If you’re advertising on LinkedIn and not using Thought Leader Ads, you’re leaving money—and impact—on the table.
Thought Leader Ads are LinkedIn’s fastest-growing and most engaging ad format. Why? Because people trust people more than brands. These ads allow you to promote organic posts directly from a personal profile. And when used correctly, they can dramatically improve both your engagement and your conversion rates.
In this guide, we’re covering the top LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad best practices, tips, and tricks to help you drive better performance and lower your costs.
Want to watch the Thought Leader ad masterclass that goes with this blog? Click here to watch on YouTube.
Why Thought Leader Ads Work So Well
Thought Leader Ads are uniquely powerful because they:
- Get the longest dwell time of any LinkedIn ad format because people are on LinkedIn to hear what other people are saying.
- Deliver lower CPCs and CPMs due to the super high engagement
- Make your marketing feel more authentic and trustworthy, when you’re hearing from a person, not just a company.
When it comes down to it, Thought Leader ads are most effective because they don’t look like “marketing”. They look just like any other post on LinkedIn, and the reason people are on LinkedIn is to hear what others have to say.
Example screenshot of a LinkedIn thought leader ad
The only indicator, is the post date is change to “Promoted by ____”
1. Use Long-Form Content to Maximize Attention
LinkedIn users spend more time reading posts from real people—especially when they’re engaging, insightful, entertaining, or story-driven.
- Deliver more value upfront
- Educate your audience
- Create emotional connection
This is how you generate demand. By stacking on reasons to take action.
Use long form posts because people read them!
Pro Tip: Long videos work great as well, especially selfie-style videos where you speak directly to the camera. These get the highest watch times, and face time is gold.
2. Add Links—But Time Them Right
Want traffic and reach? Here’s the move:
- Post your content without a link to maximize organic reach.
- Once it gains traction, edit the post to add your link before boosting.
This strategy avoids the algorithm’s dislike for outbound links while still allowing you to drive traffic with paid promotion.
- Drive traffic to your blog or website
- Promote webinars, events, or downloadable guides
- Push to demo or call booking pages
3. Promote Your Offers
A lot of folks shy away from using Thought Leader Ads to sell.
- Book a call
- Register for your webinar
- Download your latest report
- Comment to get a resource (aka comment-gated lead gen)
Promote webinars, offers, and more!
4. Boost Positive Customer Posts
Have a happy customer post something about you or your product?
➡️ Boost it.
User-generated content (UGC) is some of the best-performing ad content—because it’s social proof at scale. Just make sure you have permission first.
Promote case studies, testimonials, and other social proof.
5. Bid Below the Suggested Range
This is a hidden gem: Thought Leader Ads often get super high engagement, which boosts your ad quality score and lowers your costs.
So try bidding lower than LinkedIn’s recommended range.
- Get the same (or better) reach
- Pay less per click or per thousand views
- Improve downstream metrics like CPL and conversion rate
Bid lowwwww!!
6. Retarget to Build the Know-Like-Trust Factor
Once someone has engaged with your ad or visited your site, retarget them with more content:
- Share customer stories or case studies
- Showcase behind-the-scenes content
- Provide deeper educational material
Retargeting builds familiarity and helps prospects move through your funnel faster. Especially when you use video, and specifically selfie videos. That face time is gold!
Use videos in your thought leader ads to get more facetime!
7. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (This One’s Big)
The little profile and headline section on each post makes a big difference as to whether someone will read your post.
Plus, remember that your Thought Leader Ad links back to your profile. So when you run thought leader ads, many people will be clicking to visit your profile to learn more.
So make sure you:
- Have a clear, benefit-driven headline
- Use a professional, friendly profile photo
- Fill out your About section to clearly explain what you do and who you help
This helps turn profile views into real interest—and real leads.
8. Test and Iterate Often
Just like any ad format, don’t settle on one version. Test, test, test:
- Different post styles (educational, storytelling, contrarian opinions)
- Different CTAs
- Text-only vs. video posts. Text-only get the most read time.
- Post length and format
LinkedIn Ads are a feedback loop—lean into what’s working.
Text-only posts get the longest dwell time, because they don’t look like marketing.
Test text-only posts because they get the longest read time.
Final Thoughts: Thought Leader Ads Are the Future
Thought Leader ads are resetting the performance benchmarks of LinkedIn. If you don’t take advantage of them, your old ads are going to be pushed to the bottom of the auction. Plus your costs will rise, as the algorithm will prefer thought leader ads.
Take some of these examples and start incorporating Thought Leader Ads into your campaigns.
They’re a smarter, more human way to market on LinkedIn. And they’re a lot more fun to use!
Want to watch the Thought Leader ad masterclass that goes with this blog? Click here to watch on YouTube.
Need Help With Your LinkedIn Ads?
We help B2B companies turn LinkedIn into a growth machine—using smart strategy, compelling content, and top-performing ads.
✅ LinkedIn strategy tailored to your business
📅 Schedule a call with us to get started: https://speedworksocial.com/free-consultation/