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LinkedIn CTV Ads: Connected TV for B2B, Explained
LinkedIn CTV Ads: Connected TV for B2B, Explained
LinkedIn CTV ads let B2B advertisers run video ads on streaming TV, targeted with LinkedIn’s professional data, and bought alongside the rest of their LinkedIn campaigns. Launched in 2024 through partners like Paramount, Roku, Samsung, and NBCUniversal, they reach roughly 60 million households and more than 105 million connected devices a month in the US and Canada, using company size, seniority, and interests to aim the buy. The important thing to understand is what CTV is for: LinkedIn is explicit that it is a brand and consideration play, not a customer-acquisition channel, so you measure it by whether it reached the right accounts and moved them, not by last-click leads. This guide covers what LinkedIn CTV ads are, how targeting, buying, and placements work, how to measure them, and where they fit in a B2B funnel.
Key takeaways
- LinkedIn CTV ads run your video on streaming TV through partners like Paramount, Roku, Samsung, and NBCUniversal, reaching about 60 million households in the US and Canada.
- They are a brand and consideration play at the top of the funnel; LinkedIn says explicitly this is not a customer-acquisition format.
- You buy them in Campaign Manager only, with auto-bidding only, as pre-roll, mid-roll, or end-of-video placements, CTV-only or multichannel.
- Measure them on reach into the right accounts, video completion, and brand lift, and watch whether CTV-exposed users then engage more with your LinkedIn ads.
- Retarget viewers with lead gen forms and other formats to capture the demand, and judge CTV on influenced pipeline, not cost per lead.
What are LinkedIn CTV ads?
LinkedIn CTV ads are video ads that play on connected TV, the streaming apps people watch on smart TVs and devices, sold as part of your LinkedIn advertising. LinkedIn launched them in 2024 so B2B marketers could reach their audience off-platform, while they watch shows and movies, rather than only in the LinkedIn feed. The ads run through LinkedIn’s streaming partners, and you can run a CTV-only campaign or fold CTV into a multichannel campaign that also serves feed placements. The pitch is simple: your buyers are not always on LinkedIn, but they do stream, and CTV lets you reach them there with the same professional targeting you use on the platform.
How do LinkedIn CTV ads work?
CTV ads run on LinkedIn’s network of streaming partners, which includes Paramount, Roku, Samsung, and NBCUniversal, the last through a managed offering called LinkedIn Premiere. You provide a video ad, and LinkedIn places it in the streaming inventory of those partners, shown to the professional audience you target. Here is the detail at a glance.
| Element | What to know |
|---|---|
| Where it runs | Streaming apps via Paramount, Roku, Samsung, and NBCUniversal (LinkedIn Premiere) |
| Reach | About 60 million households and 105 million-plus devices a month, US and Canada |
| Targeting | LinkedIn professional data: company size, seniority, interests |
| Buying | Campaign Manager only, auto-bidding only, CTV-only or multichannel |
| Placements | Pre-roll, mid-roll, or the final 15 to 30 seconds of long-form video |
| Objective | Brand awareness and consideration, not customer acquisition |
| Measurement | Reach, video completion, brand lift, then influenced pipeline |
Because it is bought through LinkedIn rather than directly from each TV network, you plan, target, and measure it in one place alongside your other LinkedIn campaigns.
How does targeting work on CTV?
This is what makes LinkedIn CTV different from buying streaming ads the traditional way: it uses LinkedIn’s professional data to aim the buy. You target by attributes like company size, seniority, and interests, so your ad reaches decision-makers rather than a broad consumer audience, which is the core problem CTV has always had for B2B. At launch the reachable audience was English-speaking decision-makers in the United States and Canada, and LinkedIn has been expanding availability and programmatic access since. You can also retarget the members who viewed your CTV ad with other campaigns and formats, such as lead gen forms and document ads, which is how the awareness that CTV builds gets turned into a trackable action later.
How do you buy LinkedIn CTV ads?
The main route is self-serve in Campaign Manager, and it comes with a few specific constraints worth knowing before you plan. You upload a video ad, choose your objective, pick CTV-only or multichannel, and set the audience, budget, and schedule. Bidding is auto-bidding only, so you do not set a manual bid. Your ad runs as a pre-roll before the content, a mid-roll during it, or within the final 15 to 30 seconds of long-form video. For premium inventory handled for you, LinkedIn Premiere is a managed offering in partnership with NBCUniversal, and LinkedIn has been expanding programmatic access over time. Availability, partners, and regions evolve, so confirm the current options in Campaign Manager before building a plan around them.
How do you measure LinkedIn CTV ads?
Measure them like the brand channel they are, not like a lead form. LinkedIn provides native reporting in Campaign Manager, including the Performance Summary and Revenue Attribution reports and Conversions API data, plus a CTV Brand Lift test, and works with partners like Kantar for lift studies and iSpot for cross-platform audience measurement. The metrics that matter are reach into your target accounts, video completion rate, and brand lift. One concrete signal LinkedIn points to is whether members who first saw your ad on CTV then engage more with your LinkedIn ads, through higher click and completion rates, than members who did not, which is a practical read on whether the TV exposure is actually warming your audience. We call the right read the reach-lift-influence stack: did you reach the right accounts, did awareness or recall move, and did exposed accounts eventually convert through other channels. Judging CTV on direct cost per lead misreads what it does.
When do LinkedIn CTV ads make sense for B2B?
CTV fits specific situations, not every budget. It makes sense when you are running account-based marketing against a defined set of target accounts and want to build familiarity before and during outreach, when your deals are large enough that brand and trust materially affect whether you win, and when you have the budget to add a brand layer on top of your performance campaigns rather than instead of them. LinkedIn frames CTV as a way to make buyers favorably disposed to your brand before they ever see your LinkedIn product ads, which lines up with the reality that only a small share of buyers are in market at any moment, so staying memorable to the rest is what makes you the brand they call later. Research also finds viewers exposed to both TV and digital ads are meaningfully more likely to recall a brand than those who saw digital alone, which is the case for pairing CTV with your feed campaigns. CTV does not make sense as your only channel, on a small budget, or when you need measurable leads this month.
The right B2B play: CTV first, product ads to follow
The strategy LinkedIn and most practitioners recommend is sequencing, not substitution. Start higher in the funnel with CTV to build familiarity among your target accounts, then follow with LinkedIn product ads and retargeting that give the now-warm audience a concrete next step. Keeping the targeting, reporting, and attribution inside LinkedIn, rather than buying CTV through a separate vendor, is what lets you connect the TV exposure to the later engagement and avoid the measurement gaps that separate CTV buys create. The point is multiple touchpoints across the journey: TV builds the memory, the feed and retargeting convert it, and because both run on the same professional targeting, they reinforce the same audience rather than scattering spend.
Common LinkedIn CTV mistakes
The mistakes come from treating a brand channel like a performance one. Judging CTV on direct cost per lead, and concluding it failed because the form fills did not come, misreads the format. Running CTV with no retargeting or product-ad follow-up wastes the attention it builds, since there is no path to convert the viewers. Targeting too broadly throws away the professional precision that is the whole reason to buy CTV through LinkedIn. Expecting CTV to carry a small budget, where a brand layer cannot do its job, disappoints. And skipping brand lift or reach measurement, then having nothing to show for the spend, leaves you unable to prove it worked even when it did.
Reach builds demand, retargeting captures it
Here is the thread. LinkedIn CTV ads are a brand and reach channel that puts you in front of the right decision-makers while they stream, using the professional targeting that makes LinkedIn useful for B2B in the first place. Measure it as a brand play, on reach, completion, lift, and influenced pipeline, and then convert the demand it builds by retargeting viewers with lead gen forms and other formats, carrying the same video craft across both. Reach builds the demand; retargeting and your performance campaigns capture it as qualified pipeline. If you want a LinkedIn CTV and retargeting program built to build demand and convert it, you can book a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are LinkedIn CTV ads?
LinkedIn CTV ads are video ads that play on connected TV, the streaming apps on smart TVs and devices, sold as part of your LinkedIn advertising. Launched in 2024, they let B2B marketers reach their audience off-platform while streaming, using LinkedIn’s professional targeting, and they reach roughly 60 million households and 105 million-plus devices a month in the US and Canada.
Q2. Which streaming partners do LinkedIn CTV ads run on?
LinkedIn CTV runs through partners including Paramount, Roku, and Samsung, plus NBCUniversal through a managed offering called LinkedIn Premiere. Measurement partners include Kantar for brand lift studies and iSpot for cross-platform audience measurement. LinkedIn has been expanding its partners, regions, and programmatic access, so confirm the current list in Campaign Manager.
Q3. How does LinkedIn CTV targeting work?
It uses LinkedIn’s professional data to aim the buy, targeting by attributes such as company size, seniority, and interests, so your ad reaches decision-makers rather than a broad consumer audience. That professional precision is the main reason to buy CTV through LinkedIn rather than directly from a TV network. You can also retarget members who viewed your CTV ad with other formats.
Q4. How do you buy LinkedIn CTV ads?
Through Campaign Manager, where you upload a video, choose your objective, pick CTV-only or multichannel, and set audience, budget, and schedule. Bidding is auto-bidding only, and your ad runs as pre-roll, mid-roll, or in the final 15 to 30 seconds of long-form video. LinkedIn Premiere is a managed option with NBCUniversal, and programmatic access has been expanding. Confirm current options in Campaign Manager.
Q5. How do you measure LinkedIn CTV ad performance?
Measure it as a brand channel. Use Campaign Manager’s reporting, including the Performance Summary and Revenue Attribution reports and a CTV Brand Lift test, plus partners like Kantar and iSpot. The metrics that matter are reach into target accounts, video completion, and brand lift, and a useful signal is whether CTV-exposed members then engage more with your LinkedIn ads than those who were not exposed.
Q6. Are LinkedIn CTV ads worth it for B2B?
They are worth it when you run account-based marketing, your deals are large enough that brand and trust affect win rates, and you have budget for a brand layer on top of performance campaigns. They are not worth it as your only channel, on a small budget, or when you need measurable leads this month. LinkedIn itself frames CTV as brand and consideration, not customer acquisition.
Q7. What objective do LinkedIn CTV ads use?
CTV is a brand awareness and consideration play, meant to make buyers favorably disposed to your brand before they see your LinkedIn product ads. LinkedIn is explicit that it is not a customer-acquisition format. To turn the awareness it builds into a measurable action, follow it with retargeting and product ads that give the warmed audience a concrete next step.
Q8. Can you retarget people who watched a LinkedIn CTV ad?
Yes, and you should. LinkedIn lets you retarget members who viewed your CTV ad with other campaigns and formats, such as lead gen forms and document ads. This is how the awareness CTV builds becomes a trackable action: the TV ad creates familiarity, and the retargeting campaign gives the now-warm viewer a concrete next step, which is also where your measurable pipeline comes from.
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