Demographic targeting on LinkedIn ads allows advertisers to show their ads to specific groups of LinkedIn users based on attributes like age, gender, location, education, industry, job function, and more. This enables brands to target the audiences that are most likely to be interested in and convert on their ads, improving campaign performance.
How does demographic targeting work on LinkedIn?
When setting up a LinkedIn ad campaign, advertisers can select which demographics they want to target from LinkedIn’s detailed targeting options. This includes targeting by:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Job title and function
- Company name and industry
- Schools attended
- Degrees obtained
- Skills and expertise
- Interests
- LinkedIn group membership
LinkedIn has data on all these attributes for its over 722 million members. When members engage with the platform by filling out profiles, LinkedIn captures this demographic data. Advertisers can then select the demographics that best align with their target customer profiles.
For example, a software company selling AI products for businesses may want to target LinkedIn members who are IT managers and chief technology officers at large enterprises. Or a university offering online education may want to target members who are 25-45 years old and interested in business skills.
LinkedIn’s algorithm will then show the ads to members who meet the chosen demographic criteria, increasing the likelihood that the right audiences see and engage with the ads.
What kinds of demographic targeting can you do?
Let’s explore some of the specific kinds of demographic targeting available on LinkedIn:
Age
Advertisers can target LinkedIn members by age ranges like 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65+. This allows brands to reach audiences aligned with specific life stages and cater campaigns to different age groups.
Gender
Ads can be targeted by gender to reach male or female audiences. Certain products and services resonate more with specific genders, so this allows customizing messaging accordingly.
Location
Ads can be targeted geographically at the country, state/province, metro area, or city level. Brands can focus spend on regions where their products are available or where search interest is highest.
Job function
Targeting by job function like engineering, IT, marketing, sales, HR, finance etc. connects ads with audiences based on their professional focus and role.
Seniority
Options to target by seniority like entry-level, manager, director, VP, CXO, and owner reach audiences by their level of organizational influence and decision-making authority.
Company attributes
Targeting by company name, size, and industry caters ads to audiences based on where they work and the type of business. Options include ranges for company size like 1-10 employees, 11-50, 51-200, 201-500, 501-1000, and over 1000 employees.
Education
Advertisers can target audiences who attended specific schools or majored in particular subjects, by degrees like associates, bachelors, masters, and doctorate. Fields of study like engineering, business, computer science can also be selected.
Skills
Targeting by skills like marketing, finance, leadership, project management, data analysis etc. connects ads with audiences possessing relevant capabilities.
Interests
Selecting interests like entrepreneurship, blockchain, machine learning, volunteering, parenting, and more reaches audiences passionate about those topics.
LinkedIn Groups
Ads can be targeted to appear for members who have joined relevant LinkedIn Groups based on their professional focus like technology, higher education, healthcare, real estate, and other industries.
What are the benefits of demographic targeting?
Here are some of the key benefits of using demographic targeting for LinkedIn ads:
- Better ad relevance – Ads are shown to audiences who are more likely to care about the product, service or cause.
- Improved click-through rates – Targeting helps increase ad CTRs by putting ads in front of interested users.
- Higher conversion rates – Demographic targeting improves lead generation and sales by engaging qualified prospects.
- Lower cost per lead/conversion – Displaying ads to ideal audiences lowers advertiser cost to acquire customers.
- Brand building – Connecting with niche demographics reinforces positioning and trust with target segments.
- Audience insights – Testing different targeting provides learnings into which audiences best respond.
In summary, demographic targeting improves LinkedIn ad results by increasing relevance, engagement and conversions. The richer the targeting, the better ads can connect with the desired audiences for a brand.
Best practices for demographic targeting
Here are some best practices to leverage demographic targeting effectively:
- Keep the core audience broad enough – Targeting too narrowly can limit reach and impressions.
- Layer on multiple attributes – Combine demographics like job title + company size for powerful targeting.
- Test different variations – Try different age ranges, locations, interests etc. to see what resonates.
- Align with customer avatars – Target audiences that mirror your ideal buyer personas and segments.
- Consider campaign objectives – Use broader targeting for brand awareness goals, and more precise targeting for conversions.
- Check audience sizes – Make sure targeted demographics are large enough to drive sufficient reach.
- Monitor performance – Analyze engagement, conversions, and costs for each audience segment.
Optimizing demographic selections based on performance data will help continually refine LinkedIn ads to hit the right target markets. Testing and iterating on audience targeting is key to improving results over time.
What targeting should you avoid?
While demographic targeting provides many benefits, there are some practices advertisers should avoid:
- Excluding audiences by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or other protected classes in hiring, housing, credit or education related campaigns. This helps avoid potential demographic targeting misuse.
- Making demographic targeting overly narrow and restrictive. Casting too narrow of a net risks limiting reach and campaign performance.
- Assuming certain demographics always represent the target audience. Testing different segments can uncover new audiences.
- Relying completely on third-party demographic data. First-party insights should inform ideal audience attributes.
- Using insensitive or derogatory terms to describe selected demographics.
While demographic info can help connect with audiences, it should ultimately be combined with other signals like content relevance, interests and intent to reach the right customers.
How can you integrate LinkedIn demographic data into other systems?
LinkedIn offers several options for marketers to access and integrate demographic data from LinkedIn into other systems like CRM, marketing automation, and analytics platforms to augment insights.
LinkedIn Audience Targeting
This feature provides a direct way to build target audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager by uploading lists of companies, groups or individuals from a CRM. Advertisers can then target website visitors or account holders that match the LinkedIn audiences.
LinkedIn Matched Audiences
Matched Audiences lets brands securely match their own first-party data like email lists with LinkedIn member data to create tailored audiences for more accurate targeting.
Marketing Developer Partners
LinkedIn’s Marketing Partner program allows marketers to access LinkedIn’s audience data directly from platforms like Adobe, Oracle, HubSpot and others via API integrations. This makes it easy to analyze and segment LinkedIn audiences from within these tools.
Custom Audience Integration
For advertisers managing large customer databases, LinkedIn offers customized integration support to ingest first-party data and match it with LinkedIn’s member details for ad targeting and analytics.
Leveraging these options provides a broader view of B2B audiences by enhancing existing data with LinkedIn’s professional demographics and engagement analytics.
What types of audiences should you target to get the most out of your ads?
Here are some recommendations on high-value target audiences to maximize LinkedIn ad performance:
Target by industry
Focus on audiences in your core industry verticals to reach relevant decision makers.
Target by job function
Align with job roles that influence or make purchasing decisions.
Target by interests
Select interests that indicate intent for your products/services.
Target by skills
Seek audiences with skills applicable to using your offerings.
Target by seniority
C-level and management roles often have higher budget authority.
Target by company size
Larger companies typically have greater needs and resources.
Target by groups
RelevantLinkedIn Groups indicate involvement and passion for topics.
Retarget engaged visitors
Remarket to audiences who have previously visited your website or pages.
Combining qualification criteria across demographics, engagement, account traits, interests and intent signals will help you zero in on your highest potential customers on LinkedIn.
How can you optimize demographic targeting over time?
To continually improve LinkedIn ad demographic targeting, here are some tips:
- Review targeting insights – Analyze which demographic splits drive the most conversions
- Expand on what works – Broaden targeting for top performing demographics with similar attributes
- Tighten up irrelevant targets – Remove segments that don’t engage or convert
- Test new variables – Experiment with different demographics not yet tested
- Check audience overlap – Evaluate how much overlap exists between segmented audiences
- Apply learnings across campaigns – Share top segments across ads for continous optimization
- Monitor changes over time – As the audience evolves, keep targeting current and relevant
Consistent testing, data analysis and optimization allows you to refine demographic targeting and improve LinkedIn ad results over time. The ideal mix of audience attributes will change across campaigns and over time as brand awareness and product interest evolves in the market.
Can you give some examples of demographic targeting done right?
Here are some examples of savvy demographic targeting from real LinkedIn advertisers:
Adobe
When promoting their Marketo Engage product, Adobe targeted LinkedIn ads to marketing and sales professionals at mid-market B2B companies. This aligns perfectly with their core customer base.
SAP
For their Concur offering, SAP targeted LinkedIn ads to finance department employees at large enterprises. This speaks directly to the decision makers and users for their product.
Monash Business School
To promote graduate programs, Monash targeted LinkedIn members interested in business education and who indicated they were likely to enroll soon on their LinkedIn profiles.
Amazon Web Services
For AWS training certifications, Amazon targeted LinkedIn members with cloud computing skills to upsell them into certification programs to advance their careers.
In each example above, the targeting is specific enough to engage the right audiences, while still being broad enough to drive sufficient reach and volume across LinkedIn’s member base.
Conclusion
In summary, precise demographic targeting is vital for improving LinkedIn ad results and ROI. Aligning ads with the right audience attributes tailors messaging, increases engagement and drives conversions. To maximize value, advertisers should:
- Combine demographic targeting with other qualification criteria
- Test different audience segments
- Target enough volume to ensure sufficient reach
- Avoid improper exclusion of protected classes
- Analyze performance data to optimize over time
With thoughtful use of demographic insights, marketers can engage their best-fit customers and propel the performance of LinkedIn ad campaigns.
