Home / Research / How much do LinkedIn Ads cost? 2026
How much do
LinkedIn Ads cost?
2026
Letting LinkedIn bid for you nearly doubles what you pay for a click.Maximum delivery: +103% per website click vs a manual bid, same account, same objective.
What 1,310 advertisers actually paid for every LinkedIn ad format over twelve months: the median, the cheapest quarter and the dearest, and what changed in 2026.
AT A GLANCE
Ten findings
Every number is a median account or a same-account comparison. Stars show strength of evidence.
Letting LinkedIn bid for you nearly doubles what you pay for a click.
Maximum delivery vs a manual CPC bid, same account and same objective: +103% per website click (90 accounts, cheaper in only 23 of 102 pairs). CPM +37%, click-through rate unchanged.
One in four lead gen campaigns never produced a single lead.
1,498 campaigns spent $100+ with zero leads in 12 months: $1.39M. In 85% of them people opened the form; nobody submitted it.
The same ad costs one advertiser $8 a click and another $27.
Single image, cost per website click: the cheapest quarter of accounts pay $8.11 or less, the median $14.21, the dearest quarter $27.04 or more.
Engagement Thought Leader Ads: +43% per website click in 2026.
Flat to March, then a jump in April that never came back. Single image website clicks: +3% (not significant) over the same months.
Message ads are the cheapest lead: $121.
48% cheaper than single image lead forms in the same account (32 of 45). Documents 40% cheaper (86 of 117).
Uploaded lists cost 21% more to reach than cold audiences.
CPM +21%, cost per website click +11%, cost per message sent +17%. Lists buy precision, not price.
Small audiences cost 43% more per impression.
Under 30k vs 100k+ in the same account: CPM +43%, cost per click +30%, cost per send +43%.
The US costs 3x more than the Netherlands to reach.
Single country targeting, single image CPM: US $91.30, UK $50.49, Germany $43.37, Netherlands $29.89, India $13.38.
Leads cost 19% more in August than in January.
Same accounts. Impressions rose 9%. December was the dearest month for leads: +26% vs November.
Doubling your budget adds 13% to every lead.
Within the same account, month to month. Clicks and impressions rise only 4 to 5% per doubling.
THE PRICE LIST
What every format costs
Median account, top 25%, bottom 25%, for eleven formats.
The median advertiser pays $54.53 per thousand impressions,$14.21 per website click and $226 per lead.
| Median account | CPM | Cost per website click | Cost per lead | Also |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single image | $54.53 | $14.21 | $226 | $272 per website conversion |
| Thought Leader Ad, static | $64.96 | $21.13 | · | $1.65 per engagement |
| Thought Leader Ad, video | $60.64 | $50.82 | · | $0.13 per view |
| Video | $46.45 | $30.87 | $351 | $0.13 per view · $3.23 per completed view |
| Document | $57.16 | not a traffic format | $200 | $1.10 per engagement |
| Carousel | $57.88 | $14.86 | $375 | n=20 on leads |
| Conversation ad | · | · | $338 | $0.48 per send · $1.17 per open · 40.7% open rate |
| Message ad | · | · | $121 | $0.37 per send · $0.79 per open · 49.3% open rate |
| Text ad | $0.69 | $11.41 | · | right rail, paid per click |
| Spotlight | $2.87 | $7.07 | · | right rail, paid per click |
Median of each account's own 12-month figure. Minimum $250 spend on the format plus 5,000 impressions (CPM), 10 website clicks, 3 leads, 500 sends or 100 views. Website click = LinkedIn landing page click, never total clicks. Cost per lead = lead generation objective. Text ad and spotlight CPMs look tiny because they are bought per click on right rail impressions. Thought Leader Ad website click costs here remove posts without a link at campaign level, so some link-less posts stay in; Report No. 1 removes them post by post and reports $14.71. Use Report No. 1 for Thought Leader Ad benchmarks.
COST PER WEBSITE CLICK · MEDIAN ACCOUNT
Single image is the cheapest way to buy a visit.
Feed objectives only. Campaigns with 2,000+ impressions and zero website clicks removed.
COST PER LEAD · MEDIAN ACCOUNT
The inbox and the document win on leads.
Lead generation objective. Content and demo leads combined; see Report No. 3 for the split.
The spread is the story
The same format costs the cheapest quarter of accounts a third of what it costs the dearest quarter. Every row below is a range you can place yourself in.
SINGLE IMAGE
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 802 | $21.24 | $32.45 | $54.53 | $98.19 | $160 |
| Cost per website click | 690 | $4.67 | $8.11 | $14.21 | $27.04 | $50.47 |
| Website click-through rate | 685 | 0.69% | 0.50% | 0.38% | 0.28% | 0.17% |
| Cost per lead | 298 | $43 | $92 | $226 | $667 | $1,250 |
| Cost per website conversion | 296 | $24 | $72 | $272 | $928 | $2,406 |
THOUGHT LEADER AD, STATIC
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 404 | $21.78 | $36.11 | $64.96 | $113 | $194 |
| Cost per website click | 334 | $4.47 | $9.16 | $21.13 | $46.35 | $145 |
| Website click-through rate | 351 | 0.78% | 0.53% | 0.34% | 0.14% | 0.03% |
| Cost per engagement | 414 | $0.37 | $0.78 | $1.65 | $3.56 | $6.95 |
VIDEO (COMPANY PAGE)
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 479 | $15.80 | $27.75 | $46.45 | $83.79 | $142 |
| Cost per 2-second view | 499 | $0.04 | $0.07 | $0.13 | $0.22 | $0.38 |
| Cost per completed view | 492 | $0.67 | $1.46 | $3.23 | $6.82 | $12.23 |
| Cost per website click | 394 | $6.11 | $12.28 | $30.87 | $84.52 | $162 |
THOUGHT LEADER AD, VIDEO
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 205 | $14.47 | $34.08 | $60.64 | $103 | $151 |
| Cost per 2-second view | 213 | $0.04 | $0.08 | $0.13 | $0.22 | $0.34 |
| Cost per completed view | 209 | $0.79 | $1.89 | $4.39 | $8.92 | $14.26 |
| Cost per website click | 138 | $10.03 | $25.00 | $50.82 | $97.22 | $262 |
DOCUMENT
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 305 | $22.29 | $32.65 | $57.16 | $103 | $167 |
| Cost per lead | 188 | $44.65 | $88.12 | $200 | $437 | $848 |
| Cost per engagement | 115 | $0.15 | $0.46 | $1.10 | $2.10 | $3.48 |
CONVERSATION AD
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per send | 188 | $0.13 | $0.28 | $0.48 | $0.77 | $1.38 |
| Cost per open | 188 | $0.32 | $0.71 | $1.17 | $1.92 | $3.32 |
| Open rate | 188 | 52.9% | 47.0% | 40.7% | 35.4% | 31.2% |
| Cost per lead | 123 | $50 | $155 | $338 | $669 | $1,117 |
MESSAGE AD
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per send | 159 | $0.12 | $0.23 | $0.37 | $0.74 | $1.23 |
| Cost per open | 160 | $0.22 | $0.47 | $0.79 | $1.66 | $2.71 |
| Open rate | 159 | 58.7% | 54.3% | 49.3% | 42.8% | 39.3% |
| Cost per lead | 91 | $25 | $65 | $121 | $193 | $413 |
CAROUSEL
| accounts | top 10% | top 25% | median | bottom 25% | bottom 10% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 109 | $15.55 | $28.84 | $57.88 | $102 | $183 |
| Cost per website click | 97 | $5.01 | $9.06 | $14.86 | $31.76 | $80.78 |
Top 25% = the cheapest quarter of accounts. For rates (click-through, open rate) top is the highest.
2026
Did LinkedIn get more expensive?
Same accounts, month by month, January to August 2026.
LinkedIn got a little dearer in 2026.Engagement Thought Leader Ads got 43% dearer per click.
INDEX, JANUARY 2026 = 100 · SAME ACCOUNTS · FIXED EFFECTS
What moved, and what did not.
Two-way fixed effects (account and month) on every account-month with enough volume; 252 to 845 accounts per line. LAN excluded.
| Jan to Aug 2026, same accounts | Change | 95% interval | Robust (median) model | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPM, all feed formats | +9% | +2% to +17% | +4% | 845 |
| Cost per website click, all feed formats | +12% | +1% to +26% | +10% | 722 |
| Cost per lead, all lead gen formats | +19% | +1% to +45% | +17% | 398 |
| Cost per lead · single image | +31% | +10% to +63% | +22% | 262 |
| Cost per lead · document | +25% ns | −5% to +74% | +6% | 147 |
| Cost per lead · conversation ad | +27% ns | −1% to +77% | +30% | 104 |
| Cost per lead · message ad | +127% | +41% to +288% | +69% | 73 ★ |
| Cost per website click · engagement Thought Leader Ads | +43% | +14% to +76% | +31% | 252 |
| CPM · engagement Thought Leader Ads | +15% ns | −1% to +27% | +8% | 322 |
| Cost per engagement · Thought Leader Ad static | +47% | +25% to +68% | +20% | 341 |
| Cost per website click · single image | +3% ns | −8% to +16% | +5% | 549 |
| CPM · single image | −3% ns | −9% to +7% | −4% | 674 |
| CPM · document | −10% ns | −27% to +6% | −4% | 247 |
| CPM · video | +13% ns | −3% to +30% | +1% | 383 |
| Cost per video view · video | +4% ns | −9% to +22% | 0% | 392 |
| Cost per send · conversation ad | +13% ns | −3% to +35% | +6% | 147 |
| Cost per send · message ad | +64% | +23% to +134% | +36% | 119 |
The robust model uses medians instead of means; where it is much smaller than the main estimate, a few accounts drive the rise. Read those rows as directional.
Why leads got dearer in the feed
FEED LEAD GEN · JAN TO AUG 2026 · SAME ACCOUNTS
Cost per lead = CPM ÷ (form opens × completion).
Single image, document, video, carousel and TLA on the lead generation objective. 326 to 390 accounts. Fixed effects; the robust model shows the same direction with smaller form effects.
INBOX LEAD GEN · CONVERSATION + MESSAGE ADS
In the inbox, the send got dearer.
| Component | Jan→Aug | 95% interval |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | +33% ns | −1% to +71% |
| Cost per send | +35% | +14% to +57% |
| Open rate | +6% | +2% to +11% |
| Form completion | −11% ns | −25% to +4% |
121 to 187 accounts. Opens went up slightly; the price of each send went up more.
HOW KIIN READS IT
In the feed, the price of the impression held flat or fell while the lead got dearer, because fewer people opened the form and fewer of those finished it. That points at offers and forms, not at the LinkedIn auction. The one place LinkedIn clearly charged more is engagement Thought Leader Ads from April.
December and January
| Same account | Change | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead, December vs November | +26% [+7%, +46%] | 43 ★ |
| CPM, December vs November | +0% | 96 |
| CPM, January vs December | −18% [−20%, −14%] | 227 |
| Cost per website click, January vs December | −8% | 167 |
| Cost per lead, January vs December | −10% | 114 |
| Cost per send, December vs November | −2% ns | 21 ★ |
December leads cost a quarter more for the same impression price. January is the cheapest month of the year to buy impressions: CPM fell 18% in the same accounts.
FORMAT VS FORMAT
Which format buys what cheapest
Same account comparisons for traffic, leads and reach.
Same account, different format.Single image buys the cheapest visit; message ads the cheapest lead.
Every comparison below uses only accounts that ran both formats, and reports the median of each account's own ratio with a 95% confidence interval.
COST PER WEBSITE CLICK · VS SINGLE IMAGE
- +13%Carousel ns
[−2%, +30%] · cheaper in 39 of 93 - +31%Thought Leader Ad, static ★★
[+10%, +51%] · cheaper in 95 of 253 · includes some link-less posts, see Report No. 1 - +141%Video ★★★
[+101%, +185%] · cheaper in 59 of 328 - +255%Thought Leader Ad, video ★★★
[+183%, +347%] · cheaper in 12 of 109 - +433%Document ★★
not a traffic format · cheaper in 6 of 67
COST PER LEAD · VS SINGLE IMAGE
- −48%Message ad ★★
[−64%, −22%] · cheaper in 32 of 45 - −40%Document ★★★
[−47%, −30%] · cheaper in 86 of 117 - −21%Conversation ad ns
[−37%, +8%] · cheaper in 34 of 59 - +48%Video ★★
[+19%, +218%] · cheaper in 7 of 31 - +60%Carousel ns
cheaper in 6 of 16
CPM · VS SINGLE IMAGE
- −10%Video ★★★
[−19%, −5%] · cheaper in 236 of 411 - −5%Document ns
cheaper in 145 of 276 - −5%Carousel ns
cheaper in 54 of 104 - +7%Thought Leader Ad, video ns
cheaper in 72 of 168 - +15%Thought Leader Ad, static ★★★
[+8%, +20%] · cheaper in 127 of 320
INSIDE THE FORMATS
- −14%Conversation vs message ad, cost per send ★
[−32%, 0%] · cheaper in 41 of 65 - +66%Conversation vs message ad, cost per lead ns
cheaper in 11 of 28; medians $338 vs $121 - −10%TLA video vs TLA static, CPM ★★★
cheaper in 97 of 164 - +161%TLA video vs TLA static, website click ★★★
cheaper in 19 of 109
The objective changes the price more than most targeting
| Single image, median account | CPM | Cost per website click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website visits | $55.26 | $12.58 | · |
| Website conversions | $61.66 | $13.70 | · |
| Engagement | $57.28 | $18.94 | · |
| Brand awareness | $50.19 | $33.82 | · |
| Lead generation | $73.19 | · | $226 |
- +62%Single image: engagement vs website visits objective, cost per website click ★★★
[+39%, +99%] · same account · cheaper in 41 of 160 - +37%Single image: lead generation vs website visits objective, CPM ★★★
[+22%, +47%] · the lead form costs more to show - −43%Thought Leader Ad: brand awareness vs engagement, CPM ★★
[−56%, −35%] · cheaper in 42 of 54 - −37%Video: video views vs brand awareness objective, cost per view ★★
[−57%, −10%] · cheaper in 25 of 36 - −35%Video: auto "maximise video views" vs manual CPV, cost per completed view ★
[−55%, −21%] · 15 of 20 pairs
WHO AND WHERE
Country, function, seniority, size, industry
What your targeting does to the price.
Where you advertise sets the floor.The US costs $91 per thousand; the Netherlands $30.
SINGLE IMAGE CPM · CAMPAIGNS TARGETING EXACTLY ONE COUNTRY
Price per thousand impressions, median account.
Cross-account, 7+ accounts per country. Descriptive: countries differ in formats and buyers too.
| Country (single-country campaigns) | Single image CPM | Cost per website click | Video cost per view | Cost per lead | Cost per send |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $91.30 (268) | $21.68 (234) | $0.194 (156) | $292 (137) | $0.56 (100) |
| Norway | $89.34 (15) | $13.38 (12) | $0.163 | · | · |
| Sweden | $72.01 (24) | $24.07 (22) | $0.129 | · | · |
| Canada | $61.82 (8) | $15.71 (7) | $0.148 | · | · |
| Australia | $52.47 (15) | $31.15 (12) | $0.158 | $158 (7) | · |
| United Kingdom | $50.49 (79) | $12.82 (64) | $0.124 (36) | $160 (40) | $0.52 (27) |
| Denmark | $49.95 (29) | $15.93 (26) | $0.158 (26) | $253 (10) | · |
| Switzerland | $48.40 (8) | · | · | · | · |
| Germany | $43.37 (49) | $12.45 (33) | $0.158 (20) | $189 (35) | $0.25 (9) |
| Spain | $34.34 (10) | $5.83 (8) | · | · | · |
| Israel | $31.59 (11) | · | · | $86 (7) | · |
| United Arab Emirates | $31.56 (13) | · | $0.060 (10) | $72 (12) | · |
| France | $30.98 (24) | $11.07 (18) | $0.052 (15) | $238 (9) | · |
| Netherlands | $29.89 (60) | $11.00 (47) | $0.069 (38) | $117 (16) | $0.21 (10) |
| Brazil | $16.96 (10) | $3.13 (8) | · | $20 (8) | · |
| India | $13.38 (11) | $2.25 (10) | $0.010 (10) | · | · |
Accounts in brackets.
By region
| Region targeted | Single image CPM | Cost per website click | Cost per lead, all formats | Cost per send |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US & Canada | $93.68 (335) | $21.08 (295) | $312 (194) | $0.56 (138) |
| Nordics | $60.46 (62) | $18.81 (53) | $238 (24) | · |
| Multi-region | $54.35 (273) | $14.73 (240) | $265 (139) | $0.52 (88) |
| UK & Ireland | $51.37 (99) | $13.03 (80) | $161 (53) | $0.46 (37) |
| APAC | $48.40 (49) | $9.55 (43) | $213 (23) | $0.35 (12) |
| Europe-wide | $47.17 (52) | $11.64 (35) | $224 (23) | $0.45 (8) |
| DACH | $45.88 (115) | $12.30 (86) | $202 (74) | $0.25 (15) |
| Central & Eastern Europe | $36.19 (9) | · | · | · |
| Southern Europe | $29.31 (18) | $5.45 (14) | $139 (11) | $0.26 (7) |
| France | $29.24 (25) | $11.07 (18) | $226 (10) | · |
| Middle East | $29.18 (39) | $6.39 (21) | $77 (30) | $0.14 (20) |
| Benelux | $28.81 (75) | $10.18 (60) | $104 (26) | $0.19 (18) |
| LATAM | $18.04 (18) | $3.38 (12) | $37 (14) | $0.18 (10) |
By job function targeted
Technical and finance buyers cost the most per lead; HR, sales and business development the least. The impression price barely moves: the lead price moves 4x.
| Function (campaigns targeting 1 to 3) | Single image CPM | Cost per website click | Cost per lead | Cost per send |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance | $63.82 (52) | $16.30 (42) | $355 (23) | $0.41 (18) |
| Accounting | $72.47 (22) | $19.64 (18) | $348 (12) | $0.39 (10) |
| Engineering | $61.62 (50) | $16.79 (39) | $342 (20) | $0.65 (16) |
| Legal | $67.59 (9) | $25.10 (8) | $335 (7) | · |
| Information Technology | $61.43 (74) | $18.14 (52) | $333 (41) | $0.56 (22) |
| Operations | $54.46 (75) | $16.16 (55) | $304 (29) | $0.45 (18) |
| Product Management | $48.79 (23) | $21.35 (17) | $283 (8) | $0.49 (7) |
| Quality Assurance | $77.25 (12) | $20.34 (7) | $269 (7) | · |
| Media and Communication | $61.12 (19) | $18.06 (13) | $251 (9) | · |
| Marketing | $61.36 (74) | $22.20 (52) | $229 (38) | $0.49 (22) |
| Business Development | $53.94 (89) | $16.12 (64) | $152 (40) | $0.48 (17) |
| Sales | $49.60 (42) | $17.93 (34) | $149 (21) | $0.34 (12) |
| Human Resources | $48.47 (39) | $14.61 (27) | $86 (26) | $0.56 (11) |
By seniority and company size
| Lowest seniority included | CPM | Website click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry and above | $50.33 | $14.55 | $132 |
| Senior and above | $46.58 | $13.49 | $197 |
| Manager and above | $60.76 | $17.99 | $256 |
| Director and above | $64.06 | $16.78 | $176 |
| VP and above | $66.55 | $13.25 | $107 ★ |
| CXO | $60.84 | $14.03 | $148 ★ |
| Company size targeted | CPM | Website click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 200 only | $42.93 | $11.28 | $120 |
| Mixed bands | $49.72 | $13.84 | $201 |
| Not set | $61.87 | $14.56 | $213 |
| 201 to 1,000 only | $59.67 | $14.37 | $333 ★ |
| 1,001+ only | $77.41 | $20.10 | $302 |
Same account, same objective: Director and above only vs including Manager or Senior made no difference to CPM (+6% ns), website click (+4% ns), lead (−1% ns) or send (+3% ns). Seniority is a targeting choice, not a price lever. Enterprise-only targeting (1,001+) is the dearest company-size choice on every metric.
By industry targeted
| Industry (campaigns targeting 1 to 3) | Single image CPM | Website click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitals | $131 (9) | $28.07 | $333 |
| Retail | $70.32 (16) | $25.61 | $406 |
| Technology, Information and Internet | $69.26 (27) | $15.68 | $447 |
| Financial Services | $64.19 (34) | $18.56 | $161 |
| Hospitals and Health Care | $62.59 (14) | $12.88 | $457 |
| Manufacturing | $59.37 (15) | $21.71 | $270 |
| Software Development | $59.18 (26) | $13.57 | $92 |
| Insurance | $55.67 (10) | $20.65 | · |
| Real Estate | $50.80 (16) | $9.45 | $135 |
| Pharmaceutical Manufacturing | $50.12 (10) | $15.72 | $260 |
| Business Consulting and Services | $43.31 (10) | $11.38 | $78 |
| Construction | $33.98 (15) | $8.00 | $224 |
| IT Services and IT Consulting | $27.02 (12) | $6.72 | $96 |
Industry cells are small (7 to 34 accounts): directional. For cost per lead by 107 industries, see Report No. 3's industry companion.
SETTINGS
Bidding and audience choices
The levers inside your control, tested in the same account and objective.
Settings you control move the pricemore than the market did: +103% for automated bidding.
Every line here pairs campaigns in the same account and on the same objective. Matching on objective matters: without it, enhanced conversions looked 45% cheaper per click than maximum delivery. Matched, the gap is 21% and not significant.
BIDDING · SINGLE IMAGE UNLESS NOTED
- +103%Maximum delivery vs manual CPC · cost per website click ★★★
[+55%, +134%] · cheaper in 23 of 102 pairs · +76% with 30+ clicks per side, +113% on website visits only - +37%Maximum delivery vs manual CPC · CPM ★★★
[+21%, +78%] · cheaper in 31 of 102 - −50%Manual CPM vs maximum delivery · CPM ★
[−64%, −22%] · 18 of 22 - −17%Enhanced conversions vs maximum delivery · CPM ★★★
[−25%, −7%] · 75 of 119 - −30%Enhanced conversions vs maximum delivery · cost per lead ns
[−52%, +12%] · 43 of 74 - −27%Cost cap vs maximum delivery · CPM ns
19 of 30
AUDIENCE · SINGLE IMAGE UNLESS NOTED
- +21%Uploaded list vs cold · CPM ★★★
[+11%, +31%] · cheaper in 105 of 304 - +11%Uploaded list vs cold · cost per website click ★★★
[+3%, +17%] - +17%Uploaded list vs cold · cost per send (inbox) ★★
[+2%, +46%] - +23%Retargeting vs cold · CPM ★★★
[+15%, +35%] - +5%Retargeting vs cold · cost per website click ns
the click costs the same - −27%Retargeting vs cold · cost per lead (inbox) ★★
[−41%, −11%] · 31 of 46 - +43%Audience under 30k vs 100k+ · CPM ★★★
[+33%, +54%] - +30%Audience under 30k vs 100k+ · cost per website click ★★★
[+23%, +42%] - −7%Job titles vs function + seniority · cost per lead ★★
[−24%, −1%] · 58 of 94
| Audience size (cross-account) | Single image CPM | Website click | Cost per lead | Video cost per view | Cost per send |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10k | $81.28 | $18.54 | $263 | $0.18 | $0.55 |
| 10k to 30k | $68.15 | $16.44 | $237 | $0.16 | $0.48 |
| 30k to 100k | $54.24 | $14.65 | $185 | $0.12 | $0.42 |
| 100k to 300k | $51.46 | $12.82 | $178 | $0.13 | $0.26 |
| 300k+ | $44.99 | $11.66 | $179 | $0.09 | $0.28 |
HOW KIIN READS IT
Small audiences and uploaded lists cost more per impression. That is the price of precision, not a reason to go broad: in Report No. 4 a tight, warm pool in the inbox produced the cheapest demos. Pay the premium where the audience is the point, and stop paying it on feed traffic campaigns aimed at people you could have reached cold.
Two settings Kiin always switches off
LINKEDIN AUDIENCE NETWORK
Cheap because it is not LinkedIn.
With LAN on, single image campaigns show CPM 48% lower and cost per website click 72% lower than LAN off in the same account. Those impressions and clicks are banner placements in third party games and news apps. In Kiin's audit of 107 accounts, $274,000 went to the Audience Network. LAN is excluded from every other figure in this report, and it is always off.
AUDIENCE EXPANSION
Always off, for a reason cost cannot show.
Expansion adds members LinkedIn considers similar to the ones you chose, which undoes the targeting decision you just made. On LinkedIn the targeting decision is worth more than the creative. We do not argue it on price.
SCALE AND TIME
Budget, campaign age and the calendar
When the same campaign gets cheaper or dearer.
Scale, age and the calendar.Doubling spend adds 13% to every lead.
SPEND MORE, PAY MORE · SAME ACCOUNT, MONTH TO MONTH
Cost change when monthly spend doubles
| Per doubling | Accounts rising | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead, all lead gen | +13% [+10%, +18%] | 180 of 274 |
| Single image CPM | +5% [+3%, +7%] | 318 of 485 |
| Single image website click | +4% [+2%, +6%] | 219 of 366 |
| Cost per send | +4% [+2%, +7%] | 97 of 149 |
| TLA website click | +4% ns | 97 of 175 |
| TLA cost per engagement | 0% ns | 127 of 258 |
Slope of cost on spend within each account, 4+ months. Volume comes from adding audiences, not budget.
CAMPAIGN AGE · SAME CAMPAIGN VS ITS FIRST 30 DAYS = 100
Leads fatigue. Clicks do not.
| Month of life | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead, all | 115 | 122 | 129 | 111 | 115 | 126 |
| Cost per lead, inbox | 118 | 128 | 127 | 115 | 104 | 102 |
| Single image CPM | 98 | 94 | 92 | 93 | 86 | 85 |
| Single image website click | 101 | 99 | 97 | 99 | 97 | 99 |
| TLA cost per engagement | 104 | 106 | 109 | 109 | 113 | 114 |
| Cost per send | 107 | 112 | 112 | 104 | 109 | 109 |
Campaigns launched inside the window: 3,055 single image, 911 lead gen, 773 inbox at month 2.
Day of the week
| Same account, weekday median = 100 | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single image CPM | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 97 | 724 |
| Single image website click | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 101 | 97 | 91 | 608 |
| TLA website click | 100 | 100 | 100 | 101 | 100 | 92 | 87 | 299 |
| Cost per lead, all lead gen | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 97 | 252 |
| Message open rate | 108 | 104 | 100 | 100 | 99 | 88 | 93 | 252 |
| Cost per send | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99 | 252 |
| Cost per lead, inbox | 99 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 109 | 102 | 121 |
Weekends make website clicks slightly cheaper and messages slightly less opened. Monday is the best day to land in the inbox. None of it is big enough to re-schedule a feed campaign around.
Bigger accounts pay more
| Annual spend (cross-account) | Accounts | Single image CPM | Website click | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $10k | 696 | $40.87 | $11.22 | $125 |
| $10k to $50k | 322 | $48.46 | $13.56 | $168 |
| $50k to $150k | 144 | $74.15 | $17.82 | $301 |
| $150k+ | 99 | $89.16 | $19.11 | $347 |
Descriptive: larger accounts skew to the US, to lists and to enterprise targeting, all of which cost more.
Ads per campaign made no difference: 1 ad vs 2 to 3 vs 4+ showed no significant change in CPM, website click or cost per lead in the same account.
WASTE
Spend that produced nothing
And what the cheapest accounts do instead.
A quarter of lead gen campaignsnever produced a single lead.
| Format (lead gen objective) | Zero-lead campaigns | Share of campaigns | Spend with no lead | Share of spend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single image | 712 | 26% | $702k | 6% |
| Document | 240 | 25% | $201k | 6% |
| Conversation ad | 215 | 24% | $203k | 4% |
| Message ad | 139 | 20% | $80k | 5% |
| Video | 128 | 40% | $129k | 10% |
| TLA static | 37 | 25% | $52k | 12% |
| Carousel | 26 | 29% | $27k | 12% |
In 85% of those campaigns people opened the form and nobody submitted it. The result holds when campaigns launched in the last three months are excluded (25%, $1.15M). Only 15 of 479 accounts spending $1,000+ on lead gen got no lead all year. The waste sits in individual campaigns inside working accounts: small tests left running, demo forms on video, offers nobody finishes.
What the cheapest accounts do differently
| Median account, share of single image spend on… | Cheapest 25% (about $8 or less per click) | Dearest 25% (about $27 or more) |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum delivery bidding | 8% | 33% |
| Manual bidding (CPC, CPM, enhanced) | 68% | 48% |
| Website visits objective | 29% | 6% |
| Engagement or brand awareness objective | 2% | 43% |
| Cold audiences | 51% | 36% |
| Uploaded lists | 1% | 36% |
| Retargeting | 10% | 2% |
| Audiences under 30k | 24% | 57% |
| Audiences 100k+ | 25% | 3% |
| US & Canada only | 0% | 34% |
| Single image spend, 12 months | $5,591 | $17,567 |
172 accounts per group. Descriptive; the same-account tests in chapter 05 are the ones to act on.
WHAT TO DO
How to pay less on LinkedIn
The report in ten rules.
Ten ways to pay less,each backed by a number in this report.
Buy website visits on the website visits objective, with a manual bid.
Engagement costs +62% per website click, maximum delivery +103%.
Judge feed ads on cost per landing page click, never total CPC.
92% of Thought Leader Ad clicks never reach a website.
Put lead forms in the inbox or on documents.
Message ads −48%, documents −40% per lead vs single image.
Fix the form before you touch the bid.
Feed lead cost rose 25% while CPM fell 10%: fewer form opens (−10%) and completions (−18%).
Refresh lead gen campaigns by month 3.
Cost per lead is up 22 to 29% in months 3 and 4 of a campaign's life.
Add audiences to scale, not budget.
Each doubling of spend adds 13% to the cost per lead.
Pay for lists and small audiences only where precision is the point.
Lists +21% CPM, under-30k audiences +43% CPM.
Kill zero-lead campaigns early.
25% of lead gen campaigns and $1.39M never produced a lead.
Plan launches for January, not December.
December leads +26% vs November; January CPM −18% vs December.
Switch off LinkedIn Audience Network and Audience Expansion.
Cheap impressions off LinkedIn are not the audience you chose.
METHOD
How we measured it
Data
Kiin Research Archive, 2026-09 snapshot: every campaign synced by Kiin Intelligence between 8 September 2025 and 7 September 2026. $72.9M of spend, 1,310 advertiser accounts, 30,906 campaigns with delivery, 1.35M campaign-days. LinkedIn Audience Network delivery ($6.0M, 8%) is excluded everywhere except where it is the subject, leaving $66.9M across 1,261 accounts. Identifiers are salted hashes; no names, copy or member data are held. All spend converted to USD at 7 September 2026 rates using each account's billing currency.
Metrics
Website click = LinkedIn landing page click; total clicks include likes, comments and profile views and are never used as a cost basis. Cost per lead = lead generation objective only, form submissions (real leads), content and demo forms combined. Feed campaigns with 2,000+ impressions and zero website clicks (posts without a link) are removed from click metrics.
Statistics
Price lists are the median of each account's own 12-month figure, with minimum volumes per account. Same-account comparisons are the median of each account's own ratio with a 95% bootstrap interval; settings comparisons also match the objective. Trends use a two-way fixed effects model (each account's own level plus a month effect) on every account-month with enough volume, with 95% intervals from resampling accounts, and a median-based version as a robustness check; January to August only, as September to December 2025 is too thin. An earlier draft chained month-to-month medians; that method drifts upwards and was replaced. Cross-account cuts (region, industry, function) are descriptive. Minimum 7 accounts per cell.
Stars
★★★ same-account, significant, over 100 accounts · ★★ same-account, significant, 25 to 100 · ★ directional: cross-account, small n, or an interval that includes zero · ns not significant.
Limits
12 months only: seasonality beyond December and January cannot be separated from trend. Content and demo leads are combined (see Reports No. 3 and 4 for the split). The panel is Kiin's customers: B2B, Europe and North America heavy. This is the Kiin panel, not LinkedIn's official benchmark.
CITE AND USE
How to cite this report
Related Kiin Labs research: Thought Leader Ads Benchmarks 2026 · Conversation Ads Benchmarks 2026 · Lead Gen Forms Benchmarks 2026 · The Cost of a Demo on LinkedIn · LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks 2026 · LinkedIn CPM Benchmarks 2026.
Want to know where your account sits on these ranges?