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Matched Audience Usecases

Warning

Deprecation Notice
The Marketing Version 202406 (Marketing June 2024) has been sunset. We recommend that you migrate to the latest versioned APIs to avoid disruptions. See the Migration page for more details. If you haven’t yet migrated and have questions, submit a request on the LinkedIn Developer Support Portal.

Overview

LinkedIn Audiences is a set of targeting capabilities that allow advertisers to combine LinkedIn’s data with their own to reach the right audiences on LinkedIn. This enables effective audience segmentation and refined ad targeting.

Subject to members' preferences, LinkedIn Matched Audiences are custom audience segments you can use as targeting selections in your advertising campaigns. With Matched Audiences, you can:

  • Upload a list of companies or contacts (one-time transfer)
  • Stream a set of companies or contacts (continuous sync)
  • Retarget member accounts that:
    • Visited a page on your website
    • Engaged with your single image ad
    • Engaged with your document ad
    • Viewed your video ad
    • Opened or submitted your Lead Gen Form
    • Opened a conversation or clicked on any conversation ad call-to-action (CTA)
    • Engaged with your Company Page
    • Responded to your LinkedIn Event
    • Connected through Conversions API (supported sources: Zapier, HubSpot,
      Dreamdata, Factors.ia, Hightouch, Lytics, Segment, and Tealium)

Why?

Partners and end-users require these use cases for the following reasons:

  • Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Target high-value accounts with precision
  • Contact Targeting: Engage specific individuals using their professional or personal email addresses
  • Website Retargeting: Re-engage users who have visited your website with tailored ads

Permissions

  • Applications must have an access token with the following permissions:
    • rw_dmp_segments (For DMP Segment APIs)
    • rw_ads (For Website Retargeting APIs)
  • DMP Segment APIs require separate access from the LinkedIn Marketing API Program. Developers must apply separately

Pre-requisites

  • Your developer application must have access to the LinkedIn Audiences product
  • The application must be provisioned for for audience targeting
  • You need access to at least one ad account with relevant permissions

Use Case 1: Account Targeting (ABM)

Description

Create audiences using Company Name or Company Domain to target specific organizations for LinkedIn ad campaigns.

Procedure/Workflow

  1. Obtain User Authorization: Secure permission to access DMP Segment APIs
  2. Retrieve User’s Ad Accounts: Set metadata such as account, type (COMPANY), and sourcePlatform
  3. Upload Company Data: Add company names or domains via Streaming API or CSV upload
  4. Monitor Segment Status: Validate the user's organization association.
  5. Apply to Campaigns: Fetch available Lead Gen Forms associated with the selected ad account

Use Case 2: Contact Targeting

Description

Create audiences by matching contact email addresses to LinkedIn members for precise ad targeting.

Procedure/Workflow

  1. Obtain User Authorization: Secure access to DMP Segment APIs
  2. Create a DMP Segment: Set metadata such as account, type (USER), and sourcePlatform
  3. Upload Contact Data: Add SHA256-encoded email addresses via Streaming API or CSV upload
  4. Monitor Segment Status: Ensure it reaches READYstatus
  5. Apply to Campaigns: Use the generated segment in LinkedIn Ads targeting

Use Case 3: Website Retargeting

Description

Create audiences from website visitors and conversions using the LinkedIn Insight Tag

Procedure/Workflow

  1. Deploy the LinkedIn Insight Tag: Ensure it is live on the advertiser’s website
  2. Create Ad Page Set: Define the audience source
  3. Create Ad Segment: Set up retargeting parameters
  4. Update Ad Segment Source: Ensure sales teams act promptly on new leads to improve conversion rates
  5. Apply Targeting to Campaign: Use the retargeting audience for LinkedIn Ads

Streaming API vs CSV Upload Method

LinkedIn provides two methods for uploading audience data: the Streaming API and the CSV upload method. The Streaming API is recommended for real-time audience updates, allowing advertisers to dynamically add or remove records without disrupting ongoing campaigns. This method ensures seamless updates and higher efficiency for large-scale campaigns. The CSV upload method, on the other hand, is a static upload where advertisers must replace the entire list when updates are needed. While it is simpler to implement, it may cause temporary campaign pauses as the new list processes.