The median B2B company on LinkedIn generates $5.21 in pipeline for every dollar spent on ads. That single number tells you more about LinkedIn ads benchmarks than most benchmark reports will in 5,000 words – because it connects ad spend to the thing that actually matters: revenue. Most LinkedIn ads benchmark data floating around is self-reported, outdated, or based on a handful of campaigns. That is why I built the ZenABM 2026 LinkedIn ABM Performance Benchmarks Report – using real campaign data from 211 B2B companies, 161,256 ads, $5.5M in total ad spend, across 29 countries. This is not survey data. It is actual performance data pulled directly from Campaign Manager and connected to CRM pipeline. In this post, I am breaking down every LinkedIn ads benchmark you need – CTR, CPC, CPM, conversion rates, budget allocation, and the pipeline metrics that most reports ignore entirely. Whether you are trying to justify your LinkedIn budget or figure out if your campaigns are underperforming, you will find your answer here. 
Before diving into individual metrics, here is the full picture. This table shows median performance across all major LinkedIn ad formats based on our dataset of 161,256 ads.
| Ad Format | CTR (Median) | CPC (Median) | CPM (Median) | Efficiency Score (/10) | Budget Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thought Leader Ads (TLAs) | 2.68% | $2.29 | $49.37 | 9.5 | 7-10% |
| Single Image Ads | 0.42% | $13.23 | $59.15 | 3.2 | 61.87% |
| Video Ads | 0.24% | $15.61 | $38.94 | 1.5 | 31.72% |
| Carousel Ads | 0.32% | $13.30 | $45.28 | 2.5 | <1% |
| Document Ads | 0.43% | – | – | – | <1% |
| Event Ads | 0.55% | – | – | – | <1% |
| Text Ads | 0.02% | – | ~$2 | – | <1% |
The standout here is Thought Leader Ads. With a 2.68% CTR and a $2.29 CPC, they outperform every other format by a wide margin. Yet they only receive 7-10% of the average budget. Meanwhile, single image ads take nearly 62% of all ad spend despite being 5-6x more expensive per click. That misallocation is one of the biggest opportunities I see across the 211 companies in our dataset. But let me break down each metric individually so you can benchmark your own campaigns properly. 
Click-through rate is the metric most marketers check first. Here is what “good” actually looks like across each format.
| Ad Format | Median CTR | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Thought Leader Ads | 2.68% | 6x higher than single image ads |
| Event Ads | 0.55% | Strong for event-specific campaigns |
| Document Ads | 0.43% | Similar to single image, good for content distribution |
| Single Image Ads | 0.42% | The standard benchmark most people reference |
| Carousel Ads | 0.32% | Lower CTR but longer engagement time |
| Video Ads | 0.24% | Low CTR because people watch without clicking |
| Text Ads | 0.02% | Almost no clicks – but that is not the point |
The TLA number surprises people. A 2.68% median CTR means that for every 100 people who see a Thought Leader Ad, nearly 3 click through. For context, most LinkedIn advertisers are happy with a 0.40% CTR on single image ads. Why are TLAs so much higher? Because they look like organic posts from a real person, not corporate ads. The LinkedIn feed algorithm treats them more favorably, and users engage with them the way they engage with content from someone they follow – not the way they engage with ads. 
Here is something counterintuitive from our data: CTR has a slight negative correlation with pipeline generation (rho = -0.170). That means companies with the highest CTRs do not necessarily generate the most pipeline. Why? Because high CTR often means you are running broad targeting to a large audience that clicks but never buys. A 0.35% CTR on a tightly targeted ABM list of 500 accounts can generate more pipeline than a 0.80% CTR on an open audience of 50,000 people. Benchmarks are useful for diagnosing campaign health, but do not optimize for CTR at the expense of everything else.
Cost per click varies dramatically by format. If you are only tracking a single CPC number for “LinkedIn ads,” you are missing the picture entirely.
| Ad Format | Median CPC | Relative Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Thought Leader Ads | $2.29 | Baseline (cheapest) |
| Single Image Ads | $13.23 | 5.8x more expensive than TLAs |
| Carousel Ads | $13.30 | 5.8x more expensive than TLAs |
| Video Ads | $15.61 | 6.8x more expensive than TLAs |
The CPC gap between TLAs and every other format is staggering. At $2.29 per click, TLAs cost 77% less per landing page click than single image ads. Put differently: $1,000 spent on TLAs gets you roughly 327 landing page clicks. That same $1,000 on single image ads gets you about 71 clicks. This is why the efficiency score for TLAs is 9.5 out of 10 while single image ads score only 3.2. The per-click economics are not even close.
Three factors explain most of the CPC variation across formats:
CPM (cost per thousand impressions) tells you how much it costs to get your ads in front of people – regardless of whether they click.
| Ad Format | Median CPM | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Text Ads | ~$2 | Cheap brand awareness, website visitor deanonymization |
| Video Ads | $38.94 | Storytelling, product demos, building familiarity |
| Carousel Ads | $45.28 | Multi-step narratives, feature showcases |
| Thought Leader Ads | $49.37 | Engagement, trust-building, clicks |
| Single Image Ads | $59.15 | Direct response, lead generation |
Text ads at ~$2 CPM are 30x cheaper per impression than single image ads. That is not a typo. For pure awareness – keeping your brand in front of target accounts – text ads are incredibly cost-efficient. They will not drive clicks (0.02% CTR), but they will drive impressions at near-zero cost. Video ads have the lowest CPM among the “premium” formats at $38.94. This makes them a solid choice for top-of-funnel awareness when you want more than just impressions – you want people to actually watch something about your product or story. The key insight: if your goal is clicks and engagement, optimize for CPC (TLAs win). If your goal is raw visibility, optimize for CPM (text ads win). Most ABM campaigns on LinkedIn should use a mix of both.
Where your audience is located significantly impacts what you will pay and how your ads perform. Here are the benchmarks broken out by geography.
| Country | CTR | CPC | CPM |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 0.52% | $8.99 | $62.67 |
| United Kingdom | 0.55% | $9.16 | $56.62 |
| Netherlands | 0.72% | $6.40 | $50.08 |
The Netherlands stands out with the highest CTR (0.72%) and the lowest CPC ($6.40) of the three. US audiences are the most expensive at $62.67 CPM – which makes sense given the number of advertisers competing for the same B2B decision-makers in the US market.
If you are running lead generation campaigns, CPL varies even more dramatically by region.
| Region | Typical CPL Range |
|---|---|
| North America | $200-$250 |
| Europe | $120-$150 |
| APAC | $80-$120 |
| LATAM | $60-$90 |
A $200 CPL in North America is not necessarily “bad” if your average deal size is $50,000+. A $60 CPL in LATAM is not necessarily “good” if those leads do not convert to pipeline. Always evaluate CPL relative to your deal size and close rate – not in isolation.
One of the most common questions I get is “How much should I spend on LinkedIn ads?” Here is what the data says.
| Metric | Median | Top Performers |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly ad spend | $2,693 | $6,576 |
| Monthly influenced pipeline | $13,819 | Higher (varies) |
| Pipeline per dollar spent | $5.21 | $15.20 |
Top-performing companies spend 144% more than the median ($6,576 vs. $2,693 per month). But here is the important part: they also generate nearly 3x the pipeline per dollar ($15.20 vs. $5.21). Spending more does not just mean more pipeline in absolute terms – it means more efficient pipeline generation. Why? Because there is a strong positive correlation between ad spend and pipeline generation (rho = 0.566, p = 0.0006). Companies that invest more in LinkedIn ads tend to reach more of their target accounts consistently, which accelerates account progression through the funnel. 
Based on the data, here is how the average company allocates spend across formats – and what I would recommend instead.
| Format | Current Average Allocation | Recommended Allocation |
|---|---|---|
| Single Image Ads | 61.87% | 40-50% |
| Video Ads | 31.72% | 20-25% |
| Thought Leader Ads | 7-10% | 20-30% |
| Text Ads | <1% | 5-10% |
The biggest shift I recommend is moving budget toward TLAs. Given their 9.5/10 efficiency score and 77% lower cost per click, most companies are dramatically underinvesting in their highest-performing format. The challenge is that TLAs require employee content, which takes more coordination than uploading a designed image. But the performance gap is too large to ignore.
Conversion rates depend heavily on what you are asking people to do after they click. Here are the benchmarks split by offer type.
| Offer Type | Typical Conversion Rate | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| High-commitment (demo, meeting) | 2-5% | Book a demo, schedule a call, request pricing |
| Low-friction (content) | 10-15% | Download a guide, register for webinar, get template |
| Lead Gen Forms (average) | ~10% | Any offer using LinkedIn’s native form |
| Lead Gen Forms (high performance) | 15%+ | Well-targeted offer with strong copy |
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms consistently outperform landing pages because they auto-fill user data, removing the biggest source of friction (typing). On average, Lead Gen Forms deliver 20-30% lower cost per lead compared to sending traffic to external landing pages. That said, Lead Gen Forms have a tradeoff: you get the lead’s data but lose the website visit. If you are running ABM and want to track which companies are visiting your site, landing pages give you that visibility. The best campaigns use both – Lead Gen Forms for direct capture and landing pages for retargeting and deanonymization.
If your demo request conversion rate is below 2%, the problem is usually not the ad – it is the landing page. The most common issues I see:
If your content download conversion rate is below 8%, the offer itself might not be compelling enough. “Download our whitepaper” converts much worse than “Get the 2026 LinkedIn Ads Benchmark Data” because the second one is specific and immediately useful.
Here is where this post differs from every other LinkedIn ads benchmark article you will read. CTR, CPC, and CPM are campaign health metrics. They tell you if your ads are running well mechanically. But they do not tell you the thing that actually matters: are your LinkedIn ads generating pipeline and revenue? From our dataset of 211 companies, here are the pipeline and revenue benchmarks. 
| Metric | Median | Top Performers |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly influenced pipeline | $13,819 | Significantly higher |
| Pipeline per dollar spent | $5.21 | $15.20 |
| ROAS (return on ad spend) | 1.62x | 2.79x |
A median ROAS of 1.62x means that for every dollar invested in LinkedIn ads, the median company generates $1.62 in pipeline. Top performers hit 2.79x. These are influence-based numbers, meaning they credit pipeline to any campaign that touched the account before the deal was created – not just the last click. The difference between median and top performers is stark. Top performers generate $15.20 in pipeline per dollar versus $5.21 for the median. That is a 192% gap. What separates them?
I mentioned earlier that CTR negatively correlates with pipeline (rho = -0.170). This deserves more attention because it goes against what most marketers assume. The logic is straightforward. High CTR usually means broad, untargeted audiences where lots of people click but few are actual buyers. ABM campaigns with tight target account lists typically have lower CTRs (because the audience is smaller and more specific) but generate more pipeline per dollar because every click comes from a company you actually want to sell to. This is why I always tell teams: a “bad” CTR on a great audience is worth more than a “great” CTR on a bad audience. Benchmarks should inform your strategy, not dictate it.
After analyzing $5.5M in LinkedIn ad spend across 211 B2B companies, here are the benchmarks and insights that matter most.
The full dataset and methodology behind these benchmarks is available in the ZenABM 2026 LinkedIn ABM Performance Benchmarks Report.
It depends on the ad format. For single image ads, the median CTR is 0.42% – anything above 0.50% is performing above average. For Thought Leader Ads, the median is 2.68%. For video ads, 0.24% is the median. Comparing your CTR to the wrong format benchmark will give you a misleading picture of performance. Always benchmark against the same ad format you are running.
The median CPC across all formats ranges from $2.29 (Thought Leader Ads) to $15.61 (video ads). Single image ads – the most commonly used format – have a median CPC of $13.23. These are medians from 161,256 ads across 211 companies, so your actual CPC will vary based on targeting, geography, industry, and competition. US-targeted campaigns tend to run 20-40% higher than European campaigns.
The median monthly spend across 211 B2B companies in our dataset is $2,693. Top-performing companies spend $6,576 per month. If you are just starting out, $2,000-3,000/month is a reasonable starting point for a single ABM campaign. Below $1,500/month, you will likely struggle to get enough impressions to meaningfully reach your target accounts – especially if you are targeting US-based audiences where CPMs are higher.
The data says yes. The median company in our dataset generates $5.21 in pipeline for every dollar spent, with a median ROAS of 1.62x. Top performers hit 2.79x ROAS. The key is measuring the right outcomes. If you only look at CPL, LinkedIn looks expensive compared to Google or Facebook. But when you measure influenced pipeline and revenue from target accounts, LinkedIn consistently outperforms other channels for B2B because it is the only platform where you can target by company, job title, and seniority at scale.
LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms deliver 20-30% lower cost per lead compared to external landing pages, with average conversion rates around 10% (and 15%+ for high-performing campaigns). The tradeoff is that Lead Gen Forms keep the user on LinkedIn, so you lose the website visit data. For ABM campaigns where website visitor tracking matters, I recommend using both: Lead Gen Forms for direct lead capture on bottom-funnel offers, and landing pages for top-of-funnel content where you want the website visit for retargeting and company-level analytics.
