As a digital marketer or business looking to enhance your LinkedIn strategy, you may be wondering if it’s possible to buy LinkedIn data. With over 740 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is a goldmine of professional information and insights that could be invaluable for connecting with your target audience.
The short answer is yes, it is possible to purchase certain types of LinkedIn data, but with some important caveats. LinkedIn has strict policies in place to protect their members’ privacy and prevent misuse of their data. However, there are legitimate ways to acquire LinkedIn information that can benefit your business.
What Types of LinkedIn Data Can Be Purchased?
Here are some of the main types of LinkedIn data that you can obtain:
Contact Information for LinkedIn Members
One of the most sought-after types of LinkedIn data is contact details like email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. This enables direct outreach to LinkedIn members for sales, marketing, recruiting, or other purposes.
Full contact information is not available for all 740+ million LinkedIn members. However, many services provide email addresses and other contact info for a subset of members, often based on filters like job title, company, geography, skills, and more.
Company Information
You can purchase data about companies’ LinkedIn profiles, followers, recent posts, and employee information. This is helpful for research, identifying key decision makers, recruiting, and understanding your competitors.
Group Membership Data
LinkedIn Groups contain rich communities around certain topics and industries. You can buy data on which members belong to relevant Groups for your target audience. This presents networking and marketing opportunities through the Groups.
Targeted Lead Lists
Some providers will sell customized lead lists based on professional demographic criteria like seniority, job function, industry, location, and more. This allows you to purchase exactly the type of leads you need.
LinkedIn Profile Data
While you can’t buy full LinkedIn profiles, some services sell excerpts of profile data. This may include elements like name, headline, current position, company, skills, education, and more. It provides useful professional insights on key prospects.
Search Data
You can purchase data on LinkedIn search volume and trends. This reveals what types of topics and keywords are most popular with LinkedIn users in your target audience.
How Do You Buy LinkedIn Data?
LinkedIn strictly prohibits scraping or hacking their website to extract user data. So how is it possible to legally buy LinkedIn information?
There are a few main authorized methods of obtaining LinkedIn data:
Data Providers
Reputable data brokers acquire various types of LinkedIn user information through legal means. They package and resell this data to those looking to tap into LinkedIn’s professional data.
Examples of popular LinkedIn data providers include:
- Apollo.io
- ContactOut
- GetProspect
- Growbots
- Leadiro
- Lusha
- RocketReach
- Seamless.AI
- UpLead
- ZoomInfo
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn offers various marketing and advertising products through LinkedIn Marketing Solutions that leverage LinkedIn data for targeting. Options include:
- Sponsored Content
- Sponsored InMail
- Dynamic Ads
- Text Ads
These self-service and managed services allow you to tap into LinkedIn’s data treasure trove for your ad campaigns.
LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn’s recruiting platform that gives access to profile data for searching and connecting with candidates. Recruiter provides extensive search filters and insights for tailored recruitment outreach.
Buying a Recruiter license unlocks access to search LinkedIn data specifically for recruiting purposes.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Similar to Recruiter, Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s sales tool that integrates professional data into the platform. This allows searching and reaching out to prospects and accounts.
Sales Navigator grants access to view and export limited amounts of profile data for sales prospects.
What Types of Data Are Not Available?
While the above avenues allow access to certain LinkedIn data, there are still significant restrictions. Here are some key elements that are not available for purchase:
- Full LinkedIn profiles – You can only obtain profile excerpts.
- Private profile data – Personal info like birthdays or addresses is not accessible.
- LinkedIn private messages – Message history cannot be bought.
- Home/mobile phone numbers – Only business numbers may be available.
- Email addresses – Not all members’ emails can be bought.
- Search history – You can’t buy records of what members have searched.
- Group posts/discussions – Members’ private group activity is off limits.
- Connection lists – You can’t buy full records of a member’s connections.
In general, LinkedIn does not allow purchasing of private, individual-level data. They aim to protect member privacy while enabling broad professional insights.
Does Buying LinkedIn Data Violate Terms of Service?
No, purchasing LinkedIn data through authorized providers does not violate LinkedIn’s terms. However, it’s crucial to adhere to LinkedIn’s data policies and use their data responsibly.
Some key guidelines include:
- Only buy data from official LinkedIn partners.
- Don’t purchase or use data for hacking/reverse engineering.
- Don’t resell any obtained data.
- Don’t use data to contact members without consent.
- Don’t store or use data outside of service terms.
As long as you comply with LinkedIn’s restrictions on how their data can be accessed and used, buying select LinkedIn data is permitted within their terms.
Is Purchased LinkedIn Data Accurate and Reliable?
The reliability of purchased LinkedIn data depends on the data provider. High-quality data vendors like ZoomInfo and Seamless.AI pride themselves on the accuracy and depth of their LinkedIn data.
Key factors that affect accuracy include:
- Up-to-date data – Vendors should update their data frequently to reflect profile changes.
- Verification processes – Data should be verified through multiple sources beyond just LinkedIn.
- Compliance standards – Providers need strict standards to procure data legally and ethically.
- Relevancy – Targeted data with relevant filters often has higher accuracy.
The best LinkedIn data vendors will be transparent about their sources, standards, and accuracy rates. For high-quality B2B data, accuracy rates often exceed 90%.
How Much Does LinkedIn Data Cost?
Costs for buying LinkedIn data can range substantially based on these factors:
Data Types and Detail Level
More detailed data like full profiles or recruiting records cost more than basic contact information.
Data Amounts
The more data records you need, the greater the costs. Volume discounts may be available.
Targeting and Filters
Extensive targeting and filters for specialized data can increase costs but improve relevancy.
Data Accuracy and Scrubbing
Higher standards for accuracy, checks, and updates mean higher data expenses.
Packaged Solutions vs. Custom Data
Pre-packaged data products are cheaper than customized projects.
For basic contact lists, expect to pay around $150-300 per 1,000 contacts. More advanced projects could cost $500+ per 1,000 records. Evaluate providers’ specific pricing and samples.
Conclusion
Buying LinkedIn data in a legitimate, responsible manner can significantly enhance your marketing, sales, and recruitment efforts. But it’s crucial to comply with LinkedIn’s data policies and purchase only permitted information from trusted providers.
Focus on data types that provide tangible business value without crossing privacy boundaries. With strategic use of LinkedIn’s professional data, it can reveal unique insights about your customers, prospects, and talent pools.
As the world’s largest professional network with over 740 million members, LinkedIn is an invaluable asset. But you must access and utilize their data judiciously and ethically. With the right approach, LinkedIn data can hugely amplify your ability to connect with your ideal audience.
