Short answer: Turn both off. Audience Expansion shows your ads to people outside the audience you built, and LinkedIn Audience Network sends your ads off LinkedIn to apps and sites where the traffic rarely converts. LinkedIn opts you into them by default. If you want more reach, use a Predictive Audience instead.
There are parts of the LinkedIn Ads platform that are sadly just a waste of your time. These two are at the top of my list. Turning them off takes about thirty seconds per campaign, and it's the first change we make in almost every account we inherit.
What does Audience Expansion do?
You know that audience you built? Audience Expansion's job is to completely disregard it. It lets LinkedIn show your ads to people it considers "similar" to your targeting. You picked specific job titles, seniorities, company sizes or an account list. Audience Expansion lets LinkedIn decide other people are close enough.
Not sure if it's on? Look for these in your demographics report:
Spend on companies outside the size range you targeted.
Entry-level people getting impressions when you targeted Manager and above.
Job functions you never picked showing up in delivery.
It's on by default for every new campaign, so you have to turn it off every single time.
What does LinkedIn Audience Network do?
Audience Network takes your ads off LinkedIn and puts them on third-party apps and websites. It gets selected automatically on Website Visits campaigns. The traffic is bot-like: one or two second visits that bounce. There are no bid modifiers, so you can't bid it down, and LinkedIn will happily spend a big chunk of your budget there.
You came to LinkedIn to reach professionals in the feed. Keep your money there, where the traffic quality is higher and bounce rates are lower.
What should you use instead?
If your audience is too small or you want to reach more people, don't let LinkedIn guess. Widen it on purpose:
Try a Predictive Audience. It starts from your own data, like lead gen form submitters or a CRM list, instead of LinkedIn's idea of "similar."
Add targeting you'd actually sign off on. Test job titles first, then job function, then member groups, then skills. That order holds for almost every account.
Re-check your bid after the audience grows. Bigger audiences usually mean cheaper bids.
How do you turn them off?
In Campaign Manager, open each active campaign and go to the audience section.
Uncheck Enable Audience Expansion.
In the placements section, uncheck LinkedIn Audience Network.
Add both to your launch checklist. New campaigns can switch them right back on.
What happens after you turn them off?
Reach drops, and your cost per impression might go up. That's fine. You're now paying to reach the people you actually picked. Judge the change on lead quality and pipeline over the next few weeks, not on impressions in the first few days.
FAQ
Should Audience Expansion be on or off on LinkedIn?
Off, on every campaign. It's on by default and it spends budget outside the targeting you set.
Is LinkedIn Audience Network worth it for B2B?
Not for pipeline. The traffic is low quality, there are no bid modifiers, and it soaks up budget.
What's a better way to scale a LinkedIn audience?
Use a Predictive Audience, or widen your targeting yourself with more job titles, job functions or member groups.
Written by Trey Buchanan, founder of TB3 Digital. Trey has spent nine years in B2B paid media and has twice been selected for LinkedIn's Customer Advisory Board. This is one of the seven things we do on every account. See the full list in How TB3 runs LinkedIn Ads, or book a strategy call and we'll look at your account with you.