How Much Do LinkedIn Ads Cost? CPC, CPM and Cost per Lead Benchmarks
By the PNext team · Updated 20 October 2026
LinkedIn has a reputation for being expensive, and per click it is. But LinkedIn is also the only major platform where you can target by job title, seniority and company, which is why B2B marketers keep using it. The real question is not whether the clicks are expensive, but whether the leads are worth it.
This guide gives current LinkedIn ads cost benchmarks by metric and ad format, worked budget examples, and the changes that bring costs down.
- ✓Average LinkedIn CPC, CPM and cost per lead
- ✓Cost per lead by ad format
- ✓Lead Gen Forms vs landing pages
- ✓Budget examples
- ✓How to lower costs
How much do LinkedIn ads cost?
Recent B2B benchmarks from Metadata.io (2025 data) put LinkedIn’s average cost per click at $9.39, CPM at $63.19 and cost per lead at $202. Document ads were the cheapest format per lead at $142, and Lead Gen Forms produced leads at $193 against $346 for landing pages. Costs vary widely by audience and offer.
Average LinkedIn ads cost
| Metric | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Cost per click (CPC) | $9.39 |
| Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) | $63.19 |
| Click-through rate | 0.67% |
| Cost per lead | $202 |
Source: Metadata.io’s B2B advertising benchmarks, based on 2025 campaigns from 153 B2B advertisers. These are spend-weighted figures for B2B companies, often targeting senior audiences, so smaller or broader campaigns may see different numbers.
LinkedIn cost per lead by ad format
| Format | Cost per lead |
|---|---|
| Document ads | $142 |
| Single image ads | $200 |
| Video ads | $265 |
| Conversation ads | $362 |
Document ads, which let people preview a guide or report in the feed, were the cheapest per lead in this dataset. Conversation ads were the most expensive per lead, though they can work well for high-value invitations such as events or demos.
Lead Gen Forms vs landing pages
In the same data, LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms produced leads at $193, while sending the click to a landing page cost $346 per lead. Forms are pre-filled from the member’s profile, so fewer people drop off. The trade-off is that some form leads are less committed, so we track lead quality through to opportunities before deciding which wins for a given offer.
LinkedIn budget examples
| Goal | Example monthly budget | At $202 per lead |
|---|---|---|
| Test a new offer | $3,000 | About 15 leads |
| Steady lead flow | $8,000 | About 40 leads |
| ABM programme with several offers | $15,000+ | About 75 leads, spread across accounts |
These are illustrations of the maths using the benchmark average, not predictions. LinkedIn also sets minimum daily budgets per campaign, so very small budgets spread across many campaigns rarely work.
What drives LinkedIn ads costs
Audience seniority
C-level and VP audiences are the most competitive, so CPMs and CPCs rise as seniority goes up.
Audience size
Very small audiences, common in account-based campaigns, push costs up because LinkedIn has few people to show ads to.
Industry and job function
Audiences that many advertisers want, such as IT decision makers and finance leaders, cost more.
Bidding strategy
Automated bidding is simpler but can overspend on small audiences; manual bidding gives more control.
Objective
Brand awareness campaigns are billed differently from lead generation campaigns, which changes what you pay for.
Creative and offer
Ads people engage with get better delivery. A weak offer raises every cost metric.
LinkedIn ads cost compared with Google and Facebook
| Platform | Average cost per click | Average cost per lead | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn (B2B advertisers) | $9.39 | $202 | Metadata.io, 2025 data |
| Google search (all industries) | $5.42 | $66.69 | LocaliQ, 2026 |
| Facebook lead campaigns (all industries) | $1.80 | $27.39 | LocaliQ, 2026 |
The comparison is not like for like: the LinkedIn figures come from B2B companies targeting professionals, while the Google and Facebook figures cover many small and mid-sized businesses. But it shows why LinkedIn needs a higher deal value to make sense. If a customer is worth tens of thousands of dollars, a $200 lead can be cheap; if it is worth a few hundred, LinkedIn rarely pays back. See LocaliQ’s 2026 search advertising benchmarks and LocaliQ’s 2026 Facebook advertising benchmarks for the full datasets.
How to lower LinkedIn ads costs
Use first-party audiences
Company lists, website retargeting and contact lists usually convert better than broad job-title targeting.
Lead with a useful offer
A strong guide, benchmark report or tool earns cheaper leads than “book a demo” to a cold audience.
Test Document ads and Lead Gen Forms
The cheapest combination in the benchmark data.
Avoid audiences that are too narrow
Very small audiences push CPMs up; widen slightly and exclude poor fits.
Refresh creative often
LinkedIn audiences are small, so ads tire quickly.
Measure pipeline, not leads
A $300 lead that becomes a deal beats five $100 leads that never answer.
For campaign management, see our LinkedIn ads agency page, and for how LinkedIn compares with other platforms, Google Ads vs Facebook Ads.
Want LinkedIn ads that pay back?
We will review your campaigns and show you what your real cost per qualified lead is.
Further reading from our team: B2B PPC agency for Google and LinkedIn ads that build pipeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Try a different keyword, or ask our team directly.
Metadata.io’s 2025 B2B data puts the average at $9.39 per click, though costs vary with audience, seniority and competition.
The same data shows an average of $202 per lead. Whether that is good depends on your deal size and close rate.
In the benchmark data, Document ads had the lowest cost per lead at $142.
They usually produce cheaper leads ($193 versus $346 for landing pages in the benchmark), but check lead quality through to sales.
You pay for precise professional targeting with fewer competitors able to offer it, and audiences are smaller than on other platforms.
LinkedIn sets minimum daily budgets per campaign. In practice, a few thousand dollars a month is needed to test properly.
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- 01Audience targeting
- 02Format and offer
- 03Cost per qualified lead
- 04Budget plan
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