Latest LinkedIn Ads AI Features

Ad platforms have had no shortage of new features this year as the push for AI continues unabated. These updates span the full campaign lifecycle from creation to targeting to optimization and measurement. And while some of these new features may become invaluable arrows in the digital marketer’s quiver, some are rebadged legacy features that may be detrimental to all but the most novice advertiser.  

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest AI updates for LinkedIn Ads, and discuss what they are, how you can use them — and most importantly — if you should use them.

Explaining LinkedIn Ads AI Features

1. Automated Campaign Creation with “Accelerate”

What’s happening:
LinkedIn has continued its longstanding tradition of making it easy for advertisers to spend money with the click of a button, from Boosted Posts to now “AI-powered” Accelerated campaign creation. If you’re trying to burn through a budget, LinkedIn has you covered.

With the Accelerated feature, you simply provide the platform with your product, service, or brand, and then the system automatically generates your campaign. This campaign can feature AI-Generated ads, suggested audience targets, placements, and after launch will even auto-optimize your campaign. 

What it means:

• Advertisers can get live faster: Small brands and owner-operated advertising teams that may not have the resources to produce creative assets or the expertise to navigate audience creation can now try their hand at LinkedIn marketing.  

How to use it:

• Approach with caution: Most professional performance or growth marketers will rarely need this specific LinkedIn Ads AI feature. The individual components of this can be used separately if need be, and the system can (and will) quickly waste your advertising budget if you’re not monitoring the campaign religiously, negating any time savings from the quick launch.   

2. AI-Generated Creative & Variants

What’s happening:
On the creative side, LinkedIn has introduced AI tools to assist with ad copy generation, image suggestions and variant creation. You can now use your existing ads + Shutterstock visuals + generative AI to generate new headlines, ad intro text and image ideas. 

What it means:

• Draft with AI: This could reduce manual work in brainstorming and creating multiple ad variants, which increases your ability to test and adapt creatives dynamically.

What to do:

• Use to supplement your creative ideas: Review suggestions and see what fits for your brand, but be very careful about going full-send on the AI ads. While this can be a powerful tool to create variations of your creative ideas and potentially improving performance, pushing out low-quality AI content can quickly damage brand perception.

3. AI Performance Insights and Recommendations 

What’s happening:
LinkedIn has rolled out measurement and optimization tools that harness AI to drive actionable insights. We now have access to automated AI performance summaries, upgraded media planning and ROI tools, as well as testing and optimization recommendations. 

What it means:

• Less guesswork, fewer missed opportunities: Improved automated insights and suggestions mean fewer insights slipping through the cracks and potentially more insights to investigate. 

What to do:

• Explore, but verify: On the surface, this may seem like a big time saver, but veteran marketers should treat these reports as supplemental, not a replacement. AI insights need to always be verified by ensuring the change fits the context of your campaign goals, and traditional performance reviews should not be jettisoned. 

4. AI-Enhanced Targeting & Audience Creation

What’s happening:
LinkedIn has significantly enhanced the targeting capabilities with AI, enabling features such as previously mentioned auto-targeting, enhanced lookalike and predictive audience segments, and the newest targeting category, “career journey,” which allows you to target career-change signals, such as recently promoted or newly hired professionals. 

What it means:

• Increased scale while maintaining relevance: Seasoned B2B marketers know the eternal struggle between prioritizing reach while trying to focus on a detailed persona. Improved lookalike segments and predictive audiences should be a big help here. Career journey targeting may be niche, but it can also be an invaluable tool for certain advertisers.  

What to do:

• Give AI the data to succeed: Advanced audience segments will require greater data fidelity to perform. For LinkedIn to identify people similar to your best leads, you will need to ensure current leads are relevant and accurately measured. For LinkedIn to tap into real-time intent signals, you will need to make sure your presence on the platform is active and engaging. Without proper setup, these powerful features can easily hurt performance instead of helping it.    

5. Algorithm Changes Value Quality over Virality 

What’s happening:
While not a feature per se, advertisers should be very cognizant of LinkedIn’s new algorithmic priorities. Hollow engagement no longer moves the needle like it did in years past; the platform now focuses on helpful, relevant content and authentic engagement. This is not just true across organic content, but paid advertising as well. 

What it means:

• Substance over show: Over 80% of LinkedIn ads fail to achieve brand recall, which means marketers need to do a better job of giving users a reason to stop and take notice. Posts with low engagement won’t be shown organically, and paid posters can expect to see lower response rates as well.

What to do:

• Design for the user: Delivering thought-leadership and solution-oriented creative can help drive authentic engagement and boost ad performance. Remember to test multiple formats (especially native video when possible), creative iterations, and topics as well.

Conclusion: Making Sense of LinkedIn Ads AI Features

The key takeaway is that LinkedIn, like all advertising platforms, is enriching its capabilities with machine-driven features, and not all features are right for all advertisers. Accelerate campaigns might be a game-changer for non-marketers, but could be an active hindrance to professionals. Likewise, predictive lookalike audiences may be a great new feature for marketing pros, but could spell trouble for novices.    

The most important thing to remember is that none of these features or changes mean that you can “set it and forget it.” With any automation, especially new features such as these, oversight will be crucial to prevent feedback loops that result in wasted budget. Additionally, careful setup, tracking and optimizations will still be important to maintain a competitive advantage. 

If you’d like to learn more about how your brand can best position itself on LinkedIn, let’s talk. With decades of real-world B2B tech company advertising experience, Firebrand’s team has helped small and large brands stay ahead of the trends and outpace their peers. Recognized as B2B experts in the PPC space, we have helped new clients establish their nascent programs, while transforming legacy programs to be more efficient and nimble by utilizing advanced ABM approaches.