LinkedIn Advertising Costs – Setting Your Budget for 2026

If you run a B2B business, LinkedIn Ads can be a fantastic way to raise brand awareness and reach specific demographics. Unlike other pay-per-click (PPC) platforms, you can target people by their job title, the company they work for… even by the skills and qualifications they have! However, if you want to run an effective LinkedIn campaign, you need to have the right budget in place. Here’s everything you need to know about the cost of LinkedIn advertising.

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The cost of advertising on LinkedIn

What’s the average cost per click (CPC) for an ad on LinkedIn?

The answer depends on who you want to target, the type of ad you want to run, and how much competition you have.

The average CPC on LinkedIn is $5.39. However, let’s drill down a little more by looking at some of the most common LinkedIn adverts and what you can expect to pay.

Want to know more about how much ads cost in 2026? Check out our anatomy of online advertising costs article!

Sponsored content

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The most common type of LinkedIn Ad, these are the ads that appear in people’s newsfeeds on both desktop and mobile. These adverts are ideal if you want to capture a broad audience and wow prospective customers with eye-catching visuals.

You can expect to pay between $5 to $8 per click for a sponsored content ad.

Text ads

Text ads appear on the top-right-hand side of the LinkedIn desktop feed.

There is not as much demand for these types of ads, as they are in a less noticeable position and not viewable on mobile. As a result, they are less expensive, with the average CPC coming in between $2 and $3.

However, these ads are a great way to raise brand awareness. Even if people don’t click on these adverts, they become more mindful of your business over time.

Dynamic ads

Dynamic ads are small ads personalized to each user, featuring users’ names, photos, and job titles to grab their attention! Like text ads, they appear on the top-right-hand side of the desktop site.

These ads are ideal for getting people to sign up to your company page or enrol into an event. You can even use them to promote job opportunities!

In our experience, the average CPC for a LinkedIn dynamic ad falls between $3 and $6. This might sound expensive, but as they’re specifically designed to appeal to each LinkedIn user, there’s a high chance of getting clicks!

Sponsored message ads

Sponsored message ads (sometimes called InMail ads) are exclusive to LinkedIn. You can use them to send a direct message to people who might be interested in buying from your business.

The great thing about them is that you don’t have to be connected to the people you send messages to, greatly expanding your reach.

Sponsored message ads don’t work on a CPC basis – they’re cost per send. This means you pay the same amount for an ad regardless of whether the target audience interacts with it or not.

LinkedIn is not overly open on how much it costs to send a sponsored message ad. We gauge the cost to be between $0.26 and $0.80 a send.

What else do you need to factor into your LinkedIn Ads budget?

How much do businesses spend on LinkedIn advertising costs? According to WebFx, one in four companies spend up to $100 on their LinkedIn Ads per month, with nearly one in ten spending over $10k!

While CPC is essential, it’s not the only thing you need to bear in mind when developing your LinkedIn Ad campaign. You also need to consider:

• Time and resources spent in-house. If your marketing team work on building, managing, and reporting on LinkedIn Ads campaigns, you need to assign a cost to the hours they dedicate to your adverts.
• Creative development. If you hire a third party to create imagery, videos, or ad copy, you need to include their fees in the cost of your campaigns.
• The cost of tools you use. If you use a tool to manage your LinkedIn Ads, like Emplifi or ReportGarden, you need to factor the pricing into your campaigns.
• Agency fees. You may use a digital marketing agency, consultancy, or freelancer to manage and optimize your ads. The fees will vary depending on the size of the agency and their track record in your industry. Some agencies charge a fixed monthly retainer, while others charge a percentage of ad spend.

Quickfire tips for managing your LinkedIn advertising costs

Want to manage your LinkedIn ad costs and ensure you don’t go over budget? We asked our experts for their top tips:

• Use negative targeting to exclude specific job titles, industries, and companies. This ensures your ads don’t show to people who aren’t interested in what you do
• Check out the LinkedIn Ads library to see your competitors’ ads – you can then create ads that are even better!
• A/B test your ads to see which ones bring in the best return on ad spend
• If you’re driving customers to landing pages on your site, make sure you optimize your pages for conversions
• Regularly review your LinkedIn Ad campaigns to identify any issues that might increase your costs

Want to get the most out of LinkedIn Ads? Partner with Aimers

Running LinkedIn Ads without the right strategy will drain your budget fast. At Aimers, we specialize in high-performance LinkedIn campaigns, helping businesses like yours achieve tangible results.

As Certified LinkedIn Marketing Experts, we know exactly what works — and what doesn’t. But the best proof of our expertise? The outstanding success of our clients. Take Mixpanel — we restructured their LinkedIn Ads account and implemented key optimizations, resulting in 164% more qualified leads and a 67% decrease in CPL.

Let’s discuss your goals and map out a winning strategy tailored to your business! Book a free intro call with our team here: aimers.io/contacts.

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