Making Sense of LinkedIn Campaign Metrics: What to Measure and Communicate

Lately, I’ve been deep into marketing analytics, specifically LinkedIn campaign metrics—what truly matters, when to measure, and how to translate numbers into meaningful insights. With so many available metrics, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

For example, LinkedIn offers various metrics based on campaign objectives:

• Awareness campaigns: Impressions, Reach
• Engagement campaigns: Click-Through Rate (CTR), Engagement Rate
• Video campaigns: Video views, completion rates at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 97%
• Lead generation campaigns: Lead form opens, Lead form completions
• Newer metrics: Audience Penetration, Dwell Time
• Sales insights: Lead engagement via LinkedIn Sales Navigator

The Challenge: What to Monitor, Analyze, and Communicate?

Marketing reports aren’t just about numbers; they need to provide actionable insights tailored to different stakeholders. This raises key questions:

• Who are your internal stakeholders?
• What do they need to know?
• What insights are most valuable to them?

From my experience:

• Sales teams primarily want to know who we reached, how they engaged, and if we can estimate audience interest. If a campaign covers multiple value propositions, they may be keen on understanding which topics generate the most interest.
• Marketing teams often focus on frequency. Not all businesses benefit from high-frequency exposure (e.g., seeing the same ad daily can lead to ad fatigue). Over-targeting can also cause frustration rather than engagement.

Structuring Campaign Metrics: What to Monitor vs. Analyze

To simplify, I categorize metrics into two groups:

1. Metrics to Monitor – Track regularly to ensure campaign health.
2. Metrics to Analyze & Communicate – Extract insights to drive strategic decisions.

Metrics to Monitor:

• Impressions & Reach – Are we expanding our audience?
• Frequency – Are we overexposing ads?
• Audience Demographics – Limited to predefined factors set at campaign launch (e.g., company size, industry, job function). Excludes factors outside the initial target audience.
• Main KPI Trends – Lead generation numbers, video views, or website traffic trends per week. Is the performance stable or declining? What factors might be influencing the trend?

If audience penetration stagnates and frequency rises, it may indicate ad fatigue, diminishing effectiveness.

Metrics to Analyze & Communicate:

• Audience Insights – Company, job function, seniority level
• Behavioral Insights – CTR, video views, completion rates, lead form opens/completions
• Engagement Segmentation – Creating retargeting audiences based on interaction levels

For example, in a video campaign, knowing how many viewers reach 25%, 50%, 75%, or 97% completion can reveal their level of interest. Higher completion rates suggest strong engagement, while drop-off points may indicate where messaging loses impact.

Additionally, LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help map out engaged audiences, offering valuable insights into potential leads. To provide them with deeper insights, I use retargeting audiences to analyze demographics of engaged users. Additionally, LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s Buyer Intent feature plays a crucial role in consolidating audience engagement signals, such as ad interactions and likes, directly into the Sales Navigator tool. This helps sales teams understand potential leads better and prioritize outreach efforts.

Why Does This Matter?

Analyzing LinkedIn campaign metrics isn’t just about tracking numbers—it’s about understanding audience behavior:

• Are they interested in our offering?
• Are they engaged but hesitant to share contact details?
• Are they disengaged altogether?
• Is our audience valuable to sales teams, and how can we refine targeting?

Delivering Actionable Reports

Whenever I create a report, I start with these key steps:

1. Identify the recipients – Who will receive the report? Sales? Marketing? Leadership?
2. Define key insights – What will be most relevant to their roles?
3. Consider stakeholder preferences – Have they expressed specific reporting needs?
4. Set clear objectives – What do I want this report to achieve?
5. Gather the right data – Extract meaningful insights and recommend actionable next steps.

By following this structured approach, marketing reports become more than just a collection of numbers—they turn into a strategic tool for decision-making.

LinkedIn marketing analytics can be complex, but focusing on the right metrics for the right audience makes all the difference. What has been your experience in reporting LinkedIn campaign performance? I’d love to hear your thoughts!