How to Create Your First Campaign with LinkedIn's Campaign Manager

Step 1: Set up your campaign

1. Sign in to Campaign Manager

Campaign Manager is the advertising platform on LinkedIn. After you create a free account, the platform will guide you through each step of setting up your first campaign. Learn how to prepare for your first LinkedIn campaign, and then read on for an overview of the key steps in this process.

Once in Campaign Manager, select “Create” and then select “Campaign”. This will take you to the campaign creation page.

2. Select or Create a Campaign Group

Select a Campaign Group or create a new one for your campaign to live under. If it’s your first campaign, start by filling out the campaign group details starting with the name of your campaign group.

If you already have a campaign group, go to “select group” and skip to step 5 to build your target audience.

3. Select your objective

An objective is the action you want your audience to take upon seeing your ad. Selecting one objective for all campaigns in this Campaign Group will streamline your workflow. You can select ad formats, features and bid-types that support your objective during campaign creation. Learn more about the available objectives in Campaign Manager.  

4. Select your group budget and schedule

As an advertiser, you can use Dynamic Group Budget in Campaign Manager to optimize the budget for a campaign group, rather than an individual campaign. You can set one central campaign group budget in Campaign Manager, which is then used to continuously optimize the objective-based return on investment (ROI) across all campaigns within the campaign group.

If you choose not to select this, you can select a budget and schedule at the campaign level (step 7).

5. Build your target audience

After you fill out your campaign name, build your audience.

With over 1 billion members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. With Campaign Manager’s robust targeting, you can target with professional traits—like job title, company name, and industry type, or by professional or personal interests. 

You can also customize targeting by bringing in your own data using Matched Audiences—which includes retargeting, contact targeting, and account-based targeting.

6. Select your ad format

After building your audience, you’ll be asked to choose an ad format for your first campaign. Depending upon your objective, you can select from the various Sponsored Content formats (carousel, document, event, single image or video ads in the LinkedIn feed), Message Ads (ads that show up in LinkedIn messages), or Text Ads.

Learn more about Sponsored Content (Carousel, Document, Thought Leader, Event, Single Image, and Video Ads)
Learn more about Message Ads (Ads that show in LinkedIn Messaging)
Learn more about Text Ads (Right rail and Top Banner Ads)
Learn more about Dynamic Ads (Follower, Spotlight and Content Ads)

Discover Ad Format Guides and Specs

Next, select your ad placements:

Place your ads on LinkedIn or expand your reach with our trusted 3rd party publishers.

7. Select your budget and schedule

If you did not set a budget at the campaign group level, you can now set it at the campaign level.

Select the budget, bidding strategy, and schedule that works for your goals. Setting the right initial budget will help you automate or control costs and validate your marketing strategy.

Learn how to plan your starting budget and adjust it over time based on campaign performance:

Make the most of your budget

(Optional) Set up conversion tracking

By adding the LinkedIn Insight Tag to your website, you can track conversions attributed to your advertising campaigns.

Step 2: Set up your ad(s)

Depending on the ad format you selected, you may need to upload creatives. This may include the image, headline, URL, and more. Learn more about each ad format’s requirements and specifications with the LinkedIn Ads Guide. 

Step 3: Review & Launch

The final step before launching your first campaign is to review your campaign and add a payment method. Enter a debit or credit card, save, and your campaign will enter a review process before launching.

You can also leverage the Forecasted Results guide to estimate the impact of your campaign. If everything looks right, you’re all set!

Learn how ads are reviewed
Learn more about billing

Looking for more help? Check out Getting Started with Campaign Manager on LinkedIn Marketing Labs.