LinkedIn Ads is the self-service advertising system of LinkedIn, the professional network, which counts over 1 billion members. Advertisers build and run campaigns in Campaign Manager, LinkedIn's web tool for ads.
A campaign starts with an objective in one of three groups: awareness, consideration or conversions. The advertiser then selects the audience from over 20 categories of profile attributes, such as job title, job function and industry. Four ad formats are available: Sponsored Content (ads with images or video in the members' feed), Message Ads (direct messages in LinkedIn Messaging), Dynamic Ads (personalized from each member's profile data, such as company name or job title) and Text Ads (short pay-per-click ads on desktop). After the budget and schedule are set, Campaign Manager reports how the ads perform.
There is no fixed price. Ads are sold in an ad auction: the advertiser's bid competes with other advertisers who target the same members. Billing is objective-based, so the advertiser pays only for the event that matches the objective, for example a click to the website. A campaign can start with any budget and stop at any time.