LinkedIn's advertising bigger than other mid-size social platforms
Warc Media’s latest Platform Insights by Warc Media, provides comprehensive data-driven intelligence on LinkedIn’s advertising landscape, examining the platform’s latest trends through the lens of investment, user engagement and performance.
Source: © 123rf 123rf Warc Media’s latest Platform Insights by WARC Media provides comprehensive data-driven intelligence on LinkedIn’s advertising landscape
LinkedIn is best known as a leader in business-to-business (B2B) marketing, offering unique professional targeting capabilities.
Ad investment in the Microsoft-owned platform has steadily increased, with Warc forecasting it to reach $8.2bn in 2025 (+18.3%), fuelled by gains from the emerging Gen AI category, B2B creators, and by extending B2B campaigns into connected TV.
LinkedIn accounts for a small part of Microsoft’s overall revenue, says Celeste Huang, media insights analyst, Warc Media, and author of the report.
“However, its ad business is outpacing other mid-size platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest.
“Its premium subscriptions continue to rise, and efforts in growing B2B creators, video formats and CTV campaigns are delivering returns.”
Ad revenue forecast
LinkedIn’s ad revenue forecast sits at $8.2bn this year, $9.7bn in 2026 and reach $11.3bn in 2027.
Warc Media’s analysis of LinkedIn’s advertising business suggests strong momentum.
Its ad business is bigger than other mid-size social platforms, including Snapchat ($6bn), Pinterest ($4.2bn) and Reddit ($2.2bn) according to Warc Media’s latest global ad spend forecasts for 2025.
Category-wise, business and industrial leads with the most ad spend on LinkedIn, followed by technology & electronics, and government & non-profit.
Retail accounts for just 2% of total LinkedIn ad revenue.
However, LinkedIn’s ad business commands a relatively small part of the digital ad spend across key markets.
Its greatest share is in the US (3.2%), followed by the UK (2.4%), Brazil (1.9%), France (1.8%), Canada (1.8%) and Germany (1.1%) according to Sensor Tower data.
LinkedIn has benefited from rising digital ad spend among companies building generative AI products.
Globally, Gen AI companies allocate 12% of their total digital ad budgets to LinkedIn, compared to an average of 3% across all categories, per Sensor Tower.
Ad consumption reach
LinkedIn ads reach around 350 million active users per month, according to We Are Social – some way short of its 1.2 billion total registered users.
However, LinkedIn's Audience Network extends advertiser reach beyond the platform to third-party publishers and sites, with over 1.8 million feed updates viewed per minute.
According to GWI, the global online audience is most likely to use LinkedIn to look for jobs (9.4%) and to follow a company page (7.3%).
A full 4.3% of internet users have researched or purchased after seeing ads on LinkedIn, a percentage that rises to 6.4% for those employed full-time.
Available in 200 markets, Asia Pacific currently provides LinkedIn with its largest audience base (277 million), followed by Europe (257 million) and North America (233 million).
The US and India account for a third of LinkedIn’s total audience, but the platform itself is approaching saturation in key markets. Its continued ability to reach out-of-market buyers is crucial.
Audience
B2B creator activity has seen notable growth in recent years, albeit at a slower rate than B2C.
More than one in 10 creators (12%) regularly post content on LinkedIn, per CreatorIQ, though growth trails behind short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.
LinkedIn’s audience is the fastest-growing group of social media users to adopt AI tools, ahead of X, TikTok and Instagram users.
Currently, 41% of the platform’s users say they use ChatGPT, up from 15% in Q1 2024, per Sensor Tower.
High net worth individuals (HNWIs) are a key presence on LinkedIn given their ability to influence business decisions and corporate purchasers, of which 38% are Millennials, 33% Gen-X, 16% Gen-Z and 13% Boomers, according to Ipsos Global Influentials data.
LinkedIn data claims its audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience, with 10 million C-level execs active on the platforms.
Performance
Kantar’s Media Reactions survey in the US – LinkedIn's biggest market – shows consumers’ positive attitudes regarding LinkedIn ad qualities.
To B2B advertisers, LinkedIn’s emphasis on trust means buyers will engage more and move through the funnel smoothly.
Short-form video is seeing 12% year-on-year growth on the platform. Emotionally resonant videos and short-form content have higher completion rates among LinkedIn users.
LinkedIn's premium TV advertising offering is gaining momentum through partnerships with Connected TV platforms including NBCUniversal, Roku, and Samsung, deemed as a potential game-changer for B2B mass reach.
Kantar data suggests that LinkedIn’s CTV solution reaches 105 million connected devices per month in the US.
With credibility and relevance being top criteria for creators in B2B environments, LinkedIn launched its own Creator Accelerator Program and offers partnerships with certified creator agencies via its Marketing Partners tool.
LinkedIn Ads appear more expensive when using consumer campaign ad metrics like CPC and impressions.
Account-based metrics, such as ‘cost per company influenced’, reveal LinkedIn is the most effective, according to Dreamdata research.
Platform Insights: LinkedIn is part of a series of reports exclusive to WARC Media subscribers.
This latest report follows other Platform Insights such as Reddit, Amazon, TikTok, Spotify and Facebook.