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Budget & bidding — how the auction works
In one sentence
It is an auction: highest bid × relevance score wins and pays just enough to beat the runner-up. Better creative buys cheaper media.
$10per day minimum$100lifetime minimum+50%a day can overspend€1–2per day per 1,000 members
B pays roughly €7.01 — just above C's score divided by B's relevance — not the €8 it bid. Better creative = cheaper media. Say this in every creative review.
The auction in one line
Winner = highest (bid × relevance score), and pays just enough to beat the runner-up (second-price logic). Relevance score = predicted engagement/CTR of the ad for that member. Better creative lowers the price.
| Strategy | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum delivery (automated) | Spends full budget at whatever price wins | Default; large audiences, deadline campaigns, no time to manage |
| Cost cap | Targets an average cost per key result; can under-deliver | Efficiency with a known target CPC/CPL |
| Manual bidding | You set the max bid per click/impression/view/send | Small audiences, experienced buyers; start under the suggested range, +10% steps |
| Qualified Leads Optimisation (QLO) | Send MQL/SQL signals back via CAPI; delivery skews to similar members | ≥ ~50 qualified events / month |
| Conversion Value Optimisation (CVO) | Optimises toward higher-value conversions | Value passed via CAPI |
Pricing units
CPMcost per 1,000 impressions — Brand awareness, reach
CPCcost per click — Website visits, Engagement, Lead gen
CPVcost per video view (2 s, ≥50% in view)
CPScost per send — Sponsored Messaging (paid when delivered, not opened)
CPL / CPAcost per lead / per action — outcomes you report, not bid units (except via cost cap)
Budgets, pacing, frequency
- Minimum $10/day per ad set, $100 lifetime (EUR equivalents shown in account currency).
- Daily budget can be exceeded by up to 50% on a given day; LinkedIn averages over the calendar week — say this before finance asks.
- Rule of thumb: €1–2 / day per 1,000 members in a cold audience.
- Lifetime budgets pace across the schedule; daily + lifetime combined gives a hard cap.
- Sponsored Messaging has strict per-member frequency caps, so a member rarely sees your message twice in a short period.
- Ad review takes up to 24 h; rejections: superlatives ("No. 1", "guaranteed"), before/after images, landing page ≠ ad.
- Run 3–5 ads per ad set; refresh creative every 2 weeks on audiences < 10k, monthly > 100k.
Why an ad set does not spend — checklist in order
- Bid below the floor for the audience
- Ad in review or rejected
- Campaign (group) paused or schedule ended
- Audience too small for the format
- Daily budget below the bid
- Billing failed
- Conversion-optimised ad set with no conversion volume
- Frequency exhausted — new creative resets it
Remember
- Maximum delivery spends everything; Cost cap targets an average cost; Manual sets your own bid.
- CPM for awareness, CPC for clicks and leads, CPV for video, CPS for messaging.
- Daily budget is averaged over the calendar week — say it before finance asks.