What are the LinkedIn campaign objectives, and which do advertisers use?
LinkedIn has eight campaign objectives in three groups: awareness (brand awareness), consideration (website visits, engagement, video views) and conversions (lead generation, website conversions, talent leads, job applicants). Across 951 B2B advertisers, engagement is the most used (60%), then lead generation (54%) and website visits (53%); only 14% fund website conversions.
By Phil Ilic · Published 26 Oct 2026 · From Kiin Labs, LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks 2026
All 8 LinkedIn campaign objectives
| Objective | Group | What LinkedIn optimises for | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand awareness | Awareness | Impressions and reach (charged per 1,000 impressions) | Reach and frequency on a defined account list |
| Website visits | Consideration | Clicks to your site | Sending buyers to a page; judge on cost per landing page click |
| Engagement | Consideration | Likes, comments, shares, follows and clicks on the post | Thought leader ads and warming an audience |
| Video views | Consideration | Video views | Cheap attention and video retargeting pools |
| Lead generation | Conversions | Lead gen form submissions | Content offers and demo requests captured on LinkedIn |
| Website conversions | Conversions | Conversions tracked by the Insight Tag or Conversions API | Sign-ups or demo requests on your site, once tracking is reliable |
| Talent leads | Conversions | Candidate interest forms | Recruiting (not B2B demand) |
| Job applicants | Conversions | Job applications | Recruiting (not B2B demand) |
Which objectives B2B advertisers use
| Objective | Accounts using it (5%+ of spend) | Median share of budget among users |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement | 60% | 44% |
| Lead generation | 54% | 51% |
| Website visits | 53% | 30% |
| Brand awareness | 29% | 26% |
| Video views | 17% | 18% |
| Website conversions | 14% | 23% |
Median advertiser account among accounts using the objective. Talent leads and job applicants are recruiting objectives and sit under 5% of accounts.
Kiin Labs (2026). 60% of LinkedIn advertisers put 5% or more of their budget into engagement campaigns, 54% into lead generation and 14% into website conversions (951 accounts, 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Sep 2026). https://kiin.co/research/linkedin-campaign-objectives-usage
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The objective sets the price and the yardstick.
Why engagement leads
Engagement is where most thought leader ads run, and 46% of the panel now funds thought leader ads (budget by format). Lead generation is the other half of the typical account: the form that captures demand the engagement campaigns warm.
Judge each objective on its own job
An engagement campaign should be judged on cost per engagement and landing page CPC, a lead generation campaign on cost per lead. Comparing formats across objectives mixes different auctions.
What to do
Fund warming (engagement, video views) and capture (lead generation, website visits to a demo page) as separate campaigns with separate budgets, so one never starves the other. Bid manually on both: see bidding strategy usage.
Where the number comes from
Kiin Labs panel, 1,000+ advertiser accounts and $65M+ of LinkedIn spend; this cut covers the twelve months to 30 September 2026, accounts with $1,000 or more of spend outside Audience Network campaigns.
Questions about this number.
What is the best LinkedIn campaign objective for B2B?
It depends on the job. In the Kiin Labs panel, 60% of advertisers fund engagement (warming the audience, mostly thought leader ads) and 54% lead generation (capturing demand). Run both as separate campaigns.
What share of LinkedIn advertisers use lead generation campaigns?
54% of 951 advertisers put 5% or more of their budget into lead generation in the twelve months to 30 September 2026, a median 51% of budget among them.
Should I use the website conversions objective on LinkedIn?
Only 14% of advertisers fund it. It needs a working Insight Tag conversion and enough volume; most B2B accounts get a cleaner read from website visits on a manual bid, judged on landing page CPC.
Is brand awareness worth it on LinkedIn?
29% of advertisers fund it. For B2B pipeline, engagement usually buys the same warming with a cheaper real click; judge brand awareness on reach and frequency, not on clicks.
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Your benchmark
Your CPM, CTR, CPC, CPL and cost per demo, next to advertisers buying your audience. From $65M+ of real LinkedIn spend.
Your business case
What LinkedIn should cost for your market, and the pipeline range your budget can realistically buy.
Your first three fixes
The changes that would move your numbers most, ranked by how much spend each one touches.
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