What each LinkedIn objective permits

Explains LinkedIn's campaign objectives: what each one optimises towards, which ad formats and cost types it allows, when a marketer should pick it, and whether it needs a conversion rule to work at all. Use when: choosing an objective before creating a campaign, or explaining why a format the user asked for is not available. The objective is the single least reversible choice on a LinkedIn campaign — it cannot be changed after creation, so getting it right here saves rebuilding the campaign later. Do not use it as a source of costs or benchmarks; it describes what the platform permits, not what anything will cost. Do not pick an objective for the user when their goal is ambiguous — show the two candidates and ask which outcome they are paying for. Returns the matrix for one objective, or all of them. Costs nothing. WEBSITE_CONVERSION only optimises once a conversion rule with real volume is attached — if the user has no tracking, say so and recommend WEBSITE_VISIT instead of setting them up to fail. LEAD_GENERATION needs a Lead Gen Form on every ad, which this server cannot attach yet: its create tools refuse that objective, so a lead-gen campaign is built in Campaign Manager. A campaign created without a bid uses LinkedIn's automated bidding for its objective and is billed CPM; a bid switches it to manual bidding on the cost type given. Text ads only bid manually.