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Understanding LinkedIn Ad Placements
Understanding LinkedIn Ad Placements
LinkedIn ad placements are the places your ads can appear — principally the LinkedIn feed itself, and the LinkedIn Audience Network, which extends your ads to third-party apps and sites beyond LinkedIn. The feed is the core, on-platform placement where your ads appear in LinkedIn’s professional context; the Audience Network trades that in-platform context for expanded reach off-platform. You can control whether to include the Audience Network, so understanding the difference — premium in-platform context versus extended off-platform reach — helps you decide based on your goal. This guide covers LinkedIn ad placements and how to think about them.
Key takeaways
- LinkedIn ad placements are where your ads can appear — chiefly the feed and the Audience Network.
- The LinkedIn feed is the core, on-platform placement, in LinkedIn’s professional context.
- The LinkedIn Audience Network extends your ads to third-party apps and sites beyond LinkedIn.
- The feed offers premium in-platform context; the Audience Network offers extended off-platform reach.
- You can control whether to include the Audience Network, choosing based on your goal.
What are the main LinkedIn ad placements?
The LinkedIn feed and the LinkedIn Audience Network. The LinkedIn feed is the primary placement — your ads appear in the LinkedIn feed itself, within the platform’s professional environment, where users are engaging with LinkedIn content. This is the core, on-platform placement, putting your ads in LinkedIn’s premium professional context. The LinkedIn Audience Network is an extension — it lets your ads appear on third-party apps and websites beyond LinkedIn, using LinkedIn’s targeting to reach your audience off-platform. This extends your reach past LinkedIn itself, showing your ads to your target audience as they browse elsewhere.
| Placement | Where ads appear | Character |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn feed | In the LinkedIn feed, on-platform | Premium, in professional context |
| LinkedIn Audience Network | Third-party apps and sites, off-platform | Extended reach, off-platform context |
So the two main placements differ in where your ads appear and the context: the feed is on-platform, in LinkedIn’s professional environment, while the Audience Network is off-platform, extending reach to where your audience browses beyond LinkedIn. Understanding these two placements — the core feed and the extending Audience Network — is the basis for thinking about placement.
What’s the difference between the feed and the Audience Network?
The feed is premium and on-platform; the Audience Network is extended reach off-platform. The feed places your ads in LinkedIn’s own professional context, where users are in a professional mindset engaging with LinkedIn — a premium, in-context placement, but limited to LinkedIn itself. The Audience Network places your ads on third-party apps and sites, extending your reach to your audience beyond LinkedIn — more reach and scale, but in an off-platform context that isn’t LinkedIn’s professional environment.
So the trade-off is context versus reach. The feed offers the premium, professional, in-platform context that’s a core value of advertising on LinkedIn, but is limited to LinkedIn’s inventory. The Audience Network offers expanded reach, getting your ads in front of your audience across more places, but in off-platform contexts that may be less premium and less professional than the feed. Neither is universally better — the feed is the premium core, the Audience Network is the reach extension — so which to use depends on whether you prioritize the premium in-platform context or the extended reach. Understanding this difference is what lets you decide how to use placements for your goal.
How do you decide on placements?
By choosing based on your goal — premium context or extended reach — and monitoring performance by placement. The key decision is whether to include the Audience Network alongside the feed. If premium, in-platform context matters most for your goal — you want your ads specifically in LinkedIn’s professional environment — you might use the feed and exclude the Audience Network. If extended reach matters — you want more scale and to reach your audience beyond LinkedIn — including the Audience Network extends your reach. Some advertisers exclude the Audience Network to stay in LinkedIn’s premium context; others include it for the additional reach; the right choice depends on your priorities.
Beyond the initial choice, monitor performance and quality by placement. Because the feed and Audience Network are different contexts, they can perform differently — so watching how each placement performs, and the quality of results from each, tells you whether the Audience Network is adding valuable reach or lower-quality results for your campaigns. If the Audience Network is delivering good results, it’s extending your reach valuably; if it’s delivering poor-quality results, you might exclude it. So deciding on placements is both an upfront choice based on your goal and an ongoing assessment based on how each placement performs, letting you use placements in the way that serves your campaigns best.
The placements framework
Use LinkedIn ad placements deliberately:
- Know the placements — the feed (on-platform, premium) and the Audience Network (off-platform, extended reach).
- Understand the trade-off — the feed offers premium context; the Audience Network offers extended reach.
- Choose based on your goal — premium in-platform context or extended off-platform reach.
- Control the Audience Network — include it for reach, exclude it to stay in LinkedIn’s premium context.
- Monitor by placement — watch how each performs and its quality, adjusting accordingly.
Why does placement context matter?
Because the context where your ad appears affects its value, so the feed’s premium professional context and the Audience Network’s off-platform context aren’t equivalent. A core value of advertising on LinkedIn is reaching professionals in LinkedIn’s professional environment — where they’re in a professional mindset, engaging with professional content — which is the context the feed provides. The Audience Network extends reach to off-platform contexts that, while reaching your targeted audience, aren’t LinkedIn’s professional environment, so the context differs. This matters because the context can affect how your ad is received and how it performs — a premium, in-context placement may deliver higher-quality engagement, while off-platform reach delivers more scale but in varied contexts. So thinking about placement isn’t just about reach quantity but about context quality: the feed’s premium context versus the Audience Network’s extended-but-varied context. This connects to the broader theme of quality versus scale: the feed offers premium quality context at limited scale, the Audience Network offers extended scale at varied context, so choosing and monitoring placements is a matter of balancing the premium context that’s part of LinkedIn’s value against the extended reach the Audience Network provides. Understanding that placement context matters — not just where your ads can appear but the quality and character of each context — is what lets you make informed placement decisions, using the feed’s premium context and the Audience Network’s reach in the way that best serves your goals, and monitoring each to ensure it’s delivering the value you want rather than assuming all placements are equivalent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are LinkedIn ad placements?
The places your ads can appear — chiefly the LinkedIn feed (the core, on-platform placement in LinkedIn’s professional environment) and the LinkedIn Audience Network (which extends your ads to third-party apps and sites beyond LinkedIn). The feed offers premium in-platform context; the Audience Network offers extended off-platform reach. You can control whether to include the Audience Network, choosing based on your goal.
Q2. What is the LinkedIn Audience Network?
An extension that lets your ads appear on third-party apps and websites beyond LinkedIn, using LinkedIn’s targeting to reach your audience off-platform. It extends your reach past LinkedIn itself, showing your ads to your target audience as they browse elsewhere. It offers more reach and scale than the feed alone, but in off-platform contexts that aren’t LinkedIn’s professional environment, so it trades premium context for extended reach.
Q3. What’s the difference between the feed and the Audience Network?
The feed places your ads in LinkedIn’s own professional context — premium and on-platform, but limited to LinkedIn — while the Audience Network places them on third-party apps and sites, extending reach off-platform in varied contexts. So the trade-off is context versus reach: the feed offers premium, professional, in-platform context; the Audience Network offers expanded reach in less premium, off-platform contexts. Neither is universally better.
Q4. Should you use the LinkedIn Audience Network?
It depends on your goal. Include it if extended reach and scale matter — you want to reach your audience beyond LinkedIn. Exclude it if premium, in-platform context matters most — you want your ads specifically in LinkedIn’s professional environment. Some advertisers exclude it to stay in LinkedIn’s premium context; others include it for reach. Monitor its performance and quality to decide whether it adds value for your campaigns.
Q5. How do you decide on LinkedIn ad placements?
Choose based on your goal — premium in-platform context (favoring the feed, possibly excluding the Audience Network) or extended reach (including the Audience Network) — and monitor performance by placement. Since the feed and Audience Network are different contexts that can perform differently, watch how each performs and the quality of its results, adjusting accordingly. Placement is both an upfront choice and an ongoing assessment.
Q6. Why does placement context matter?
Because the context where your ad appears affects its value — the feed’s premium professional context, where professionals engage with LinkedIn, isn’t equivalent to the Audience Network’s off-platform contexts. Context can affect how your ad is received and performs, with premium in-context placement potentially delivering higher-quality engagement and off-platform reach delivering more scale in varied contexts. So placement is about context quality, not just reach quantity.
Q7. Can you control where your LinkedIn ads appear?
Yes — you can control whether to include the LinkedIn Audience Network, choosing to run only in the feed (staying in LinkedIn’s premium context) or also on the Audience Network (extending reach off-platform). This lets you decide based on whether you prioritize premium in-platform context or extended reach, and adjust based on how each placement performs, giving you control over the placement mix for your campaigns.
Q8. Does the feed or Audience Network perform better?
It varies by campaign, since they’re different contexts — the feed’s premium professional context may deliver higher-quality engagement, while the Audience Network’s extended reach delivers more scale in varied contexts. Which performs better for you depends on your goals and audience, so monitor performance and quality by placement. If the Audience Network delivers good results, it’s valuable reach; if poor-quality, you might exclude it.
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