r/LinkedinAds

I’ve noticed something confusing while setting up LinkedIn campaigns.

Initially, with a specific targeting setup, LinkedIn showed an audience size of 11,000+. But later, when I created a completely new campaign using the exact same targeting settings, the audience size dropped to around 4,700.

Audience expansion was OFF in both cases, and the targeting conditions were practically identical.

Why does LinkedIn show such a huge difference in audience size for seemingly the same targeting?

Has anyone else experienced this inconsistency while creating campaigns?

One thing I keep noticing is teams trying to push cold traffic straight into demo requests before the prospect even knows who they are. Then they say LinkedIn doesn’t work because CPLs are high and pipeline quality is inconsistent. In most cases, the issue is the setup, not the platform.

A few patterns I’ve seen repeatedly:

A lot of accounts use the same CTA for every audience. But cold audiences usually respond much better to lower-friction stuff like useful content, webinars, guides, or short demo videos. Demo CTAs tend to work better once there’s already some awareness or intent. Use offers that match the buyer’s stage in the funnel.

Another big one is leaving on things like Audience Expansion or the LinkedIn Audience Network. On paper it increases reach, but in practice it often pushes delivery way outside your actual ICP. On a platform where clicks are expensive, bad targeting gets costly fast.

Retargeting is also usually way too broad. Some accounts retarget basically every visitor the same way instead of focusing on high-intent segments like pricing page visitors, repeat site visitors, or demo drop offs.

And lastly, tracking is probably the biggest issue overall. A lot of teams are optimizing around CPL because attribution between LinkedIn, CRM, and pipeline stages is messy. Once you start optimizing around SQLs, opportunities, and revenue instead of just leads, the platform looks very different.

Would love to hear what other people are seeing with LinkedIn Ads lately. If you have any strategies, targeting setups, or optimization checklists that have worked well for you, drop them below. Might help someone else in the thread too 💪

Hi everyone,

I’m currently running some experiments on audience targeting using job titles and job functions, but I’ve hit a roadblock with exclusions.

When I target specific IT roles by title (like Chief Data Officer or CIO), my audience insights still show a significant overlap with irrelevant member functions—specifically Business Development, Sales, and Marketing.

Since the platform doesn't seem to let me cleanly exclude these unwanted functions while keeping my title targeting intact, how are you all handling this?

Context: I'm experienced in the PPC space, spend most of my time in Google Ads.

I'm getting reasonable results with Lead Gen Forms connected to documents (high quality guides, checklists, etc.).

However, try as I might, I'm just not getting consistent results with other ad types (single image, carousel, video). I believe the landing pages are OK since they do alright on the G Ads side of things.

Anything I'm missing here? Do ya'll see the same?

Yes, LAN and audience expansion are turned off and I'm on manual bidding.

It feels like a lot of older playbooks are becoming less reliable.

I’m currently running LinkedIn Single Image Ads targeting senior decision-makers in Australia and New Zealand for a B2B webinar campaign.

The problem is that the campaign is barely gaining traction — only 1 click from 500+ impressions in the last 2 days, and there are barely 2 weeks left until the webinar. The audience targeting seems relevant, but engagement is extremely low.

The goal is webinar registrations from senior-level professionals, and right now it feels like the messaging or overall strategy isn’t connecting properly.

For those who’ve run successful B2B webinar campaigns on LinkedIn in ANZ region:

• What strategies worked best for you?
• Did you find single image ads effective, or did video/document ads perform better?
• How important was offer positioning vs targeting?
• Did retargeting, email nurturing, or organic promotion help more than paid alone?
• Any tips specifically for ANZ audiences?

Would genuinely appreciate practical suggestions because right now the campaign feels completely stuck.