By AJ Wilcox

What Is Audience Penetration in LinkedIn Ads?

Audience penetration measures the percentage of your target audience that has seen at least one impression of your ad. It’s calculated by dividing the unique reach of your campaign by the total audience size. This metric provides a clear view of how well your ads are reaching the people you care about.

Hack #1: Calculate Your Total Audience Size

LinkedIn only gives an estimated audience size when you’re setting up a campaign. By using the audience penetration metric together with your unique reach data, you can reverse-engineer the actual size of your audience. For example, if your campaign has reached 5,000 unique people and your penetration rate is 5%, you know your true audience size is around 100,000 people.

Hack #2: Understand How Bids Affect Reach

Audience penetration also helps you test the effect of your bid on reach. Start with a baseline bid, then gradually raise or lower your bid while tracking the penetration rate. If increasing your bid results in more reach, you’ll see penetration rise; if not, you might be hitting a ceiling or encountering diminishing returns. This hack helps you allocate budget more efficiently.

Hack #3: Measure Audience Overlap

You can use audience penetration to see whether two campaigns are hitting the same people. By comparing the penetration rates for different audience segments, you can estimate how much overlap exists between them. This insight lets you refine your targeting, avoid wasting budget on duplicate impressions, and ensure you’re reaching unique segments.

Get Expert Help From B2Linked

Want to make sure you’re leveraging audience penetration and other advanced metrics correctly? Reach out to the B2Linked LinkedIn ads specialists. Their team has managed over $150 million in spend and can help you set up campaigns, interpret metrics and scale results. They’ll also introduce you to our LinkedIn Ads Fanatics community for ongoing support.

Watch the Full Episode & Join the Conversation

Watch the full episode below, then share your thoughts. Have you tried using the audience penetration metric yet?

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