LinkedIn Steps Up Its Retargeting Options

Author Dan Lifton 3 min read time

I’ve always thought LinkedIn was quite limited and behind the curve with its retargeting functionality compared to Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. This all changed last week when LinkedIn launch two new and exciting retargeting options for advertisers.

These two new features were Lead Generation Form retargeting and Video retargeting – something we are all familiar with on Facebook.

These new options bring some exciting opportunities which you can start planning into your campaigns.

Lead Generation Form Retargeting

With Lead Gen Form retargeting, you now have the ability to retargeting those engaged leads who opened your form but did not fill out their details or people who have submitted a form.

LinkedIn is offering five retargeting windows, so I’d definitely start testing these out to see which works best for you.

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If you are running content pieces, there are a few options you can try if somebody opened your form but did not submit.

  • Change the value add in the copy e.g a different hook or reason they need to download the asset
  • Try another asset with a similar theme or something completely different to see if this gets them to fill out their details. There was a reason they didn’t fill out their details the first time.

If somebody has submitted a lead form but you know that action will not result in them turning into an MQL initially, you can now retarget these people with additional forms around content, free trials or contact forms to convert them into MQLs.


This would also be especially useful for the longer retargeting windows that did not convert through a nurturing program to trigger them as an MQL. Making sure you are providing them with something new and valuable is key here, don’t just go back to assets and resources they would already have been served in the nurturing programme.

Video Retargeting

With video retargeting comes a huge opportunity to initially qualify more broader, colder audiences. By showing a brand awareness video or introduction to a particular solution, you will now have an audience where you can provide highly targeted and relevant content.

Just like we do with Facebook advertising, you could run a video retargeting sequence to really qualify people who are interested in your offering and most likely to fill out their details. An example of this would be:

  • Campaign 1 – Broad Targeting: brand awareness videos
  • Campaign 2 – Anyone who watches 50% of videos in campaign 1: specific solution videos
  • Campaign 3 – Anyone who watches 75% of videos in campaign 2: white paper asset or webinar

With a video campaign cost per views can be relatively cheap on LinkedIn (compared to cpcs on LinkedIn), so this is a great way to build up a qualified retargeting pool vs going after broad audiences straight away with content pieces. We would advise testing these two methods together to see which gains you the best CPA overall.

This type of sequencing could also work well to encourage more contact us or demo requests on LinkedIn, which historically do not perform as well as content driven campaigns.

Some really exciting developments are happening at LinkedIn. It finally feels like LinkedIn is slowly catching up with other paid social platforms, but there is still a way to go yet.

WRITTEN BY

Dan has been working in Paid Media for 5+ years, and has extensive experience in managing strategies and campaigns both in-house and agency side, meaning he knows the best of both worlds.