What Is the LinkedIn Marketing API?

The LinkedIn Marketing API (also called LinkedIn Marketing Developer Platform) is a programmatic interface that allows developers and marketing technology platforms to automate LinkedIn advertising campaigns, access performance data, manage ad accounts, and integrate LinkedIn marketing capabilities into third-party tools and applications.

Unlike manually creating campaigns through LinkedIn Campaign Manager's web interface, the Marketing API enables software applications to create ads, adjust budgets, target audiences, and retrieve analytics programmatically through code. This allows marketing automation platforms, agencies managing hundreds of accounts, and enterprises with complex workflows to scale LinkedIn advertising beyond what manual management allows.

The API is designed for B2B marketing platforms (HubSpot, Hootsuite, Sprout Social), advertising agencies, enterprise marketing teams, and developers building custom marketing automation solutions. Individual advertisers typically don't interact with the API directly—they use tools built on top of it.

How the LinkedIn Marketing API Works

The LinkedIn Marketing API is a RESTful API using OAuth 2.0 authentication, allowing authorized applications to send requests and receive responses in JSON format. Applications authenticate using access tokens, make HTTP requests to API endpoints, and receive structured data responses.

Core API Capabilities

Campaign Management: Create, update, and manage LinkedIn advertising campaigns programmatically. Set campaign objectives (awareness, consideration, conversion), configure targeting parameters, establish budgets and schedules, and activate or pause campaigns without logging into Campaign Manager.

Ad Creative Management: Upload ad creatives (images, videos, documents), create ad variations, manage sponsored content, and update ad copy and calls-to-action through API calls. Build dynamic ad creative workflows that adapt based on performance or external data sources.

Targeting and Audience Management: Define audience targeting criteria (job titles, company size, industries, skills, locations) programmatically. Create and manage Matched Audiences (website retargeting, contact list uploads, account-based lists) through automated workflows.

Budget and Bid Management: Set campaign budgets, adjust bids based on performance data, implement automated bidding strategies, and control campaign pacing without manual intervention. Allow algorithmic budget optimization across multiple campaigns.

Analytics and Reporting: Retrieve campaign performance metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions, spend), access demographic breakdowns, pull conversion tracking data, and integrate LinkedIn advertising data into centralized analytics platforms or custom dashboards.

Lead Generation: Access leads captured through LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms programmatically, sync leads to CRM systems in real-time, and automate lead follow-up workflows triggered by form submissions.

Account Administration: Manage ad account access, configure conversion tracking, set up billing information, and handle administrative tasks across multiple ad accounts from centralized applications.

API Access Levels

Marketing Developer Platform Partner: Verified marketing technology platforms with LinkedIn partnership agreements. Partners get broader API access, higher rate limits, and ability to serve multiple customers. Examples: HubSpot, Hootsuite, Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Marketing Developer Platform Access: Individual developers and companies building custom applications for their own use. More limited access than partners but sufficient for internal tools and workflows.

Application Process: Developers apply through LinkedIn Developer Portal, describe use case, demonstrate legitimate business purpose, and await approval. LinkedIn reviews applications to ensure API access aligns with platform policies and user privacy protections.

Learn how LinkedIn marketing strategies integrate with API-powered automation.

Why Use the LinkedIn Marketing API

Use Cases and Benefits

1. Marketing Automation Platform Integration

The Problem: Marketers use multiple tools (HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce) but must switch to LinkedIn Campaign Manager for LinkedIn ads, breaking workflow continuity.

API Solution: Marketing automation platforms integrate LinkedIn Marketing API, allowing users to create LinkedIn campaigns, adjust budgets, and view performance data without leaving their primary platform. Unified marketing workflow across all channels.

Example: HubSpot users create LinkedIn ads directly in HubSpot interface, sync LinkedIn leads to HubSpot CRM automatically, and view LinkedIn performance alongside other channels in HubSpot analytics dashboard.

2. Multi-Account Management at Scale

The Problem: Agencies managing 50+ client LinkedIn ad accounts must manually log in and out of each account, making bulk changes, reporting, and optimization impossibly time-consuming.

API Solution: Build or use tools that manage all accounts from single interface. Make bulk campaign changes, generate cross-account reports, and optimize campaigns across entire client portfolio programmatically. This is critical for social media client onboarding at scale.

Example: Agency uses API-powered dashboard showing all clients' LinkedIn performance in one view, makes budget adjustments across 100 campaigns with single action, and generates client reports automatically.

3. Dynamic Campaign Optimization

The Problem: Manual campaign optimization is slow—marketers check performance weekly and make adjustments based on outdated data.

API Solution: Build automated optimization systems that monitor performance continuously, adjust bids based on conversion data, pause underperforming ads, and scale winning campaigns without human intervention.

Example: E-commerce company builds system that automatically increases budgets on LinkedIn campaigns driving high-value purchases and decreases spend on campaigns with poor ROAS, optimizing 24/7 based on real-time data.

4. Custom Attribution and Analytics

The Problem: LinkedIn Campaign Manager analytics don't integrate with custom attribution models or proprietary data warehouses.

API Solution: Pull LinkedIn advertising data via API into centralized data warehouse, combine with data from other channels, and build custom attribution models showing true marketing impact across entire customer journey. Connect this to B2B marketing attribution strategies and marketing performance metrics.

Example: SaaS company combines LinkedIn ad data with website analytics, sales CRM data, and customer success metrics to calculate lifetime value by LinkedIn campaign and optimize budget allocation accordingly.

5. Automated Lead Management

The Problem: LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms capture leads, but manual CSV downloads and CRM uploads create delays in sales follow-up, reducing conversion rates.

API Solution: Automatically sync LinkedIn leads to CRM in real-time, trigger immediate sales notifications, and begin automated email nurture sequences within minutes of form submission. Crucial for improving conversion rates and understanding customer acquisition cost.

Example: B2B company syncs LinkedIn leads to Salesforce instantly, assigns leads to sales reps based on territory rules, and sends personalized follow-up email within 5 minutes of submission—while competitors wait hours or days for manual processing. This approach also works with B2B social media strategy and LinkedIn demographics targeting.

6. Programmatic Creative Management

The Problem: Testing 100 ad variations manually is impractical—creating, uploading, and managing creatives through web interface doesn't scale.

API Solution: Generate ad variations programmatically (different headlines, images, CTAs), upload via API, and manage creative testing at scale. Build dynamic creative optimization systems.

Example: Marketing team uses template system generating 50 ad variations targeted to different industries and job roles, uploads all via API, and runs automated tests to identify highest-performing combinations.

Understand marketing operations supporting API-driven marketing automation.

LinkedIn Marketing API vs. Other LinkedIn APIs

The LinkedIn API Ecosystem

LinkedIn Marketing API:

• Purpose: Advertising and sponsored content management
• Access: Requires application and approval
• Use cases: Campaign automation, ad management, performance analytics
• Users: Marketing platforms, agencies, advertisers

LinkedIn REST API:

• Purpose: General platform integrations (profile data, connections, posts)
• Access: Requires application and approval
• Use cases: Profile authentication, social sharing, content posting
• Users: Apps integrating LinkedIn login or sharing

LinkedIn Compliance API:

• Purpose: Page and organization management for compliance purposes
• Access: Restricted to LinkedIn Page Admins
• Use cases: Page management, content moderation, compliance workflows
• Users: Enterprise administrators

LinkedIn Talent Solutions API:

• Purpose: Recruiting and talent management integrations
• Access: Limited to LinkedIn Recruiter customers
• Use cases: Job posting, applicant tracking, talent sourcing
• Users: HR platforms, recruiting software

Key Distinction: Marketing API is specifically for advertising and sponsored content—it doesn't access member profile data, connections, or organic LinkedIn activity. It's focused on campaign management and advertising performance.

Technical Implementation Overview

Getting Started with LinkedIn Marketing API

Step 1: Create LinkedIn Developer Account

Register at LinkedIn Developer Portal, accept developer agreement, and create application. Provide application name, description, logo, website, and privacy policy.

Step 2: Apply for Marketing API Access

Submit Marketing Developer Platform application describing:

• Business use case (what you're building)
• Expected request volume
• Target customers (if building tool for others)
• Company and contact information

LinkedIn reviews applications within 2-4 weeks. Approval isn't guaranteed—legitimate business purposes aligned with platform policies have higher acceptance rates.

Step 3: Implement OAuth 2.0 Authentication

LinkedIn uses OAuth 2.0 three-legged authentication flow:

1. Redirect users to LinkedIn authorization page
2. User grants permissions to your application
3. LinkedIn redirects back with authorization code
4. Exchange code for access token
5. Use access token in API requests

Required Permissions (Scopes):

• r_ads (read advertising accounts and campaigns)
• rw_ads (write/modify advertising accounts and campaigns)
• r_ads_reporting (read advertising analytics and reports)
• w_organization_social (post sponsored content on behalf of organizations)

Step 4: Make API Requests

Send HTTP requests to LinkedIn API endpoints using access token for authentication.

Example: Retrieve Ad Accounts

GET https://api.linkedin.com/v2/adAccountsV2
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}

Example: Create Campaign

POST https://api.linkedin.com/v2/adCampaignsV2
Authorization: Bearer {access_token}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "account": "urn:li:sponsoredAccount:123456",
  "name": "Q1 Lead Generation Campaign",
  "type": "SPONSORED_UPDATES",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "dailyBudget": {
    "amount": "100",
    "currencyCode": "USD"
  }
}

Step 5: Handle Rate Limits

LinkedIn enforces rate limits preventing abuse. Typical limits:

• Application-level throttling (requests per day)
• User-level throttling (requests per user per day)
• Endpoint-specific limits

Implement exponential backoff retry logic when hitting rate limits. Monitor X-RateLimit-* response headers showing remaining quota.

Step 6: Error Handling

API returns standard HTTP status codes and detailed error messages:

• 200 Success
• 400 Bad Request (invalid parameters)
• 401 Unauthorized (invalid/expired token)
• 403 Forbidden (insufficient permissions)
• 429 Too Many Requests (rate limit exceeded)
• 500 Internal Server Error

Implement robust error handling logging failures and retrying transient errors.

Learn about social media advertising technical foundations supporting API integrations.

Common LinkedIn Marketing API Endpoints

Key API Resources

Ad Accounts Management:

• GET /v2/adAccountsV2 - List ad accounts user has access to
• GET /v2/adAccountsV2/{id} - Retrieve specific ad account details
• GET /v2/adAccountUsersV2 - List users with access to ad account

Campaign Management:

• GET /v2/adCampaignsV2 - List campaigns in ad account
• POST /v2/adCampaignsV2 - Create new campaign
• PUT /v2/adCampaignsV2/{id} - Update existing campaign
• DELETE /v2/adCampaignsV2/{id} - Delete campaign

Creative Management:

• GET /v2/adCreativesV2 - List ad creatives
• POST /v2/adCreativesV2 - Create ad creative
• PUT /v2/adCreativesV2/{id} - Update creative
• POST /v2/assets - Upload image or video assets

Targeting:

• GET /v2/targeting/facets - Retrieve available targeting facets
• GET /v2/targeting/facet/{facet}/values - Search targeting options (companies, job titles, etc.)

Analytics:

• GET /v2/adAnalytics - Retrieve campaign analytics
• GET /v2/conversions - Access conversion tracking data
• GET /v2/adAnalyticsByCreative - Performance by creative
• GET /v2/adAnalyticsByDemographics - Demographic breakdowns

Lead Generation:

• GET /v2/leadForms - List Lead Gen Forms
• GET /v2/leadFormResponses - Retrieve form submissions

Conversion Tracking:

• GET /v2/conversions - List conversion events
• POST /v2/conversions - Create conversion tracking pixel

API Versioning

LinkedIn uses API versioning to introduce changes without breaking existing integrations. Current version is v2. When v3 launches, v2 remains supported during deprecation period (typically 6-12 months), giving developers time to migrate.

Best Practice: Always specify API version in requests and monitor LinkedIn Developer Blog for deprecation announcements.

LinkedIn Marketing API Limitations

What You Can't Do

Organic Content Limitations: Marketing API primarily focuses on paid advertising. While you can post sponsored content (paid), organic company page posting uses separate LinkedIn REST API with different permissions and capabilities.

Member Profile Data Restrictions: Marketing API doesn't provide access to LinkedIn member profile data, connections, messages, or activity. Privacy-focused design ensures advertising APIs can't harvest personal member information.

Rate Limits: API rate limits prevent building high-frequency trading-style systems constantly polling for data updates. Applications must work within LinkedIn's throttling constraints.

Conversion Attribution Windows: API provides attribution data within LinkedIn's standard attribution windows (7-day click, 1-day view). Custom attribution windows requiring access to raw click/impression timestamps may not be supported.

Historical Data Access: Analytics data availability is limited (typically 2 years). Very old campaign data may not be accessible via API.

Certain Administrative Functions: Some advanced account administration tasks still require Campaign Manager web interface. API doesn't expose every possible configuration option.

No Direct Member Targeting: Cannot target specific LinkedIn members by username or profile URL. All targeting must use LinkedIn's standard targeting criteria (job title, company, industry, etc.). Privacy protection prevents direct member-level ad targeting.

Tools Built on LinkedIn Marketing API

Marketing Platforms Using the API

Marketing Automation Platforms:

• HubSpot (integrated LinkedIn ad management)
• Marketo Engage (LinkedIn integration for account-based marketing)
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud (LinkedIn advertising integration)
• Pardot (LinkedIn campaign integration)

Social Media Management:

• Hootsuite (LinkedIn ad campaign management)
• Sprout Social (LinkedIn advertising features)
• Buffer (LinkedIn scheduling and analytics)

Advertising Management:

• AdStage (cross-channel advertising management including LinkedIn)
• WordStream (PPC management including LinkedIn)
• Smartly.io (social advertising automation)

Analytics Platforms:

• Supermetrics (data connector pulling LinkedIn data to reporting tools)
• Funnel.io (marketing data aggregation including LinkedIn)
• Datorama (Salesforce's marketing intelligence including LinkedIn)

Lead Management:

• Zapier integrations (LinkedIn Lead Gen Form to CRM workflows)
• LeadsBridge (LinkedIn lead sync automation)
• PieSync (bidirectional CRM sync including LinkedIn leads)

Custom Solutions: Many enterprises and agencies build proprietary tools on LinkedIn Marketing API for specific workflows, client reporting, or competitive advantages.

Explore LinkedIn marketing strategies supported by API-powered tools.

Best Practices for Using LinkedIn Marketing API

Developer and Marketer Guidelines

1. Respect Rate Limits

Don't hammer the API with excessive requests. Implement intelligent caching, batch operations where possible, and exponential backoff when hitting limits. Aggressive API usage risks application suspension.

2. Secure Token Management

Access tokens grant full control over advertising accounts. Store tokens securely (encrypted databases, secrets management systems), never commit tokens to version control, rotate tokens periodically, and implement token expiration handling.

3. Error Handling and Logging

API calls fail for many reasons (network issues, rate limits, invalid parameters). Implement thorough error handling, log failures with context for debugging, and build retry logic for transient failures while avoiding infinite loops.

4. Test in Sandbox Environment

Before running code against production ad accounts, test thoroughly in development environment. LinkedIn provides testing capabilities (though not full sandbox)—use test ad accounts with minimal budgets during development.

5. Monitor API Changes

Subscribe to LinkedIn Developer Blog and API changelog. Breaking changes are announced with deprecation timelines, but staying informed prevents unexpected integration failures.

6. Efficient Data Retrieval

Use API filters and pagination to retrieve only needed data. Pulling entire datasets when you need small subsets wastes rate limit quota and processing time. Implement field selectors requesting only required response fields.

7. Respect User Privacy

Even though Marketing API doesn't expose member profile data, applications should still prioritize privacy—use minimal necessary permissions, provide clear privacy policies, and handle advertising data responsibly.

8. Build for Scale

Design systems handling multiple ad accounts, high campaign volumes, and concurrent operations. Implement queuing systems for API requests, use asynchronous processing for bulk operations, and architect for horizontal scaling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to integrate LinkedIn advertising into your marketing automation? Use SocialRails to manage LinkedIn campaigns alongside other social platforms. Learn more about LinkedIn marketing and marketing operations supporting API-driven workflows.