LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 750 million members. As such, it offers a unique opportunity for individuals and businesses to connect, build relationships, share content, and run targeted ads. While LinkedIn advertising is commonly associated with company pages and corporate accounts, many wonder if it’s possible to run ads from a personal LinkedIn profile as well.
The short answer is yes, you can run LinkedIn ads from a personal account. However, there are some important requirements, considerations, and limitations to be aware of. Running LinkedIn ads from a personal profile is very different than doing so as a company.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about running LinkedIn ads from a personal account, including:
Contents
– Requirements for running personal LinkedIn ads
– Pros and cons of personal vs. company LinkedIn ads
– LinkedIn advertising options for personal accounts
– Targeting capabilities and limitations
– Setting up a personal LinkedIn ad campaign
– Costs, payments, and billing
– Tips for optimizing and scaling personal LinkedIn ads
– Relevant LinkedIn advertising policies
– Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
So if you’re interested in tapping into LinkedIn’s powerful targeting capabilities to boost your own personal brand, promote content, drive traffic, or achieve other marketing objectives as an individual, read on.
Requirements for Running Personal LinkedIn Ads
Unlike company pages on LinkedIn, you don’t need to meet any specific requirements to run ads from a personal profile. However, there are a few recommendations:
– Use a complete, optimized LinkedIn profile. Profiles with a photo, headline, summary, work experience, and skills are more likely to be approved for advertising.
– Have at least 150+ connections. Profiles with larger networks are preferred.
– Be an active, engaged member for 6+ months. LinkedIn favors established users who regularly interact on the platform.
– Use an individual profile, not a company page. Company Pages are not eligible to run ads on LinkedIn.
As long as you meet those basic criteria above with a complete, active personal profile, you should be approved to advertise on LinkedIn.
Approval usually takes 1-2 business days after you submit your initial advertising request. Some accounts may require additional identity verification before being approved.
Pros and Cons of Personal vs. Company LinkedIn Ads
Running LinkedIn ads from a personal account has some unique advantages compared to doing so as a company. However, there are also limitations to consider.
Here are the key pros and cons:
Pros of Personal LinkedIn Ads
– Promote your personal brand as an influencer, thought leader, coach, consultant, freelancer, or other individual.
– Advertise side projects, personal blogs, portfolios, published works, and other content.
– Test strategies and creatives on a small budget before scaling for a business.
– Target a niche, specialized audience that’s relevant to your personal expertise.
– Drive traffic to your personal website, blog, or landing pages.
– Build credibility and increase awareness for you as an individual.
Cons of Personal LinkedIn Ads
– Limited targeting and campaign objectives compared to company ads.
– No access to LinkedIn’s Lead Gen Forms or other advanced business features.
– Difficult to scale spend and reach compared to corporate accounts.
– Much smaller advertising budgets allowed.
– Can only promote your individual personal brand, not commercial products/services.
– Metrics and insights are limited compared to Company Pages.
So in summary, personal LinkedIn ads are best for individual branding and promotion, while company ads are better for achieving business objectives at scale. The targeting capabilities are also more extensive for company accounts.
LinkedIn Advertising Options for Personal Accounts
If approved for advertising, there are 3 main LinkedIn ad formats available to personal accounts:
Sponsored Content
– Appear in the LinkedIn feed as organic-looking posts.
– Allow you to promote your own posts.
– Best for branding, awareness, traffic.
Sponsored InMail
– Send targeted direct messages to LinkedIn members.
– Effective for personalized outreach and engagement.
– Limited to 300 InMails per month.
Text Ads
– Display text-based ads on the right rail of LinkedIn pages.
– Ideal for clicks to external sites.
– Simplest ad unit but lower visibility.
The most commonly used ad format for personal accounts is Sponsored Content. This allows you to boost the reach of your own posts and pages to get them seen by more of your target audience.
InMail ads also work very well when you want to directly engage relevant prospects and send them personalized messages at scale.
Targeting Capabilities and Limitations
When setting up LinkedIn campaigns, there are fewer targeting options available for personal accounts compared to company pages. However, you can still target based on:
Demographic Targeting
– Location
– Age
– Gender
Job Role Targeting
– Job Title
– Job Function
– Seniority
Company Targeting
– Company Name
– Company Size
– Industry
Interests and Skills
– Member Skills
– Member Interests
– Group Memberships
The main limitations are that you can’t target by individual company names or specific LinkedIn Page followers. The audience size you can target is also much smaller, usually a few hundred thousand members maximum.
However, the targeting is still very powerful for personal branding within your professional niche and area of expertise.
Setting Up a Personal LinkedIn Ad Campaign
If your personal LinkedIn ad account is approved, here are the key steps to set up your first ad campaign:
1. Choose Your Campaign Objective
For personal accounts, LinkedIn only allows the following objectives:
– Brand Awareness
– Website Visits
– Page Views
So you’ll need to focus on brand-building or driving traffic with your personal ads.
2. Set Your Budget and Bidding
– Input your desired budget and schedule (daily, monthly, etc).
– Set your bid – recommended is $10+ per click.
– Daily spending cap for personal accounts is $500.
3. Target Your Audience
Use the demographic, job role, company, interests and skills targeting options referenced earlier to create your audience. Test 2-3 tightly focused audiences.
4. Design Your Ad Creatives
Create relevant, engaging ads with compelling copy and visuals. For Sponsored Content, highlight your best posts.
5. Send Your Ads for Approval
LinkedIn will review your ads and audiences. This usually takes 1 business day.
6. Monitor and Optimize
Once approved, your ads will run. Track performance in LinkedIn Campaign Manager and optimize over time.
Costs, Payments, and Billing
Running LinkedIn ads from a personal account uses the same cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) bidding as company accounts. However, there are lower minimum bids and smaller overall budgets:
– Minimum bid = $2 CPC, $10 CPM
– Maximum budget = $500 per day
For payment, you can use any major credit card saved to your LinkedIn account. Unlike company pages, you can’t make direct wire transfers or use invoicing.
Billing goes to your personal credit card on file monthly based on your spending that month. There are no contracts or commitments. You can pause or stop campaigns at any time.
Tips for Optimizing and Scaling Personal LinkedIn Ads
Here are some top tips to improve performance and scale the reach of your personal LinkedIn ad campaigns:
Optimization Tips
– A/B test ad creatives and audiences.
– Analyze clicks and conversion metrics. Identify best performing messages.
– Adjust targeting to remove irrelevant segments.
– Increase bids on well-performing ads.
– Create new ad sets with tighter focusing.
– Leverage interests and skills targeting for high relevancy.
Scaling Tips
– Use the full $500 daily budget if achieving desired CPA/ROAS.
– Broaden your audiences slightly to increase reach.
– Raise your CPC bids to maintain visibility as budget increases.
– Make multiple ad variations to prevent creative fatigue.
– Include a strong call-to-action to drive clicks.
– Promote your best content to maximize relevance.
With strategic testing and optimization, you can scale your top performing personal LinkedIn ads to reach larger audiences while staying within budget limits.
Relevant LinkedIn Advertising Policies
When running ads from a personal LinkedIn account, you need to follow all of their standard advertising policies, including:
– Cannot promote businesses, products, or services. Personal branding only.
– No misleading, illegal, harmful, or inappropriate content.
– Must use your real identity and information in ad account.
– Need to comply with general platform rules and Terms of Service.
– Ad transparency with clear disclosure that ads are paid promotions.
Violating any of LinkedIn’s advertising guidelines or platform policies could result in your personal ad account being suspended. Make sure you read and understand their rules and restrictions before advertising.
Some other key policies include:
– No advertising firearms, gambling, adult content, or illegal drugs.
– Have to accurately represent who you are – no fake accounts.
– Ad audiences under 100K users for personal accounts.
– Can’t target by specific companies or Page followers.
Stay compliant with all regulations, and focus your personal ads on driving genuine value for your target audiences. Don’t mislead people or make false claims.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I boost my posts as a LinkedIn personal account?
Yes, LinkedIn’s Sponsored Content ad format allows you to boost the visibility of your own posts and pages to reach larger targeted audiences. This is a great way to promote your best content.
What type of personal branding can I advertise?
As an individual, you can promote yourself as a thought leader, influencer, coach, consultant, freelancer, author, professional speaker, recruiter, and more. But you can’t advertise commercial products/services.
Is there a way to see how many LinkedIn members will see my ads?
Yes, within LinkedIn Campaign Manager you can see the estimated total audience size that your defined targeting parameters will reach. This helps inform expected campaign results.
Can I use a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form for my personal account ads?
Unfortunately no – Lead Gen Forms are only available for Company Pages on LinkedIn. For your personal ads, you’ll need to drive traffic to your own website forms and landing pages.
How much do personal LinkedIn ads cost?
Minimum bids are around $2 per click or $10 per 1,000 impressions. Average costs range from $0.50-$3.00 per click depending on competitiveness and targeting. Daily budgets are capped at $500.
