LinkedIn is introducing several new features to enhance user engagement and advertising performance, including a test for personal post boosting to help professionals expand their reach. At the same time, the platform is under pressure to adjust its targeted advertising practices to meet EU privacy regulations, following a €310 million fine for GDPR violations. These updates reflect LinkedIn’s ongoing effort to balance monetization with compliance while optimizing ad tools for its growing marketing community. Read further in the article below.
LinkedIn Launches Boosting of Personal Posts
Beyond its current choices for company page advertising, LinkedIn is testing a new feature that allows individual users to pay to increase the visibility of their postings. A limited number of U.S. Premium Business subscribers are presently participating in the feature’s testing. Users will have the ability to promote a variety of content kinds, such as:
- Posts with text
- Posts with images
- Articles
- Videos and Newsletters
- On his LinkedIn page
Source: Kevin D. Turner & Search Engine Land
Professionals are encouraged to invest in personal branding by this new feature, which increases LinkedIn engagement and content activity. Deeper relationships with highly engaged audiences are made possible by positioning the platform as a major focus for professional outreach, both paid and organic. This service allows people direct control over the amplification of their material, in contrast to LinkedIn’s current Thought Leader Ads, which are intended for campaigns supported by businesses. This enables consumers to expand their reach without depending on corporate finances, democratizing access to visibility.
Although this feature might present intriguing opportunities, it calls into question LinkedIn’s strategy for content visibility. Even for articles with high levels of engagement, a lot of people express unhappiness over the restricted organic reach. Critics, including Tammy Graham (Head of Business Development & Marketing at Scarab Digital), have highlighted issues such as:
- Declining organic reach
- Erosion of trust in the platform
- Engagement that doesn’t always translate to visibility
- Some fear this marks a shift to a “pay-to-play” model, similar to Facebook’s trajectory years ago.
A broader rollout of the feature is anticipated in 2025, potentially opening new doors for personal branding and professional outreach on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is under EU criticism for requiring tailored ad adjustments.
LinkedIn is not only experimenting with new ways for users to boost post visibility but is also under pressure to overhaul its targeted advertising practices in Europe, reflecting broader challenges in balancing user engagement and regulatory compliance.
Following a €310 million fine in October, LinkedIn has announced upcoming changes to its data processing practices for EU users. By 22 January 2025, LinkedIn will stop using certain personal data – such as age range, gender, interests, and traits – for targeted advertising without user consent. This change responds to a 2018 complaint by the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) and a ruling by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which found LinkedIn in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Source: Euractiv
According to the DPC, it will assess if LinkedIn’s declared modifications comply with GDPR regulations. LinkedIn is under additional pressure to guarantee complete compliance as Maryant Fernández Pérez, head of digital policy at the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), underlined that users should maintain control over how their data is used for advertisements.
LinkedIn’s regulatory issues highlight a greater conundrum: how to increase user engagement and generate revenue while adhering to stringent privacy regulations, as the company experiments with new features like personal post boosts. LinkedIn may be able to better balance these needs with the impending changes, but they also underscore how difficult it is becoming to operate in a market that is highly regulated and data-sensitive.
LinkedIn Introduces New Elements to Campaign Manager to Make Ad Performance Better
The most recent Campaign Manager changes from LinkedIn demonstrate the company’s drive to improve advertiser tools and data, which is consistent with the platform’s larger initiatives to boost engagement and ad performance. The “Companies” overview, which takes the place of the “Company Engagement” report and provides more filtering possibilities, as well as insights into both paid and organic metrics, are some of the major enhancements. Marketers may now more precisely target their audiences and store reports for use in subsequent campaigns thanks to this modification. LinkedIn has also updated its data-driven attribution report, which helps advertisers improve their tactics and offers better insights into how various marketing initiatives affect lead creation.
Additionally, a new page called “Measurement Insights” has been introduced, which makes it easier for marketers to assess member, company, campaign, and ad format data in one place. Additionally, by connecting CRM data using LinkedIn’s Conversions API (CAPI), “Qualified Leads Optimization” enables marketers to customize campaigns to concentrate on high-quality leads. By focusing on the most promising leads, this feature helps advertisers increase conversion rates and cut down on wasteful spending.
Source: LinkedIn Business
LinkedIn’s growing dependence on AI and machine intelligence to maximize ad performance is reflected in these upgrades. LinkedIn is pitching itself as a solid choice for video-driven marketing in 2025, as seen by the 36% increase in video engagement on the platform year over year. These modifications are in line with the platform’s overarching plan to improve user and advertiser engagement while making sure that its features and tools satisfy the demands of an expanding marketing community.
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