LinkedIn ads can be a great way to reach your target audience and generate leads for your business. However, like all paid advertising, it’s important to understand how LinkedIn’s billing works so you can effectively manage your ad spend. In this article, we’ll look at how often LinkedIn ads are billed, the different billing cycles available, and some tips for managing your LinkedIn ad costs.
LinkedIn’s Billing Cycles
LinkedIn offers advertisers two main billing cycles to choose from:
Monthly Billing
With monthly billing, LinkedIn bills you for your ad costs once per month. This billing cycle lines up with the calendar month. For example, if you launch your campaign on October 10th, you won’t be billed until the end of October. Then going forward, you’ll be billed on the last day of each month for that month’s ad spend.
Monthly billing is the default option when you first set up a LinkedIn ads account. It provides more flexibility to adjust your budgets from month-to-month. However, it also requires closely monitoring your account throughout the month to avoid going over budget.
Prepay Billing
LinkedIn also offers prepay billing cycles of 30, 60, or 90 days. With prepay billing, LinkedIn will bill your full payment upfront for the entire prepay period you select. For example, if you choose 60 day prepay, LinkedIn will immediately bill you for 60 days worth of your daily budget when you launch your campaign.
The advantage of prepay billing is that it helps you lock in rates and ensures your ads will run continuously for the whole prepay period. You don’t have to worry about going over budget or your ads stopping mid-month. The downside is less flexibility to adjust your budgets month-to-month.
Billing Schedule
In addition to the overall billing cycle, it’s important to understand LinkedIn’s billing schedule. LinkedIn bills advertisers on either a daily or monthly billing schedule:
Daily Billing Schedule
With the daily billing schedule, LinkedIn will bill you each day for the ad costs accrued on the previous day. So if you spent $100 on Monday, you’d be billed that $100 on Tuesday. This schedule applies regardless of whether you choose monthly or prepay billing cycles.
Monthly Billing Schedule
The monthly billing schedule means you are billed once per month on a specific date. This is only available with monthly billing cycles, not prepay. For example, if you choose to be billed on the 15th of each month, LinkedIn will bill all ad costs accrued from the 15th of the previous month to the 14th of the current month on the 15th.
LinkedIn Billing FAQs
Now that we’ve covered the basics of LinkedIn’s billing cycles and schedules, let’s look at some frequently asked questions:
How soon after launching a campaign will I be billed?
If you are on the daily billing schedule, you’ll be billed the day after your ads start running. With monthly billing, you’ll be billed at the end of the month. On prepay billing, you are billed upfront for the full prepay period.
When will my prepay balance run out?
Your prepay balance will gradually deplete each day based on your spending. Once your prepay balance hits zero, your ads will stop running. You can monitor your balance in your LinkedIn ads account.
Can I change my billing cycle or schedule?
Yes, you can change your billing cycle and schedule at any time through your LinkedIn ads account. However, be aware that changing from prepay billing to monthly billing will reset your prepay balance to zero.
What payment methods does LinkedIn accept?
LinkedIn accepts all major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. PayPal is also accepted in certain countries.
What currency are LinkedIn ads billed in?
LinkedIn bills in the local currency of the country your business account is based in. For global businesses, you can set up multiple currency-specific accounts.
How do I avoid going over my budget?
Set daily campaign budgets and use the daily billing schedule to closely monitor spend. Also, utilize LinkedIn’s automated rules to pause campaigns when they hit certain budgets. Prepay billing also ensures you won’t overspend.
Managing LinkedIn Ad Costs
Here are some tips to help manage LinkedIn ad costs and avoid sticker shock:
Start small
When first launching LinkedIn ads, start with a low daily budget and run smaller test campaigns. Evaluate performance before increasing budgets.
Use attribution windows
Lengthen your conversion attribution windows (e.g 30 days). This allows all downstream conversions to be counted, improving your return on ad spend.
Set specific campaign budgets
Give each ad campaign a unique daily or lifetime budget in addition to your overall account budget. This makes it easier to control costs.
Review reports frequently
Use LinkedIn’s reporting to analyze performance daily or weekly. Look for opportunities to optimize targeting, bids, and budgets.
A/B test ad variations
Test different ad copies, offers, and creative to maximize conversion rates. Improving conversion rates allows reducing bids while maintaining performance.
Use impression share reports
Monitor impression share reports to understand if budgets are too low. Impression share below 50% likely signals not spending enough.
Review auto-tagging
Ensure LinkedIn’s automated tagging is crediting conversions accurately. This helps you properly value your conversions.
Conclusion
Understanding LinkedIn’s billing cycles and leveraging tools to manage ad costs are key to success. By following monthly budgets closely, frequently reviewing performance, testing new approaches, and optimizing based on data, you can get the maximum impact out of your LinkedIn ad campaigns while keeping them affordable.
References
Source | Link |
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LinkedIn Help Center | https://www.linkedin.com/help/lms/answer/a425731/billing-for-linkedin-ads |
LinkedIn Ad Policies | https://www.linkedin.com/legal/ads-policy |
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog | https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog |