Definition
What is declared targeting?
Declared targeting is the selection of an advertising audience from information that people have entered themselves: job function, company, industry, seniority, skills. LinkedIn Ads is the typical example. It differs from behavioural targeting, which infers characteristics from observed actions. It is more precise on professional criteria, but it ages when profiles are not kept up to date.
Declared or inferred
Two ways of choosing who sees an ad coexist. Declared targeting reads what the person wrote on their profile: their position, their employer, their industry. Behavioural targeting infers their characteristics from what they do (pages viewed, content watched, purchases).
On Meta, the trend is toward the inferred: the Andromeda system rebuilds the matches between a person and an ad on its own, which takes value away from fine targeting. LinkedIn remains the only social platform where professional targeting rests on what users declare themselves.
What precision costs
The precision of declared data comes at a price. The cost per click on LinkedIn is several times higher than on Meta. That price is only justified if the value of a customer acquired is large enough to absorb it: a high-value B2B offer, a long sales cycle, a target defined by a precise job function.
A $150 cost per lead can be excellent if a customer is worth $40,000. It becomes unsustainable if a customer is worth $800. The calculation therefore starts from the value of a customer, not from the cost per click.
The trap of the audience that is too narrow
The more declared criteria you stack, the smaller the audience. Targeting such as "CFOs of companies with fifty to two hundred employees in Quebec" may count only a few thousand people. They see the same ad several times in two weeks: frequency climbs and performance can collapse.
LinkedIn recommends aiming for audiences of at least 50,000 people.
The limits of declared data
- Profiles age. A person who changed jobs without updating their profile stays in the old box.
- A profile says who the person is, not what they are looking for. A declared job function does not say whether the person is looking for a supplier this week. Microsoft Advertising crosses the two: its professional profile targeting adjusts the bid on a search ad according to the LinkedIn profile of the person searching.
- A form fills in the fields. LinkedIn's native lead form produces many enquiries at a low apparent cost. Without measuring qualification downstream, the channel can look excellent while sending the sales team contacts with no intent.
Fictional example: an engineering firm wants to reach maintenance directors at Ontario plants. With three declared criteria (job function, industry, company size), its LinkedIn audience counts 6,000 people. After two weeks, each of them has seen the ad several times and the cost per enquiry rises.
It broadens the function to operations and removes the size criterion: the audience passes 50,000 people. The quality of enquiries is then judged downstream, on closed sales, not on the number of forms.
We start from the value of a customer over three years and the cost per enquiry that value allows. If the calculation does not hold, we say so: the platform is then too expensive for your situation, however good the targeting.
When the calculation holds, we keep the audience above 50,000 people and we judge the channel on cost per sale, not cost per lead. The declared criteria are chosen from your won deals, not from a persona imagined in a workshop.
Not to be confused with
- Professional profile targeting
- Professional profile targeting is a specific application of the declared principle in Microsoft Advertising: it adjusts the bid on a search ad according to the LinkedIn profile, without removing anyone from delivery. Declared targeting is the general principle: the audience is chosen from what people have declared, as in LinkedIn Ads.
- Behavioural targeting
- Behavioural targeting infers a person's characteristics from their observed actions. Declared targeting relies on what they wrote themselves on their profile.
Related concepts
- Professional profile targeting
- LinkedIn Ads
- Microsoft Advertising
- Andromeda
- Social media advertising
- Qualified lead
- B2B buying group
Further reading
- LinkedIn marketing: when should you invest in content and ads?
- Microsoft Ads for B2B: how to test a new market
- Meta Andromeda: how to adapt your ad campaigns
- Social media advertising: choosing a platform and budget
- 360Brew: understanding LinkedIn's recommendation algorithm
Related services
Frequently asked questions
Why is a click so expensive on LinkedIn?
Because LinkedIn is the only social platform where professional targeting rests on what users declare themselves. That precision comes at a price: the cost per click is several times higher than on Meta. It is only justified if an acquired customer is worth enough to absorb it.
What audience size should we aim for on LinkedIn?
At least 50,000 people, according to LinkedIn's recommendation. An audience of a few thousand sees the same ad several times in two weeks: frequency climbs and performance can collapse.
