Changing the billing frequency for your LinkedIn ads is a straightforward process that can be done directly through your LinkedIn advertising account. The billing frequency determines how often LinkedIn will charge your payment method for your advertising costs. LinkedIn offers three billing frequency options: monthly, quarterly, or annual. Choosing the right billing frequency can help you better manage your LinkedIn ad budget and align charges to your business needs.
Overview of LinkedIn Ads Billing
When you set up LinkedIn ads, you are asked to provide a payment method, such as a credit card or PayPal. LinkedIn will then charge your payment method on the billing frequency schedule you select. For example, if you choose monthly billing, you will be charged each month for the prior month’s advertising costs. Your payment method on file will automatically be charged without any additional action needed on your part.
LinkedIn provides reporting and metrics on ad performance and costs so you can monitor your spending. Your monthly advertising costs may fluctuate based on factors like the number of ad clicks, bid amounts, target audience size, and other elements. LinkedIn bills you at the end of each billing period cycle for the activity during that timeframe.
LinkedIn Ads Billing Frequency Options
When setting up a new LinkedIn ads account, you will need to select one of the following billing frequencies:
- Monthly: You are billed once per month on a calendar billing cycle. This means you will be charged on the same date each month for the prior month’s ad activity costs.
- Quarterly: You are billed once every 3 months. The quarters are based on calendar year quarters – Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec.
- Annually: You are billed once per year. The annual billing cycle aligns to the calendar year.
Monthly billing is the default option when first creating an account. LinkedIn does not allow blended billing frequencies across multiple ads accounts. All campaigns within a single LinkedIn ads account must use the same billing frequency.
How to Change LinkedIn Ads Billing Frequency
Changing your LinkedIn ads billing frequency is easy to do through your account settings:
- Log into your LinkedIn ads account and go to the billing page under account settings.
- Under “Billing Frequency”, click the Edit link.
- Select your desired new billing frequency: monthly, quarterly, or annually.
- Confirm the change.
The change will take effect at the start of the next billing period. For example, if switching from monthly to quarterly billing mid-way through April, the system will bill monthly for April activity, then switch to quarterly billing starting in May.
Impact on Ad Campaigns
Changing the billing frequency does not directly impact your ad campaigns themselves. All of your campaign setup details like targeting and bids stay the same. However, the billing change can impact your budgeting strategy.
With less frequent billing, you have longer periods between ad spend reconciliations. This may make budget planning more challenging. However, less frequent billing means fewer credit card transaction fees if those are applied to your payment method.
Best Practices
Here are some best practices around LinkedIn ads billing frequency:
- When starting out new to LinkedIn ads, monthly billing makes it easiest to review spend and make quick optimizations.
- For established accounts with predictable, stable ad spend, quarterly or annual billing can save on transaction fees.
- Use LinkedIn’s forecasting tools to estimate future cash flow needs under different billing frequencies.
- Tie billing frequency to your campaign objectives – are you running constant campaigns or periodic campaigns?
- Evaluate historical monthly ad spend when determining if less frequent billing could work.
Managing LinkedIn Ads Spend
In addition to billing frequency, there are other aspects of LinkedIn ads you can optimize to align spend to your budget:
Campaign Budgets
Set a target budget for each ad campaign to cap spend at a level you define. This causes campaigns to stop serving when the budget is met until the next billing cycle resets the budget amount.
Bid Amounts
Bidding higher means more ad views which drives up spend. Lowering your bid amounts can help control costs.
Audience Targeting
Targeting larger potential audiences increases the number of ad impressions and spend. Using more refined targeting focused on your ideal customers can lower overall spend.
Ad Frequency Capping
Limiting how often a user sees your ads can reduce unnecessary over-serving that drives up costs.
Performance Monitoring
Frequently check your campaign analytics and implement optimizations to improve results over time. Discontinue or pause low performing campaigns.
LinkedIn Ads Billing and Payment FAQs
What payment methods can I use for LinkedIn ads?
LinkedIn supports credit card payments (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) and PayPal. You can have one payment method on file at a time. Cards must have a billing address in an approved country where LinkedIn ads is available.
What countries are supported for LinkedIn ads billing?
LinkedIn ads can be billed to accounts located in these countries:
Australia | Canada | France |
Germany | India | United Kingdom |
United States |
Can I pay via invoice instead of credit card?
LinkedIn does not currently support invoice-based billing for ads. All accounts are required to have an approved payment method on file such as credit card or PayPal.
What happens if my payment fails?
If your payment method on file declines or fails, your LinkedIn ads account will be temporarily disabled until you update the payment details. You will not be able to make changes to campaigns or access reporting until the payment issue is resolved.
How do I change the credit card for my ads account?
You can update the credit card details for your LinkedIn ads account under account settings. Simply click “Change” next to your current card and enter the new card number, expiration date, and billing details.
Conclusion
Managing the billing settings for your LinkedIn ads account is an important part of keeping campaigns aligned to your budget and business cycles. Review the billing frequency options and optimize based on your marketing objectives, spend patterns, and budget planning needs. Use campaign budgets, bid strategies, targeting, and performance monitoring in conjunction with billing frequency to maintain optimal spend control.