Can you run LinkedIn Ads from a personal account?
No. You need a LinkedIn Page (company page) and a Campaign Manager account linked to it. You cannot create or run ads from a personal LinkedIn profile alone. The one exception is Thought Leader Ads, which let you sponsor an existing organic post from a personal profile. But you still need a company Page and Campaign Manager to set up and pay for the campaign.
With Thought Leader Ads, you can promote posts from employees of your company or from any LinkedIn member you're connected to, but the creator must approve the sponsorship. This is actually one of the most effective LinkedIn Ads formats available. In our client accounts, Thought Leader Ads regularly outperform standard Sponsored Content on both CTR and cost per conversion because they look and feel like organic content rather than ads.
