The cost of LinkedIn message ads can vary significantly depending on factors like your target audience, bidding strategy, and campaign objective. However, most advertisers pay between $2 – $7 per message send on average. The minimum bid to get started is around $1 per send.
What are LinkedIn message ads?
LinkedIn message ads, also known as Sponsored InMail, allow advertisers to directly engage with LinkedIn members by sending them personalized messages in their LinkedIn inbox. Unlike other types of ads on LinkedIn that appear in feeds or on profile pages, message ads enable one-to-one communication similar to email marketing.
Message ads are best for getting prospects’ attention, introducing your business, promoting content offers, and driving conversions by requesting meetings or demos. They can help you establish connections and build relationships with your target audience.
How LinkedIn message ads are priced
LinkedIn uses a unique auction-based pricing model for message ads. Advertisers bid on how much they are willing to pay each time their message gets sent to a member’s inbox. The minimum bid to participate is $1 per send.
An auction determines whose message a member receives when multiple advertisers target the same member. The advertiser with the highest bid wins the auction and has their message delivered. Even if you bid high, there is no guarantee your message will reach every person you target.
In addition to your bid, LinkedIn considers expected engagement with your message and member relevance to determine auction ranking. Messages more likely to be opened, clicked, and lead to conversions can win auctions at lower bids.
Average cost per send
While the minimum bid is $1, most advertisers end up paying $2 – $7 per send on average. However, costs vary significantly based on factors like:
- Industry and competition
- Target audience and segment
- Messaging strategy and content
- Landing page quality
- Campaign objective and conversion goals
For example, targeting CXO-level executives tends to cost more than targeting entry-level prospects. Messages promoting webinars or content often cost less than messages focused on requesting sales meetings.
Setting your bid strategy
When setting up message ad campaigns, you can choose between automatic or manual bidding:
- Automatic bidding: LinkedIn algorithms automatically adjust your bids to try to maximize results within a target cost-per-send (CPS) you set.
- Manual bidding: Manually set your maximum CPS bid and control exactly how much you pay per send.
Automatic bidding makes optimization easy by letting LinkedIn’s AI handle bid adjustments, but gives you less control. Manual bidding takes more work to maintain bids but provides maximum control over costs.
What impacts LinkedIn message ad costs?
Many factors influence the cost per send for LinkedIn message ads. Understanding these key factors can help you budget and set reasonable expectations.
Target audience
Your target audience and member segment has a major impact on message ad costs. In general, the more exclusive or hard-to-reach your audience, the more you can expect to pay. For example:
- Targeting niche job titles like Chief Marketing Officer will cost more than broader titles like Marketing Manager.
- Targeting senior-level titles will cost more than entry-level roles.
- Targeting members at large enterprises will cost more than smaller companies.
Take time to test different target segments and audiences in each campaign. Often you can find profitable subgroups that meet your goals at lower cost.
Level of competition
The level of competition also directly impacts CPS bids needed to reach your audience. If you are advertising in a crowded industry like IT or marketing, costs will be higher than less competitive sectors.
Research competitors running message ad campaigns and expect to bid competitively to reach shared prospects. You may also consider narrowing your focus or personalizing messages to stand out.
Messaging relevance
Crafting messaging that resonates with your specific target audience can potentially lower costs. Test different offers, content types, subject lines, etc. to determine what generates the highest engagement.
Personalized messages matching the member’s interests perform better. Leverage LinkedIn profile data, lead gen forms, and tracking to make messaging relevant.
Landing page experience
The landing page you drive message ad traffic to also impacts costs. Pages tailored to the ad, focused on conversions, and providing relevant content can improve engagement. This signals to LinkedIn the message is effective, potentially lowering the bid needed to win auctions.
Avoid sending traffic to generic homepages. Dedicated landing pages are best for converting message ad leads.
Tips for lowering LinkedIn message ad costs
While many cost factors are outside your control, you can take steps to potentially lower CPS bids and improve efficiency:
- Experiment with different target member segments
- A/B test ad variations to determine optimal messaging
- Focus on highly relevant conversions to demonstrate ROI
- Personalize messages with merge fields like first name
- Send traffic to tailored, high-converting landing pages
- Track member engagement and optimize based on results
With testing and optimization over time, it is possible to improve the return on ad spend for your LinkedIn campaigns and achieve your goals at lower costs per send.
The value of optimizing LinkedIn message ads
Despite fluctuating costs, LinkedIn message ads remain one of the most effective ways to engage professional audiences. When planned strategically and optimized for conversions, message ads can still drive highly qualified leads and sales opportunities cost-effectively compared to other outreach tactics.
The ability to build one-to-one relationships, promote personalized content, demonstrate thought leadership, and request meetings makes LinkedIn messaging incredibly valuable. Taking the time to understand costs and implement best practices can maximize your advertising investment.