LinkedIn ads benchmarks 2026
B2B CTR, CPC, CPM and cost per lead from three public datasets side by side, plus CR8's own ad account, and three traps that move your CTR and CPM.
wrote the LinkedIn ads playbook for Kyle Poyar's Growth Unhinged
what are the LinkedIn ads benchmarks for 2026 (B2B)?
LinkedIn ads benchmarks 2026, compiled by CR8 from three public datasets: a B2B single image LinkedIn ad has a median CTR of 0.42% and a median CPC of $13.23 (ZenABM, 211 B2B companies, published 2026-02-16). CPM usually runs $40 to $60 per 1,000 impressions (ZenABM budget guide, updated 2026-10-15). the median advertiser pays $376 per lead (Metadata.io, 88 advertisers, 2025 data), while Metadata.io's spend-weighted headline across 138 advertisers is $202. on CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, 3.1% of the clicks on 148 thought leader ads were landing page clicks (261 of 8,425, lifetime to 2026-10-07).
median. above 0.50% is above average.
median. $9.39 spend-weighted across all formats (Metadata.io).
the usual range for B2B targeting.
median. under $196 is the top quarter.
of the clicks on CR8's own 148 thought leader ads were landing page clicks (261 of 8,425), while Campaign Manager showed a 4.31% CTR. lifetime to .
see trap 1 →four numbers. three zones.
| your number | ▼worse than the published figures | between them | ▲better than the published figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| CTR, single image | under 0.42% | 0.42% to 0.50% | over 0.50% |
| CPC | over $13.23 | $9.39 to $13.23 | under $9.39 |
| CPM | over $63.19 | $40 to $63.19 | under $40. check trap 3 first |
| cost per lead | over $658 | $196 to $658 | under $196 |
how do my LinkedIn ads numbers compare?
by CR8's grading bands, built from ZenABM (211 B2B companies, published ) and Metadata.io (2025 data), you are in range at a 0.42% to 0.50% single image CTR, a $9.39 to $13.23 CPC, a $40 to $63.19 CPM and a $196 to $658 cost per lead. read your last 90 days, one ad format at a time. a median is the ad or advertiser in the middle. a spend-weighted figure counts big spenders more.
how the edges were set
edges. CTR: ZenABM's single image median (0.42%) and its "above average" line (0.50%). CPC: ZenABM's single image median ($13.23) and Metadata.io's all-format, spend-weighted CPC ($9.39). CPM: the bottom of ZenABM's usual range and Metadata.io's spend-weighted CPM. narrow account lists run higher. cost per lead: Metadata.io's quartiles across 88 advertisers. for CTR and CPC the worse edge is ZenABM's median across ads, so about half of ads land on that side. for cost per lead the middle half lands between.
0.42% is the middle.
the median single image ad. thought leader ads look higher because more kinds of click count.
what is a good CTR for LinkedIn ads in 2026?
for a single image ad, 0.42% is the median CTR and above 0.50% is above average (ZenABM, 211 B2B companies, published ). The B2B House gives 0.56% for single image. thought leader ads show a 2.68% median CTR, but ZenABM says that counts profile clicks, "see more" taps and reactions. across 119 thought leader ads, the median ad turned 0.29% of its impressions into landing page clicks.
| format | CTR | CPC | CPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| thought leader | 2.68% | $2.29 | $49.37 |
| single image | 0.42% | $13.23 | $59.15 |
| document | 0.43% | n/p | n/p |
| carousel | 0.32% | $13.30 | $45.28 |
| video | 0.24% | $15.61 | $38.94 |
sources: ZenABM, LinkedIn ads benchmarks 2026 (published ) · ZenABM, thought leader ads guide (119 ads, updated ) · ZenABM, TLA benchmarks · The B2B House (updated )
$40 to $60 per 1,000 impressions.
what CPM should you plan for on LinkedIn ads?
plan on $40 to $60 per 1,000 impressions for most B2B LinkedIn targeting (ZenABM budget guide, updated ). Metadata.io's spend-weighted CPM across 138 B2B advertisers is $63.19 (2025 data). ZenABM's 2026 medians by format run from $38.94 for video to $59.15 for single image (211 B2B companies).
before you count a CPM under $40 as a win, check the On/Off Network breakdown (trap 3). by country, ZenABM shows the US at $62.67 and the UK at $56.62 (format and statistic not stated). The B2B House prints a $33.80 average with no sample.
sources: ZenABM, LinkedIn ads budget guide (updated ) · ZenABM 2026 · Metadata.io (published , 2025 data)
narrow lists can pass $78.
CPM, blended across objectives and placements. 19 ad sets on uploaded company or contact lists of any size: 105,809 impressions, $5,981 spend, lifetime to , read live .
ZenABM, usual range $56.52,
CR8, uploaded lists over $78,
ZenABM, narrow lists
CR8's $56.52 is blended across objectives and placements: 5 of the 19 ad sets ended with Audience Network on, and the lists were of any size, so it does not measure a small list on its own. on CR8's own account, the website retargeting segment and the 90-day company page segment both read under LinkedIn's 300-member floor, so neither could serve (read live ).
what CPM does a small matched company list (ABM) pay on LinkedIn?
it can run above the usual $40 to $60. ZenABM says ABM campaigns on narrow account lists "can see CPMs exceed $78" (budget guide, updated ). none of the three public datasets CR8 compares on this page gives a CPM for small matched lists with a stated sample. for reference, CR8's own ad sets on uploaded company or contact lists, of any size, paid a $56.52 CPM blended across objectives and placements (19 ad sets, lifetime to ).
LinkedIn's own rules for a company list: at least 300 rows uploaded, 1,000 or more companies recommended, up to 300,000 companies. the audience only runs once 300 member accounts match, and matching can take up to 48 hours, on rare occasions longer. the audience must still qualify after location and other filters, so a short list can fall under 300 matched members and not run.
sources: ZenABM, LinkedIn ads budget guide · LinkedIn help, company list requirements
the middle pays $376 a lead.
advertisers ranked by cost per lead, each segment a quarter of advertisers.
what does a lead cost on LinkedIn ads?
the advertiser in the middle pays $376 a lead. under $196 puts you in the top quarter, over $658 in the bottom quarter (Metadata.io, 88 advertisers, 2025 data). Metadata.io's headline $202 is spend-weighted: in its words, "a handful of very efficient large spenders drag it down", so it sits at the 26th percentile.
are LinkedIn lead gen forms cheaper than landing pages?
in Metadata.io's 2025 data (spend-weighted), yes: $193 a lead on LinkedIn's own forms (97 advertisers) against $346 on a landing page (65 advertisers).
| option | cost per lead | sample |
|---|---|---|
| ad format, lead gen campaigns | ||
| document | $142 | not stated |
| image | $200 | not stated |
| video | $265 | not stated |
| conversation | $362 | not stated |
| where the form lives | ||
| LinkedIn lead gen form | $193 | 97 advertisers |
| landing page | $346 | 65 advertisers |
| audience | ||
| prospecting, cold | $194 | 94 advertisers |
| retargeting, warm | $234 | not stated |
source: Metadata.io, LinkedIn ads cost for B2B (published , 2025 data, 138 B2B advertisers from a $57.6M measured-spend dataset)
three sources. three rulers.
LinkedIn ads benchmarks by source: ZenABM, Metadata.io and The B2B House
the three sources measure different things. ZenABM prints medians by format, Metadata.io weights by spend across all formats and goals and adds cost per lead quartiles, and The B2B House gives no sample size for CTR and CPC.
| measure | ZenABM 2026 | Metadata.io | The B2B House |
|---|---|---|---|
| sample | 211 B2B companies, 161,256 ads, $5.5M, 29 countries. median monthly spend $2,693 per company | 138 B2B advertisers, from a $57.6M measured-spend dataset | CTR and CPC: LinkedIn's forecasting tool plus client campaigns, no size. cost per lead: $1M of spend over 6 months across multiple ad accounts |
| date | published 2026-02-16 | published 2026-09-08 (page metadata), 2025 data | updated 2025-12-19 (page metadata) |
| CTR | single image 0.42%, thought leader 2.68% | 0.67% | single image 0.56%. sponsored content, global average 0.44% to 0.65% |
| CPC | single image $13.23, thought leader $2.29 | $9.39 | $5.58 globally |
| CPM | single image $59.15, thought leader $49.37. usual range $40 to $60 (budget guide) | $63.19 | $33.80 average |
| cost per lead | typical range by region: North America $200 to $250, Europe $120 to $150 | median $376, quartiles $196 and $658, spend-weighted $202 | range $15 to $350. averages: NAMER $230, EMEA $120 |
| after the click | median thought leader ad: 0.29% of impressions became landing page clicks (119 ads) | 5.9% of clicks become leads | lead gen form completion 10% |
8,425 clicks. 261 landing page clicks.
how many LinkedIn ad clicks become landing page clicks?
on CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, 3.1% of the clicks on 148 thought leader ads were landing page clicks (261 of 8,425, lifetime to ), while Campaign Manager showed a 4.31% CTR. LinkedIn counts "chargeable clicks based on your ad set's objective", and on a thought leader ad, ZenABM says that includes profile clicks, "see more" taps and reactions.
what to do add the landing page clicks column in Campaign Manager and divide it by impressions, ad by ad. for thought leader ads, compare your middle ad to ZenABM's 0.29% median across 119 ads.
want this split on your own account? book the 30 min →
sources: LinkedIn help, performance metrics in Campaign Manager · ZenABM, TLA benchmarks · ZenABM, thought leader ads guide · CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, Campaign Manager reporting API
count the clicks that land.
in Philip Ilic's analysis, as ZenABM's guide cites it, thought leader ads were cheaper per landing page click than single image in only 34 of 173 accounts. ZenABM's $3.06 is the median ad. the guide does not say which measure Philip Ilic used.
per landing page click on 148 thought leader ads: $7,041.26 spend over 261 landing page clicks, lifetime to , read live .
only 32 of the 148 posts carried a link, so most of that spend could not earn a landing page click. ZenABM's $3.06 is a median ad, so the two sit on separate scales.
what does a thought leader ad cost per landing page click?
on CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, 148 thought leader ads paid $26.98 per landing page click, pooled across all 148 ads (lifetime to ), and only 32 of the 148 posts carried a link. Philip Ilic's analysis of 173 accounts, as cited in ZenABM's thought leader ads guide (updated ), found $25.21 for thought leader ads against $11.80 for single image, with thought leader ads cheaper in only 34 of the 173 accounts. ZenABM's early 2026 median ad was $3.06 (TLA benchmarks, published ).
CR8's figure is all spend over all landing page clicks, including posts with no link. ZenABM's is the median ad. Philip Ilic's figures are quoted as ZenABM's guide cites them.
sources: ZenABM, TLA benchmarks (published ) · ZenABM, thought leader ads guide (updated ), citing Philip Ilic's analysis of 173 accounts, secondhand · CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, read live in Campaign Manager
same account. 2.2x the CPM.
does a lead gen ad set cost more per impression than engagement?
on CR8's own LinkedIn ad account, yes. 19 lead gen ad sets paid a $71.85 CPM with a 0.73% CTR, and 33 engagement ad sets paid $32.01 with a 4.58% CTR (lifetime to ). that is 2.2x the price per impression at about a sixth of the CTR. compare an ad set only to a benchmark for the same objective and format.
on this account objective and format moved together: every lead gen ad was a company ad, and 113 of 115 engagement ads were thought leader ads. this data cannot split the gap between the two. CR8's account, lifetime to .
two placements. one CPM.
one CTR blended in your report
should LinkedIn Audience Network be on or off for B2B?
off, when the campaign is aimed at a named account list: CR8's setup checklist turns LinkedIn Audience Network off for those campaigns. with it on, part of the budget serves on partner apps and sites outside LinkedIn, so CPM and CTR blend two kinds of placement. none of the three public datasets CR8 compares on this page splits its figures by Audience Network on and off.
two reasons for off: impressions outside LinkedIn blend into your CPM and CTR, and LinkedIn reports Audience Network conversions at the ad set level only. CR8 publishes no on-versus-off number from its own account: 5 of the 10 ad sets that ended with it on were named lists, and every lead gen ad set ended with it off, so the two groups do not compare.
what to do in Campaign Manager, open Breakdown, then On/Off Network. it splits clicks and impressions between the two placements. read it before you compare your numbers to any benchmark.
source: LinkedIn help, Audience Network on/off network breakdown
in ZenABM's data, CTR did not predict pipeline.
CTR against pipeline, ZenABM, 211 companies. no significance test given.
CTR up, pipeline down 0,
no link +1,
CTR up, pipeline up
do LinkedIn ads benchmarks predict pipeline?
in ZenABM's data (211 B2B companies, published ), CTR did not predict pipeline. the link between CTR and pipeline was slightly negative (correlation -0.17, no significance test given), so a higher CTR did not mean more pipeline.
so grade the account on what happened after the click too: which companies on your list engaged, the meetings, the pipeline.
where every number comes from
CR8 (cr8.eco) is a LinkedIn ads agency in Berlin, founded by Bogdan Liutic.
outside figures were read at each publisher's page on 2026-10-23 and are quoted in their own units, in USD. these are vendor datasets: ZenABM and Metadata.io sell LinkedIn ads software, The B2B House is an agency. Philip Ilic's figures are quoted as ZenABM's thought leader ads guide cites them. his own analysis was not read.
CR8's own figures come from its own LinkedIn ad account, lifetime to 2026-10-07: 60 ad sets, $9,450 spend, 235,220 impressions, pulled from the Campaign Manager reporting API. spend is in USD, as LinkedIn's export converts it. no client account is used on this page. the uploaded-list CPM ($56.52) and the thought leader cost per landing page click ($26.98) were read live in Campaign Manager on 2026-10-23 and converted to USD at the export's rate.
CR8 is a ZenABM partner agency.
- ZenABM, LinkedIn ads benchmarks 2026 211 B2B companies, published 2026-02-16
- ZenABM, thought leader ads guide 119 thought leader ads, Philip Ilic's 173-account figures, updated 2026-10-21
- ZenABM, TLA benchmarks what a thought leader ad click includes, $3.06 per landing page click, published 2026-02-21
- ZenABM, LinkedIn ads budget guide $40 to $60 CPM, narrow lists over $78, updated 2026-10-15
- Metadata.io, LinkedIn ads cost for B2B 138 B2B advertisers, 2025 data, published 2026-09-08
- The B2B House, LinkedIn ad benchmarks 2026 updated 2025-12-19
- LinkedIn help a445476, a418906, a423102 clicks, Audience Network breakdown, company list rules