LinkedIn ads allow businesses to promote their products, services, content, and more to LinkedIn’s audience of over 770 million professionals worldwide. As a user, you may come across LinkedIn ads in your feed or inbox. Here is an overview of where you can find LinkedIn ads and how to view them.
Finding LinkedIn Ads
There are a few main places where you may encounter LinkedIn ads as a user:
- Your LinkedIn feed
- Your LinkedIn inbox/messages
- Company pages
- Sponsored content
Let’s explore each of these in more detail:
LinkedIn Feed Ads
The most common place to see LinkedIn ads is in your main feed. This is the scrolling page that shows you updates from your connections, companies you follow, LinkedIn news, and more. Advertisers can pay to promote their posts and have them appear in your feed.
LinkedIn feed ads will appear in your feed timeline just like any other post. They are labeled as “Sponsored” and the name of the advertiser is also displayed. You can click on the ad post just like a regular post to expand it and view the full content.
LinkedIn Inbox Ads
In addition to feed ads, advertisers can also pay to have their messages appear directly in your LinkedIn inbox as sponsored messages. You may see these in your “Messages” tab.
As with feed ads, sponsored messages will be clearly labeled as coming from an advertiser. You can click to open the message and view the full content.
Company Page Ads
When you visit a company’s LinkedIn page, you may see ads for that company’s products or services. These ads may appear in the right column or within the company’s posts.
Again, the posts will be marked as “Sponsored.” Click on them to expand the ad content.
Sponsored Content
In addition to ads, LinkedIn allows advertisers to sponsor content such as articles, videos, and posts. You may encounter this sponsored content in your feed or in the LinkedIn News section.
Sponsored content appears just like regular posts and news, but is labeled as “Sponsored.” Click on the sponsored content to view the full article, video, etc.
Interacting with LinkedIn Ads
When you come across a LinkedIn ad, you have a few options for engaging with it:
- Click on it – Clicking on the ad takes you to the advertiser’s site or content
- Like/Comment – You can interact with sponsored posts just like regular posts
- Follow – If the post is from a company page, you can choose to follow that page
- Click “…” – This gives you options like hiding the ad, reporting it, or giving feedback
Liking, commenting on, and clicking on ads helps LinkedIn determine which ads are most relevant to you. This allows them to improve the targeting for future ads you see.
Why You See Certain Ads
You may be wondering – why am I seeing a particular ad in my feed or inbox? LinkedIn uses your personal data and account activity to determine which ads are most relevant to show you.
Some of the factors that influence the ads you see include:
- Profile data – Location, industry, job title
- Companies/topics you follow
- Your engagement with other ads
- Pages you visit on LinkedIn
- Your searches on LinkedIn
Advertisers can also choose to target their ads using demographic data like age, gender, location, job role, and interests.
Managing Your LinkedIn Ad Preferences
If you would prefer to see less advertising on LinkedIn, you have a few options:
- Update your ad preferences – Go to your account settings and adjust which types of ads you want to see
- Hide specific ads – Use the “…” menu on a sponsored post to hide that advertiser
- Upgrade to Premium – Premium accounts see significantly less advertising
You can also provide LinkedIn with feedback on the relevance of the ads you see to help improve their targeting.
Advertising Policies
LinkedIn has comprehensive advertising policies that all advertisers must abide by. This includes guidelines like:
- Truthful advertising
- Transparent sponsorship
- No offensive or inappropriate content
- Respect for user privacy and data
If you come across an ad that appears to violate any of LinkedIn’s policies, you can report it by using the “…” menu on the ad post.
Conclusion
In summary, here is a quick overview of viewing LinkedIn ads as a user:
- Look for labeled “Sponsored” posts in your feed, inbox, and on company pages
- Click on ads to view the full content
- Interact with ads to improve targeting
- Manage your ad preferences in your account settings
- Report any concerning ads you see
LinkedIn advertising allows businesses to reach professionals and provides revenue that enables LinkedIn to offer free services. Keeping an eye out for ads and providing feedback helps improve the relevance for yourself and other users. As a LinkedIn member, it is useful to understand where ads appear and how to manage them based on your preferences.
Place to See Ads | How They Appear |
---|---|
Feed | “Sponsored” posts mixed in feed |
Inbox | “Sponsored” messages |
Company Pages | Sponsored posts in right column or company updates |
LinkedIn News | Sponsored articles, videos, posts |
With over 770 million members, LinkedIn is an attractive platform for advertisers looking to reach professionals and decision makers. As a user, you can control the ads you see by managing your preferences, providing feedback, and using the tools LinkedIn provides to hide irrelevant ads.
LinkedIn’s advertising model allows them to keep much of their platform free while still generating revenue. With proper targeting and oversight, ads on LinkedIn can provide value to users by introducing them to relevant products, services, and content related to their professional interests.
However, some users may still find ads distracting or want to limit sharing their data. Upgrading to a Premium account is the best way to have an ad-free LinkedIn experience. For most members, taking advantage of preferences and settings is the ideal way to find the right balance of useful ads vs. unwanted promotional content.
As LinkedIn continues to refine their platform and improve ad relevance with technology like artificial intelligence, the advertising experience for users will likely keep getting better. But members will always need to continue providing feedback on unacceptable or inappropriate ads in order to uphold LinkedIn’s standards.
In the modern age of social media, advertising is crucial for platforms like LinkedIn to thrive while remaining free to use. With a nuanced understanding of where ads appear and how they are targeted, LinkedIn members can tailor their experience to get the most out of the platform while supporting the model that enables its existence.