LinkedIn predictive audiences

Last updated: 5 days ago

Predictive audiences help expand your campaign's reach by creating an audience predicted to perform actions similar to those within your source data. To create a predictive audience, we combine your data source and LinkedIn’s AI to automatically generate a new custom audience to use in your campaigns.

The data sources you choose in Campaign Manager should align to the specific behavior you’d like to replicate. You can create a predictive audience from one of the following: 

Keep in mind, if you use a contact or company list that is in Updating status, we’ll use the latest completed version of that audience to create your predictive audience. Since predictive audiences refresh every day, once your update finishes processing, the predictive audience will use that as the source going forward.

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Your data source must have 300 or more members to create a predictive audience. You can select multiple sources within a data source type to reach 300 members. For example, if you choose Lead Gen Forms, you can select multiple Lead Gen Forms to reach 300 members.

After choosing your data source, you can also add a target audience location and define the size of your audience. 

Best practices for predictive audiences 

Here are a few best practices when creating your predictive audience: 

  • Consider aligning your data source and campaign objective. For example, use Lead Gen Forms as your data source for campaigns with a lead generation objective, or conversions for campaigns with a website conversion objective.
  • Identify your current customers. For example, a contact list of customer emails from your CRM or visitors to your login page. 
  • Start an audience that meets a specific set of qualifications. For example, Lead Gen Forms from demo or application sign ups. 
  • Use an audience that has been reviewed and approved by your sales team. For example, a contact list of emails chosen by sales or closed won opportunities.

Predictive audience requirements

When creating a predictive audience, keep in mind: 

  • You can only select one type of data source (Lead Gen Form, contact list, company list, conversion, or retargeting audience).  
  • If you choose a contact or company list, it must have a minimum of 300 rows and a maximum of 300,000 rows.
  • If you choose a conversion, Lead Gen Form, or retargeting audience, it must have more than 300 members. 
  • There’s a limit of 100 predictive audiences for each ad account. 
  • Predictive audiences can’t be shared across ad accounts or created from lists shared from Business Manager.  
  • Audience Expansion is disabled for campaigns that use predictive audiences. 
  • If you choose a company or contact list, your audience will expand to other member accounts or companies that are likely to perform an action. If you don’t want to include your seed company or contact list into your targeting, we recommend that you exclude your list.

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