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LINKEDIN-TARGETED ADS

B2B search targeting that Google cannot offer.

Microsoft Advertising is the only search platform that lets you layer LinkedIn professional data — job title, company name, company size, and industry — onto keyword-based search campaigns. For B2B businesses, this means your Bing Search Ads can target people with specific job titles when they search for your keywords — a capability unavailable on Google Ads.

LinkedIn profile targeting on Bing Search — professional identity meets search intent.

Microsoft Advertising's LinkedIn Profile Targeting is a feature unique to the Microsoft Ads platform that allows advertisers to use LinkedIn professional data as audience targeting layers on Bing Search campaigns. You can restrict your search ads to serve only to people who match specific professional criteria from their LinkedIn profile — job title (e.g. Operations Manager), company name (specific target accounts), company size (e.g. 50–500 employees), or industry (e.g. Construction, Healthcare, Finance). This creates a search advertising capability that does not exist on Google: keyword intent plus professional identity. A CFO who searches "accounting software for professional services" on Bing can be specifically targeted if they work at a company with 50+ employees in professional services — filtering out SMB searchers who would not be relevant prospects. For B2B businesses with defined ideal customer profiles, this hybrid of search intent and professional targeting is among the most precise advertising available.

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Google cannot do this. Only Microsoft can.

Google Ads has no equivalent to LinkedIn profile targeting. Google's audience options are based on browsing behaviour, demographics, and in-market signals — but not professional identity. Microsoft's partnership with LinkedIn (both owned by Microsoft) makes LinkedIn data available as targeting dimensions within Bing Search campaigns. For B2B businesses where the ideal customer is defined by their professional role and company context rather than just their search behaviour, this targeting capability changes the economics of search advertising. Instead of paying for all clicks on your target keywords and relying on your landing page to qualify visitors, LinkedIn targeting filters the auction so you only compete (and pay) for clicks from the professional profile you actually want.

30+
additional leads per month for a B2B financial services business using LinkedIn-targeted Bing Search alongside Google Ads (Scalepoint client, 2025–26)
0
other search platforms offer LinkedIn professional profile targeting — this is unique to Microsoft Advertising globally
20–40%
typical CPC reduction on Bing Search versus Google for equivalent keywords — compounded by the efficiency gain of professional targeting filters

Professional identity filters on search campaigns.

LinkedIn profile targeting is applied as an audience layer on existing Bing Search campaigns — not a separate campaign type.

JOB TITLE TARGETING
Reach specific roles when they search on Bing.

Job title targeting from LinkedIn data applied as a bid modifier or audience restriction on Bing Search campaigns. You can bid up on searches from your target job titles, bid down on non-professional audiences, or run search campaigns exclusively serving to specified job titles. Job title targeting is the most granular and most valuable LinkedIn dimension available.

COMPANY NAME TARGETING
ABM on search — reaching target account employees.

Company name targeting lets you serve or bid up on searches specifically from employees at named companies — your top 50 or 100 target accounts. When a decision-maker at a target account searches for your service category on Bing, you can ensure your ad appears with maximum visibility. This is account-based marketing applied to search.

COMPANY SIZE TARGETING
Filtering by business size.

Bid up or restrict serving to companies with specific employee counts. A B2B software company targeting mid-market (50–500 employees) can exclude both SMB searchers and enterprise searchers who would not be relevant pipeline — concentrating budget on the company size range where deals close.

INDUSTRY TARGETING
Vertical-specific search targeting.

Industry filters from LinkedIn's company database applied to search campaigns — targeting searches from people who work in Construction, Healthcare, Finance, Professional Services, or any of LinkedIn's industry categories. For businesses with vertical-specific offers, industry targeting ensures budget concentrates on searches from relevant sector decision-makers.

BID MODIFIER APPROACH
Targeting as a bid adjustment, not restriction.

LinkedIn targeting can be used as a bid modifier (bid 50% higher for searches from target job titles) rather than a hard restriction (only serve to target job titles). This hybrid approach captures all search traffic while concentrating budget on the most valuable professional segments — useful when absolute reach matters alongside precision.

COMBINED WITH GOOGLE ADS
Google for volume, Microsoft for precision.

The most effective B2B search strategy combines Google Ads (higher volume, broader audience) with LinkedIn-targeted Microsoft Ads (lower volume, higher precision). Google captures the full demand funnel; Microsoft captures the specific professional segment within that funnel at a lower CPC. Together they provide full-funnel B2B search coverage.

B2B businesses with defined professional buyer personas.

B2B SaaS and technology companies

Software businesses targeting specific roles (IT Manager, CTO, Head of Operations) use LinkedIn targeting to serve search ads exclusively to their buyer persona when searching on Bing — filtering out the majority of non-relevant clicks that would otherwise consume budget.

Professional services firms targeting business clients

Accountants targeting Finance Directors, recruiters targeting HR Managers, consultants targeting C-Suite — any professional services business whose ideal client is defined by job title and company type benefits from LinkedIn targeting filtering their search traffic.

Enterprise sales businesses with named account lists

Company name targeting turns Bing Search into an ABM search channel — ensuring your ads appear with maximum prominence when employees of your target accounts search for your service category. Combines with LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Message Ads for full account penetration.

Businesses testing B2B search beyond Google

Companies that have maximised Google Ads and want to test incremental B2B search volume. Microsoft's LinkedIn targeting adds a qualitative advantage (professional precision) to Bing's quantitative advantage (lower CPCs) — making the incremental return particularly strong for defined B2B audiences.

A one-page audit of your linkedin-targeted ads opportunities.

No call required. Tell us your business and goals — we send back a written audit within 3 business days.

What works alongside LinkedIn-targeted Microsoft Ads.

Bing Search Ads

The base campaign type LinkedIn targeting enhances

Learn more →
LinkedIn Ads

The platform whose data powers this targeting

Learn more →
LinkedIn ABM

Account-based targeting across both LinkedIn and Bing

Learn more →
Google Search Ads

Higher-volume search alongside Bing precision

Learn more →
← Back to Microsoft Ads

Common questions about linkedin-targeted ads

What is LinkedIn Profile Targeting in Microsoft Ads?+

Microsoft and LinkedIn share ownership under Microsoft, which gives Microsoft Ads a unique capability: the ability to layer LinkedIn profile data — job title, company, industry, and seniority — onto Bing search campaigns. You're still targeting people based on what they're actively searching for, but you can now restrict those impressions to specific professional profiles. It's the only search platform in the world that offers this combination.

Why use LinkedIn targeting through Microsoft rather than LinkedIn directly?+

LinkedIn ads reach professionals while they're passively scrolling a social feed. Microsoft Ads with LinkedIn targeting reaches those same professionals while they're actively searching for something — a fundamentally higher-intent moment. CPCs are also significantly lower than LinkedIn's own platform, which makes it an efficient way to add professional targeting to a search campaign without paying LinkedIn's premium rates for display-level intent.

What campaigns benefit most from LinkedIn targeting?+

B2B campaigns targeting specific professional roles see the biggest lift. If you're selling software to IT managers, professional services to finance directors, or recruitment solutions to HR teams, restricting impressions to those job titles means your budget isn't being spent on irrelevant searches from people who happen to use the same keywords. The more precisely you can define your buyer's professional profile, the more value this targeting layer adds.

Does LinkedIn targeting reduce my audience size significantly?+

Yes, and that's intentional. Adding LinkedIn profile targeting reduces total impression volume because you're narrowing from all Bing searchers to only those matching your professional criteria. In practice, this trades raw volume for relevance — you reach fewer people, but a much higher proportion are genuine buyers. For most B2B campaigns, the conversion rate improvement more than compensates for the volume reduction, resulting in a lower cost per lead overall.

Which Microsoft Ads campaign types support LinkedIn targeting?+

LinkedIn Profile Targeting is available across Search, Shopping, and Audience Network campaigns. Scalepoint typically applies it to Search first, where the combination of active search intent and professional targeting delivers the clearest signal. Once conversion data confirms the targeting is working, we extend it to Audience Network placements for additional touchpoints across the Microsoft network at lower CPMs.