LinkedIn ad revenue hits $8.2bn in 2025, driven by B2B creators and AI brands

New Delhi: LinkedIn has strengthened its position as a platform for business-to-business marketing, with ad revenue projected to reach $8.2 billion in 2025, reflecting an 18.3% increase. 

WARC Media’s latest Platform Insights report highlights that this growth is fuelled by contributions from B2B creators, emerging generative AI brands, and the expansion of campaigns into connected TV.

Celeste Huang, Media Insights Analyst at WARC Media and author of the report, said, “LinkedIn accounts for a small part of Microsoft’s overall revenue. However, its ad business is outpacing other mid-size platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest. Its premium subscriptions continue to rise, and efforts in growing B2B creators, video formats and CTV campaigns is delivering returns.”

LinkedIn’s ad revenue is forecast to reach $9.7 billion in 2026, up 18.5%, and $11.3 billion in 2027, an increase of 16.2% from the previous year. In comparison with other mid-size social platforms, LinkedIn’s ad business exceeds Snapchat ($6 billion), Pinterest ($4.2 billion) and Reddit ($2.2 billion). 

Category-wise, business and industrial sectors account for the largest ad spend on LinkedIn, followed by technology and electronics, and government and non-profit organisations, while retail contributes just 2% of total ad revenue.

LinkedIn reaches approximately 350 million active users per month, though its total registered user base is 1.2 billion. Its Audience Network extends advertiser reach beyond the platform to third-party sites, with over 1.8 million feed updates viewed per minute. 

Users primarily engage with the platform to search for jobs (9.4%) and follow company pages (7.3%), with 4.3% of internet users reporting that they have researched or purchased after seeing an ad on LinkedIn, a figure rising to 6.4% among full-time employees. 

The platform is available in 200 markets, with the Asia Pacific region providing the largest audience (277 million), followed by Europe (257 million) and North America (233 million). The US and India together account for a third of LinkedIn’s audience, though professional reach is approaching saturation in key markets.

Generative AI companies are among the most active advertisers on LinkedIn, allocating 12% of their total digital ad budgets to the platform, compared with an average of 3% across other categories. B2B creator activity has grown steadily, with 12% of creators regularly posting content, although growth is slower than on short-form video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. LinkedIn users are also the fastest-growing social media group to adopt AI tools, with 41% reporting use of ChatGPT, up from 15% in the first quarter of 2024.

High-net-worth individuals are well represented on LinkedIn, with 38% of corporate purchasers and business decision-makers being Millennials, 33% Gen X, 16% Gen Z and 13% Boomers. The platform reports that its audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience, with 10 million C-level executives active on LinkedIn.

In terms of ad performance, LinkedIn ads in the US demonstrate high ad equity, with positive consumer attitudes towards ad quality. Short-form video content on the platform is growing by 12% year-on-year, with higher completion rates for emotionally resonant videos. 

The platform’s connected TV advertising solution, developed in partnership with NBCUniversal, Roku and Samsung, reaches 105 million connected devices per month in the US.

LinkedIn has introduced initiatives such as the Creator Accelerator Program and partnerships with certified creator agencies through its Marketing Partners tool, providing additional avenues for B2B advertisers. 

While consumer-focused metrics such as CPC and impressions indicate higher costs, account-based measures, including cost per company influenced, suggest that LinkedIn remains an effective platform for B2B advertising.