TL;DR
Use layered targeting: job function + seniority + company size + industry. Avoid over-targeting (audiences below 50,000 have too little reach for statistical significance) and under-targeting (broad audiences waste budget on unqualified impressions). Match the audience size to your budget.
LinkedIn's targeting is its superpower and its most misused feature. Here's how to use it right.
The foundational targeting stack:
Job function + seniority is usually the starting layer. "Marketing" + "Senior" + "Director/VP/C-Suite" is a meaningful filter that narrows to the right decision-makers without being so narrow you run out of audience.
Company size as a filter: If your ICP is 50–500 employees, use the "51–200" and "201–500" company size filters. Don't waste budget on 10,000-person enterprises if your product isn't built for them.
Industry filter: Use when your product is industry-specific. If your SaaS is built for fintech, add the fintech industry filter. If it's horizontal, skip this or you'll over-narrow.
Geography: Target by country, region, or city — critical for any product with geo-specific deployment or regulation.
Audience size rule of thumb: - Below 50,000: Too narrow for meaningful optimization, CPMs spike, frequency caps hit too fast - 50,000–300,000: Sweet spot for most B2B campaigns - Above 500,000: Getting broad — add more filters or you'll waste impressions on unqualified people
Advanced targeting:
Matched Audiences (retargeting): Upload your prospect list or CRM contacts to show ads only to people you're already targeting in outbound. This "surround" approach — they receive cold email + LinkedIn ads simultaneously — significantly improves response rates.
Company list targeting (ABM): Upload a list of 200–500 target accounts. LinkedIn will target employees of those companies. This is the cleanest ABM targeting available.
Lookalike audiences: LinkedIn can build audiences that look like your best customers. Feed it your converted lead list and it finds similar prospects.
Avoid: Interest-based targeting (too broad), skill-based targeting alone (doesn't filter seniority), and age/gender targeting (typically irrelevant for B2B and adds bias).
From Cactus: Cactus builds LinkedIn targeting architectures for clients based on their specific ICP — combining company lists, matched audiences, and layered targeting filters to minimize wasted impressions.
Cactus Marketing embeds with B2B tech startups to turn strategy into pipeline. We've worked with 60+ companies, supported 12 exits, and contributed to $7B+ in client valuations.
Book a free 30-minute call — we'll give you a concrete plan for your situation.
Book a free strategy call →How do I get more LinkedIn connections?
Send 15–20 personalized connection requests per day to your ICP, consistently post original content to grow organic reach, and engage authentically on others' posts. Connection acceptance rates jump from 15% to 35–50% when the request includes a one-line context note about why you're connecting.
How do I write a LinkedIn message that gets replies?
Keep it under 50 words, reference something specific to them (a post, a company announcement, a mutual connection), ask one clear question, and never pitch in the first message. The connection request note or first message that pitches immediately gets ignored or blocked.
How much does LinkedIn advertising cost?
LinkedIn ads cost $8–20+ per click (CPC) and $30–60 per 1,000 impressions (CPM) — 3–5x more expensive than Meta or Google Display. The minimum daily budget is $10 but you need $300–500/day to generate enough data to optimize. Budget for $5,000–10,000/month to run a meaningful test.
What is a good LinkedIn ad CTR?
A good LinkedIn ad CTR is 0.4–0.8% for Sponsored Content. Anything above 1% is excellent. Below 0.3% signals a creative or audience targeting problem. LinkedIn CTRs are lower than Google Search because you're interrupting people who aren't actively searching — that's expected.