LinkedIn ads allow businesses to reach a targeted professional audience and generate leads. However, sometimes businesses may want to cancel an ad before it finishes running. There are a few options for canceling a LinkedIn ad.
Pausing the Ad
The easiest way to temporarily stop an ad on LinkedIn is to pause it. When you pause an ad, it stops running and accruing costs, but the campaign and ad are still in place. To pause a LinkedIn ad:
- Go to the “Campaign Manager” section of your LinkedIn ads account.
- Click on the campaign that contains the ad you want to pause.
- Click “Pause” next to the ad you want to stop.
The ad will now show as “Paused” in the campaign. When you’re ready to resume it, simply click “Resume.” Pausing an ad allows you to take a break from advertising without having to recreate the ad and campaign later.
Deleting the Ad
If you want to permanently remove an ad on LinkedIn, you can delete it. When you delete an ad, it will stop running and will be completely removed from your account. To delete a LinkedIn ad:
- Go to the “Campaign Manager” in your LinkedIn ads account.
- Click on the campaign that contains the ad you want to delete.
- Click the 3 dots next to the ad name and select “Delete.”
- Confirm you want to delete the ad.
Once deleted, the ad will no longer appear in your account or accrue any additional costs. However, metrics and reporting data for that ad will still be accessible in your account analytics.
Stopping the Entire Campaign
If you want to stop an entire LinkedIn ad campaign, including all the ads within it, you can pause or delete the campaign. This will stop all the ads in that campaign from continuing to run and accrue costs.
To pause a LinkedIn campaign:
- Go to “Campaign Manager.”
- Click on the campaign you want to pause.
- Click “Pause” next to the campaign name.
To delete a LinkedIn campaign:
- Go to “Campaign Manager.”
- Click on the campaign you want to delete.
- Click the 3 dots next to the campaign name and select “Delete campaign.”
- Confirm that you want to delete the entire campaign.
Deleting an entire campaign will permanently remove all the ads within it. However, you can still access analytics data on the deleted campaign.
Canceling Through LinkedIn’s Support
If for some reason you are unable to pause or delete a LinkedIn ad on your own through the advertising platform, you can contact LinkedIn’s customer support to request canceling the ad.
To cancel a LinkedIn ad through customer support:
- Open a support case with LinkedIn’s ads team.
- Explain that you need to cancel one or more ads or campaigns.
- Provide the campaign and ad names or IDs that you want to cancel.
- LinkedIn will take care of pausing or deleting the specified ads on your behalf.
It may take 1-2 business days for LinkedIn support to process your request. Make sure to provide complete information so they can quickly identify which ads to cancel.
Possible Limitations of Canceling Ads
There are a couple limitations or caveats to be aware of when canceling LinkedIn ads:
- Ads or campaigns may continue to run for up to 24 hours after you pause or delete them, due to processing time needed to stop ads that are already active or pending.
- Canceling an ad mid-campaign may lead to lower campaign performance, as LinkedIn’s algorithms work best with consistent ad delivery over a campaign’s full duration.
- If you spent money promoting a campaign, that money is not refunded when you pause or cancel the campaign.
- Deleting ads permanently removes them from reporting, so consider downloading reporting data before removing ads you may want records on.
Adjusting Your Account Spending Limits
In addition to canceling individual ads, you can limit ad spend at the account level in your LinkedIn ads settings. There are two main options for controlling overall account spend:
Daily Account Spending Limit
- Set a maximum dollar amount your account can spend per day on all advertising.
- Once the limit is reached for the day, your ads will stop serving.
- The limit will reset at midnight to allow spending the next day.
Lifetime Account Spending Limit
- Set a maximum lifetime dollar amount your account can ever spend.
- Once this total spend is reached, your LinkedIn ads will stop serving.
Adjusting these limits can help manage ad costs without canceling individual campaigns and ads. You can find these account spending limits under “Account Assets” in your LinkedIn ads settings.
Requesting a Refund for LinkedIn Ads
If you want to completely cancel your LinkedIn ads and receive a refund for the money spent, you can request advertising credits back from LinkedIn.
To receive a refund on LinkedIn ad spend:
- Cancel any active ads and campaigns you are running.
- Open a support case requesting a refund for your advertising costs.
- Explain the reason you are unsatisfied with the ad performance and why you canceled your campaigns.
- Provide your account name, ad costs, and time period of your campaigns.
- LinkedIn will review your account activity and may issue an account credit if you qualify.
However, there is no guarantee of receiving a refund. LinkedIn advertising is pay-for-performance – you pay only when users engage with your ads. If your ads received impressions or clicks, LinkedIn considers that valid delivery of the advertising service.
Here are some reasons LinkedIn may refuse or limit a refund request:
- Ads successfully served impressions/clicks
- Refund request is made after campaigns have ended
- You violated LinkedIn’s advertising policies
- Refunds typically limited to first-time advertisers in first 30 days
So before requesting a refund, understand LinkedIn’s advertising policies and know there is a possibility the request is denied based on the delivery of your ad campaigns.
Conclusion
In summary, there are a few options for canceling LinkedIn ads:
- Pause individual ads
- Delete individual ads
- Pause or delete entire ad campaigns
- Contact LinkedIn support to request canceling ads
- Adjust daily/lifetime spending limits
Ideally, try to let ads finish out their full campaign duration before canceling to allow LinkedIn’s algorithms to optimize delivery. But if needed, you can stop LinkedIn ads at any time through the advertising platform or by contacting their support team.
Just be aware that canceled ads may continue accruing costs for up to 24 hours until fully paused. And refunds are not always guaranteed – LinkedIn will review factors like ad delivery and policy compliance before considering credits back to your advertising account.
