registered for your LinkedIn event after viewing or clicking your ad.
Why it matters: This metric is useful if you want to nurture new leads by conducting events. By tracking the registration count, you’ll understand how your ad copy, visuals, and targeting strategy have convinced your prospects to sign up for the event. Besides, knowing who registered for your event gives deeper insights into the audience demographics and behavioral insights used to improve your future campaigns.
Pro Tip: Gather data on link clicks, monitor the number of completed registrations, and calculate the conversion rate to evaluate the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Event Registrations.
5. Cost Per Conversion
What it is: Refers to the average amount you spend on each conversion.
How is it calculated: Cost Per Conversion = Total ad spent/Number of conversions
Why it matters: Cost Per Conversion impacts your campaign’s financial goals. A higher cost per conversion also contributes to a higher CAC (customer acquisition costs), increasing the total cost associated with acquiring customers. In contrast, a lower cost per conversion signals that your campaigns accomplish the desired goals.
The costs associated with acquiring conversions are directly proportional to your campaign’s ROI. Ensure that the costs are minimal (within the given budget) to deliver profits to your clients and stakeholders.
6. ROAS
What it is: The revenue generated based on the ad spending efficiency. Simply put, the revenue generated for every dollar spent on your campaign.
How is it calculated: ROAS = Revenue generated/Cost of advertising
Why it matters: ROAS signals whether your campaign efficiency, budget allocation, and targeting efforts generate the desired profits. However, a good ROAS depends on several factors: industry, specific business model, ad strategy, and margins. So, it's worthwhile to consider unique circumstances before setting ROAS targets.
Overall, measuring ROAS is equally important for your campaign analysis, as it will show clients that your strategies effectively delivered the expected results.
Pro Tip: Avoid paying more for clicks, impressions, and repetitive campaigns with low returns. This will help you set and manage the right bidding amount for your campaign.
Engagement metrics
Engagement metrics tell you how effectively your ad campaigns capture the audience’s interest.
7. Average Dwell Time
What it is: Refers to the duration your audience spends interacting with your ad campaign. According to LinkedIn, it is the time spent viewing the ad when at least 50% of your pixels are on the screen. This metric also includes duplicate views.
Why it matters: Longer dwell times indicate that your audiences find your ad content interesting and relevant, whereas a lower dwell time suggests improvement. With this metric, you can strategically analyze the optimal ad placements, creatives, headlines, call-to-actions, etc, that drive maximum engagement and refine the content ideation accordingly.
Note: For the LinkedIn Audience Network, the average dwell time is measured on a sample of impressions where viewability signals are available. There may be certain circumstances where it doesn’t represent your campaign’s entire delivery.
8. Average CTR
What it is: The number of visitors who clicked your ad after viewing it.
How is it calculated: CTR = (Number of clicks/Impressions) x 100
Why it matters: Average CTR is a key LinkedIn ads metric that measures how effectively your ad persuades prospects to move to the next stage of the funnel. A higher CTR signals that your audience is interested in your offer and wants to explore more about it. Conversely, a poor CTR results from your audience’s disengagement, which might be due to irrelevant targeting, weak ad copy, unattractive visuals, high competition, etc.
Identifying and addressing these factors can help improve your ad engagement and enhance the overall campaign experience.
9. Total Social Actions
What it is: Refers to the cumulative social engagement your LinkedIn ad received - reactions, comments, shares, follow clicks, reaction clicks, and other engagements.
Why it matters: In a feed where many businesses compete for attention, your LinkedIn ad stands out if it gains the highest engagement. It reflects how every element in your ad has played a major role in capturing your audience’s never-ending scrolling behavior. Higher engagement signals lower the cost per impression and provide better reach. You can use this behavioral data to analyze the content (and content format) that resonates the most and adjust your future campaigns.
So, pay attention to optimizing your ad copy, design, and targeting capabilities to boost your ad engagement levels.
10. Total Video Engagement
What it is: The sum of all full-screen plays, social actions, clicks to the landing page, and clicks to the LinkedIn page, both paid and organic.
Why it matters: If you run a video ad on LinkedIn, tracking this metric is crucial as it gives valuable insights into how people interact with your video content. A highly engaging video ad fosters interaction, captures attention, and directs users to the required destination, improving traffic and conversion rates. The best part is that it tracks organic and paid engagements, giving holistic insights into how people react to your video.
Pro Tip: Conduct A/B tests with different video formats, thumbnails, messaging, and CTAs to analyze which variation drives the maximum engagement rate. Log all the key changes and choose the winning variant to optimize your video ad performance on LinkedIn.
Delivery Metrics
Delivery metrics indicate your ad efficiency in reaching the desired audience on LinkedIn. Let’s have a look at the four key delivery metrics:
| LinkedIn Ad Metric | Description | Usage |
| Reach | The number of unique users who interact with your LinkedIn ad. | The more your ad reaches new eyeballs, the higher your brand exposure and engagement. |
| Average frequency | The average number of times the same user saw your LinkedIn ad. | Displaying the LinkedIn ad to the same individual multiple times ensures they remember your offer and might take that necessary step. Do not overdo, it will cause ad fatigue, and people will instantly lose interest. |
| Cost per Mile | The cost per 1000 impressions. | Refine your audience targeting capabilities to achieve lower CPM costs. Aiming for higher exposure doesn’t mean you’ll reach a broader audience. |
| Audience Penetration | The percentage of audiences you reached with a single campaign is divided by the target audience size. | This metric is highly impactful as it determines the depth of how well your LinkedIn ad reached the right audience. Achieving a higher percentage ensures your ad engages the right people. |
Sponsored Messaging metrics
LinkedIn’s sponsored messaging lets you send targeted ad messages directly to the recipient’s inbox. This is an effective way to get a step closer to building relationships with your interested prospects.
Below is the table containing the important sponsored messaging metrics, which can help you gauge insights about your message and conversational ads.
| LinkedIn Ad metric | Description | Usage |
| Sends | The number of times LinkedIn delivered your Sponsored Messaging. | Indicates the targeting effectiveness and the delivery rate of your messaging ad. |
| Sponsored Messaging Clicks | The clicks on a CTA button, hyperlinks, and banner. | Illustrates the engagement and the audience’s interest in knowing more about your offer. |
| Click to Open Rate | The percentage of people who click after opening your Sponsored Messaging ad. | Reveals how compellingly your content resonated with the target recipients’s intent. |
| Cost per Send | The amount you pay for each message delivery. i.e., (total spend/total sends) | Minimizing cost per send ensures you achieve maximum visibility and engagement with your recipients. |
| Button Clicks | The number of clicks on your CTA button. | The higher the button clicks, the more the engagement. |
| Cost per Open | The costs incurred each time your recipient opens your ad message. i.e., (total spend/total opens) | A lower cost per open signals that you’re spending less for each recipient to open and engage with your message, leading to more efficient usage of your advertising budget. |
Five actionable strategies for optimizing your LinkedIn Ads performance
Measuring the right LinkedIn ad metrics matters. On the other hand, you must also know how to continuously refine your campaigns to stay relevant and engaging. In this section, we’ll explore the five actionable strategies that lay the foundation for you to optimize your LinkedIn ad performance.
1. Organize your LinkedIn campaign structure
Being a marketer, you know the importance of organizing a perfect LinkedIn campaign structure.
You must streamline your LinkedIn campaigns no matter how many ads you run. This setup ensures clear data flow from top to bottom, helping you analyze advertising performance and make further adjustments.
Image Source: LinkedIn Help
Once you understand what goes into every step of the campaign hierarchy, you’re halfway there. You can brainstorm with your team, ideate campaign assets, improve messaging, and allocate the best resources, contributing to a better impact.
2. Plan your budget
One of the most crucial steps in deciding your LinkedIn campaign’s success lies in setting up the right budget.
Be realistic while planning your campaign budget. Understand how it aligns with your advertising goals. This groundwork will make a huge difference in delivering your campaign message to the right audience.
You can choose either a daily budget (the average amount you spend per day) or a lifetime budget (the amount you spend for the entire campaign from start to end date). However, opting for the right solution depends on your ad campaign schedule/duration.
Image Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
If you’re new to setting up LinkedIn ads and unsure about budgeting, try experimenting with different options as trial and error. You must feed the platform with sufficient data to recommend a suitable campaign budget. In this case, discuss with your team and decide on an optimal budget that aligns with your (client’s) requirements.
Note: The minimum daily budget for any advertising format is $10. The minimum lifetime budget for new/inactive campaigns is $100. Once your campaigns go live, track the amount spent on behavior and make necessary adjustments.
3. Target the right audience
LinkedIn offers several useful targeting options to reach the intended audience. Start by building the correct account list by applying relevant filters based on job title, industry, company name, skills, interests, etc. Knowing where your content lands has a profound impact on your campaign strategy.
Image Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
To get a clear idea, come up with actionable evidence for the following questions:
- Is your target audience closely aligned with your product/service offerings?
- If yes, what are the pain points they face daily?
- How can your product/service be a competitive solution to their problems?
- Have they previously engaged with your content or company page?
- At what stage are they currently in the buying journey?
The answers to these questions will deepen your scope of targeting the ideal customer profiles. Eventually, refine, re-iterate, and optimize the list based on your campaign needs and target market.
Pro Tip:
- Assign a lead score to your prospects based on their engagement with your ads.
- While creating an audience list, ensure that the lists don’t overlap and target the same accounts again, which might negatively impact your conversion rate.
4. Create engaging content
The right content approach fuels an excellent campaign idea. Your campaign message should resonate, relate, and ultimately add value.
Choose the right content format - blogs, podcasts, static posts, videos, webinars, etc. Ensure that the content you choose aligns with the desired ad format perfectly. Here are the five invaluable tips to ideate meaningful content with the flow:
- Capture the audience's attention with a compelling headline.
- State your value proposition - what your campaign is about and the intent.
- Fine-tune messaging clearly - the tone should be highly conversational.
- Tell the audience what action they should take to overcome their pain points.
Remember not to overwhelm your audience with too much information. Keep it simple, straightforward, and impactful.
5. Track crucial LinkedIn ads KPIs in one dashboard
You can access all the ad metrics and download ad reports within the LinkedIn campaign manager dashboard. However, this manual method becomes cumbersome, if you want to get a complete picture. Tracking key metrics for multiple campaigns and customizing reports is even more time-consuming.
This is where you can integrate a LinkedIn ad reporting add-on (like Two Minute Reports) instantly into your Google Sheets or Looker Studio. You can connect multiple clients LinkedIn ad accounts, extract key campaign metrics automatically, visualize insights, and build stunning custom client reports and multi-channel dashboards with pre-built LinkedIn ads templates.
Track LinkedIn campaign metrics that drive change to save time. From optimizing campaigns to sending automated ad reports, focus on what matters to improve client relationships.
Track LinkedIn Ads Metrics with zero hassle
LinkedIn ads metrics and KPIs reflect your campaign success. By knowing which key LinkedIn ad metrics drive the change, you can identify the intricacies of your best and least-performing campaigns and make proper adjustments to optimize the performance.
The key to a successful LinkedIn campaign strategy lies in how you gather and analyze valuable advertising data. To get a holistic view of your campaigns and make informed decisions, connect your (client’s) LinkedIn ad account to Two Minute Reports’ LinkedIn Ads Reporting tool to streamline campaign performance, automate repetitive tasks, and deliver measurable results to stay ahead of the curve.
What’s the bottom line? Plan your strategy, choose your campaign objective, track key LinkedIn ads metrics, gain practical insights, and optimize your ad performance to deliver the best outcome. Rinse, repeat and evolve.
