Create your first LinkedIn ABM campaign
Target the companies of a TAL list or audience, pick the job functions and seniority of the buying committee, write the ad and launch it paused until you approve.
A LinkedIn ABM campaign shows your ad in the LinkedIn feed to the buying committee at your target accounts: the roles and seniority you sell to, at the companies you choose, including people who have never visited your site. IntentBid builds the campaign in your own LinkedIn ad account and creates it paused.
You need a connected ad account first. See Connect your LinkedIn Ads account.
Start the campaign
There are three ways in:
- Campaigns → + New campaign, then the LinkedIn tab
- From a list in TAL Generator: the list is preselected
- From an audience in Audiences: the audience is preselected
The steps are Goal, Companies & people, The ad, Budget & dates and Review. Your work is saved as a draft while you go.
1. Goal
Name the campaign and pick what it should do at your target accounts:
| Goal | You pay | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Brand awareness | Per 1,000 impressions | Being seen by as many people at your accounts as possible |
| Website visits | Per click | Bringing decision makers to your site. The best start for ABM |
| Engagement | Per 1,000 impressions | Likes, comments, shares and follows |
| Website conversions | Per click | Demo requests and sign-ups. Needs the LinkedIn Insight Tag with a conversion set up |
2. Companies & people
Which companies. Tick one or more sources:
- TAL · [list name]: a list from the TAL Generator or one you uploaded
- Audiences: your saved audiences, for example companies in the decision stage
- Pixel · All identified visitors: the companies the website script identified on your site
Up to 100 companies are targeted straight away by their LinkedIn company page. Bigger lists also become a matched company list in your ad account; LinkedIn matches it in 24–48 hours, and IntentBid adds it to the campaign automatically once it's ready. Your own company is never included. If you tick nothing, the campaign reaches everyone who matches the roles below, which is no longer ABM.
Which people at those companies. This is how you reach the buying committee rather than everyone at the account:
- Job function: tick the functions that buy, use or approve your product, for example Marketing, Finance or Information Technology.
- Seniority: Director, VP and CXO are ticked by default. Add Manager or Senior if the people who evaluate tools sit there.
- Job titles (optional): one per line, matched to LinkedIn's own titles. Titles and functions together reach people who match either.
- Industries and Company size (optional): useful when you target by role without a company list.
- Locations: required. Pick the countries where your accounts' buyers work.
Leave Audience expansion off for pure ABM. When it's on, LinkedIn adds people similar to your targeting, often outside your accounts.
LinkedIn needs a minimum audience before a campaign can serve. If your list is small and your roles are narrow, add functions or seniority levels rather than dropping the company list.
3. The ad
Each ad is a single-image Sponsored Content post in your company Page's name. A live feed preview on the right shows how it will look.
- Intro text: up to 600 characters, but only about 150 show before see more. Put the point first.
- Headline: up to 200 characters; 70 or fewer is recommended.
- Landing page: the UTM tags (source linkedin, medium paid_social) are added for you, so visits show under LinkedIn Ads in IntentBid.
- Call to action: for example Learn more, Request demo or Download.
- Image: 1200 × 627 (landscape) or 1200 × 1200 (square), JPG or PNG, up to 5 MB. No image yet? Make one in the Creative studio.
Pick several images from Creatives to create several ads in the same campaign; LinkedIn rotates them. For writing tips, see B2B ad copy guidelines.
4. Budget & dates
- Daily budget: at least 10 in your account currency. For ABM on LinkedIn, 30–100 a day per campaign is typical.
- Max bid (optional): per click or per 1,000 impressions, depending on the goal. Leave it empty for automatic bidding.
- Start and end date (optional).
- Frequency cap per account (daily): its own step, on by default, with a cap field next to every account. It limits impressions per company per day, so a few large accounts don't take the whole budget. See Frequency cap per account.
5. Review and approve
Check the summary and click Create new campaign. The campaign is created paused in your ad account and appears on All campaigns as Waiting for your approval. Click Approve and launch when it looks right.
After launch you can use Pause, Resume and Set budget in the campaign table. LinkedIn reviews new ads before they serve, usually within a day.
FAQ
Why is my campaign not delivering?
Usually the audience is too small: few matched companies, one job function and one seniority level. Add roles, wait for the matched company list to finish (24–48 hours), or check that the ads passed LinkedIn's review.
Can I see which companies saw the ads?
Yes. LinkedIn reports impressions and clicks per company, and IntentBid shows them in Account engagement and on each campaign, next to website visits from the same companies. LinkedIn's company figures are approximate and arrive with a delay; see Frequency cap per account.
Can I use the same list in ChatGPT Ads?
No. ChatGPT Ads doesn't target companies. Use LinkedIn for your account list and ChatGPT Ads for the buyer questions your ICP asks. See Create your first ChatGPT Ads campaign.