Why are LinkedIn Ads so expensive?

LinkedIn Ads cost more per click and per impression than any other major ad platform because you're paying for precision. LinkedIn is the only channel where you can target by exact job title, seniority, company size, and industry, all self-reported by the user, not inferred by an algorithm.
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A $12 CPC on LinkedIn reaching a VP of Engineering at a Series B SaaS company is not comparable to a $3 CPC on Meta reaching someone who "might" be interested in B2B software. When your average deal is $50K–$200K, the math works.
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Where it gets wasteful is when targeting is too broad relative to budget. While LinkedIn recommends minimum audience sizes of 50,000 per campaign, and even larger for Sponsored Content and Message campaigns, following this advice without accounting for ad budget can lead to mediocre results. If the audience is too large for the budget, you will never build high enough ad frequency for users to remember you and take action.  In our LinkedIn Ads accounts, tightening audiences from 200,000 to 20,000 and switching to manual bidding consistently drops CPCs by 30–50% while improving lead quality.

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Osric Digital's Principal recently recorded this video on how to calculate the ideal audience size for LinkedIn Ads, based on your monthly ad budget. Read the full blog post here.