The B2B Guide to LinkedIn Retargeting and Best Practices

Francesco Gatti
January 23, 2025

LinkedIn has become a cornerstone of B2B marketing, offering unparalleled access to decision-makers and professionals across industries. As competition for attention grows, retargeting has emerged as a critical strategy for businesses aiming to nurture leads and convert prospects. 

By focusing on those who have already engaged with your brand — whether through website visits, content interactions, or lead gen form submissions — LinkedIn retargeting ads provide a highly targeted and effective way to stay top-of-mind.

Using tools like the LinkedIn Insight Tag and LinkedIn Campaign Manager, businesses can create retargeting campaigns that reconnect with website visitors, build brand awareness, and drive conversions. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up LinkedIn retargeting campaigns, share best practices for optimizing ad content, and explore how tools like Opensend can enhance your overall strategy. 

Whether you’re new to LinkedIn advertising or looking to refine your existing campaigns, this guide will help you unlock the full potential of LinkedIn retargeting for B2B success.

What Is LinkedIn Retargeting?

LinkedIn retargeting is a marketing strategy that allows businesses to re-engage audiences who have already interacted with their brand. 

By using LinkedIn’s advertising platform, businesses can target website visitors, content viewers, or previous ad engagers with highly personalized retargeting ads. This approach ensures that your messaging reaches prospects who are already familiar with your business, increasing the likelihood of conversions.

For B2B marketing, LinkedIn retargeting is particularly powerful because of its ability to tap into LinkedIn’s professional network. Businesses can create audience segments based on demographics like job title, company size, or industry and refine their targeting to include website audiences or matched audiences. Matched audiences are custom audience groups created by uploading customer data, such as email addresses or company names, to target or exclude specific groups in your campaigns.

With the LinkedIn Insight Tag, companies can track visitor behavior on their website and feed this data into LinkedIn Campaign Manager to create audience groups for retargeting campaigns.

Whether your goal is to drive lead generation, promote brand awareness, or boost conversion rates, LinkedIn retargeting offers a precise and effective way to achieve your marketing objectives. It’s an essential tactic for nurturing prospects, staying visible throughout the buyer’s journey, and ultimately driving results in B2B advertising.

How To Set Up a LinkedIn Retargeting Campaign

Setting up a LinkedIn retargeting campaign involves using LinkedIn’s tools, such as the LinkedIn Insight Tag and Campaign Manager, to create and manage highly targeted ads. 

Here’s how to get started:

Install the LinkedIn Insight Tag

The LinkedIn Insight Tag is a small piece of JavaScript code that tracks visitor activity on your website. It serves as the foundation for LinkedIn retargeting, allowing you to collect data about your audience and use it for customized ads. 

To install the tag, access LinkedIn Campaign Manager and navigate to the Insight Tag section. Generate your unique code and add it to your website’s header or through a tool like Google Tag Manager. Once installed, the tag will start gathering data on website visitors, enabling you to segment them based on their actions, such as visiting a product or pricing page.

Create Custom Audiences

Once the Insight Tag is active and collecting data, you can create a custom audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. This step involves grouping website visitors based on their behavior. For instance, you can target visitors who viewed specific pages, such as your lead gen form, pricing details, or case studies. 

You can also focus on prospects who interacted with your LinkedIn content or company page. By creating specific audience segments, you ensure your retargeting ads are relevant and effective, nurturing your leads at various stages of their journey.

Exclude Irrelevant Audiences

Excluding irrelevant audiences is just as important as targeting the right ones. Remove existing customers or unqualified leads from your campaigns to avoid wasting ad spend and keep your messaging focused on prospects who are most likely to convert. LinkedIn’s audience filters make it easy to refine your campaign by excluding users based on actions or attributes.

What Are the Best Practices for LinkedIn Retargeting?

It’s important to follow best practices that align with your audience and objectives to maximize the success of your LinkedIn retargeting campaigns. By refining your targeting, experimenting with ad formats, and crafting engaging content, you can ensure your campaigns drive results.

Refine Your Target Audience

The key to effective LinkedIn retargeting lies in narrowing your audience segments to focus on the most qualified prospects. Use LinkedIn Campaign Manager to segment based on behaviors, such as website visits to key pages like pricing or case studies. 

Additionally, refine demographic targeting by job title, industry, or company size. The more tailored your audience, the better your retargeting ads will perform.

Experiment With Ad Formats

LinkedIn offers a variety of ad formats, each suited to different goals. Testing multiple formats can help you determine what resonates best with your audience. 

Some options to consider:

  • Single Image Ads: Great for promoting products, services, or blog posts to build brand awareness.

  • Text Ads: Cost-effective and ideal for driving clicks to your landing page.

  • Video Ads: Use videos to showcase product demos, case studies, or storytelling to engage viewers.

  • Dynamic Ads: Personalized ads that dynamically adjust based on the viewer, such as showing their name or profile photo.

By experimenting with these ad formats, you can uncover the most effective way to deliver your message and drive conversions.

Make Engaging Ad Content

Your retargeting ads need to stand out in a professional feed. Use clear, compelling headlines and concise ad copy that aligns with your target audience’s needs. Pair this with a strong call-to-action (CTA) and a high-quality landing page that provides a seamless user experience. 

Ensure the landing page matches the ad’s message and offers an easy path to conversion, such as a lead gen form or demo request.

Retarget Abandoned Carts

For B2B e-commerce businesses, retargeting abandoned carts can help recover lost sales. Use retargeting ads to remind prospects of items left in their carts, potentially offering an incentive like a discount to drive the purchase.

Retarget Website Visitors

One of the most effective uses of LinkedIn retargeting is to re-engage website visitors. Target users who have browsed key areas of your website, such as pricing or product pages, but didn’t complete a desired action. This keeps your brand visible and encourages them to return and convert.

By combining these best practices, you can create LinkedIn retargeting campaigns that resonate with your audience, maximize engagement, and deliver measurable results.

How Can Opensend Help?

Opensend can elevate LinkedIn retargeting campaigns by identifying your anonymous website traffic, and pushing this visitor data into your retargeting campaigns. It identifies website visitors, including anonymous users, and collects valuable insights like email addresses and on-site behavior. 

Opensend helps retarget prospects who visit important pages, such as pricing or product pages or abandon lead gen forms. It also enables multichannel retargeting across platforms like Google Ads and Facebook, ensuring your brand remains visible across key touchpoints.

With detailed analytics on conversion rates and audience engagement, Opensend allows you to refine your retargeting strategy for better results. 

How To Measure and Optimize Your LinkedIn Ad Campaign

Measuring and optimizing your LinkedIn ad campaign is essential for maximizing performance and achieving your marketing goals. By tracking key metrics, testing variations, and refining your strategy, you can ensure your LinkedIn retargeting campaigns deliver the best possible results.

Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Start by monitoring critical metrics that indicate how your ads are performing. Key KPIs include:

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how engaging your ad is by tracking the percentage of viewers who click on it.

  • Conversion Rate: Assesses how many users completed the desired action, such as filling out a lead gen form or visiting a landing page.

  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Evaluates the profitability of your campaign by comparing ad spend to revenue generated.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager’s conversion tracking tools make it easy to monitor these metrics and gather insights into campaign effectiveness.

Use A/B Testing

Experiment with variations of your ads to identify what works best. Test elements like ad content, CTAs, ad formats (such as single image ads vs. video ads), and audience segments. For example, compare how different CTAs like “Get Started” or “Learn More” impact CTR and conversion rates. Use these insights to fine-tune your campaigns.

Always Adjust 

Optimization is an ongoing process. Based on performance data, refine your audience segments, adjust budgets, and modify ad content to improve results. For example, if a specific demographic isn’t responding well, reallocate your budget toward more engaged audience segments or test new creative strategies.

By continuously tracking metrics, testing variations, and refining your approach, you can maximize the impact of your LinkedIn retargeting ads and achieve higher ROI for your campaigns.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn retargeting is a powerful tool for B2B marketing, enabling businesses to reconnect with website visitors, nurture leads, and drive conversions. You can craft campaigns that deliver measurable results by leveraging tools like the LinkedIn Insight Tag, creating precise audience segments, and following best practices for ad content and formats.

Ready to elevate your LinkedIn retargeting campaigns? Schedule a demo or start your trial with Opensend today!

Sources:

How Much Does LinkedIn Advertising Cost in 2024? | Web FX

LinkedIn Ad Benchmarks for B2B Marketers: What’s Working Right Now | HockeyStack

Types of LinkedIn Ads: What’s the best ad format for you? | Factors.ai

How to Effectively Use LinkedIn Ads for B2B Marketing | LinkedIn

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