LinkedIn launches new effort in push to capture business advertisers

By Jaspreet Singh

June 10 (Reuters) - LinkedIn is aiming to burnish its position as a go-to platform for business advertisers with a new team of marketing experts that it expects to generate an annualized run rate of $100 million next fiscal year, a source familiar with the matter said.

The Microsoft-owned platform on Wednesday unveiled BrandWorks, the newly assembled team that aims to deliver higher-performing ad campaigns for customers ranging from software giant SAP to privately held website hosting platform Webflow.

"We're developing services that are designed to meet the marketer where they are," said Alex Josephson, VP of BrandWorks, who previously built a similar offering called Twitter Next.

LinkedIn has carved a niche in the crowded ad market by targeting businesses looking for enterprise clients, although it is far smaller than major ad-focused firms like Meta Platforms.

It launched BrandWorks internally in March and the team's size has grown by about 60% in the past several months as it aggressively hires from companies such as TikTok, Meta and X.

The team now leads a program called Top Voices 360 that pairs advertisers with creators for sponsored content and drove more than $20 million in revenue from May 2025 to May 2026, with clients including SAP, IBM and ServiceNow, the source said.

BIG BET ON VIDEO

LinkedIn is also pushing publishers and creators to share more video on the platform alongside which advertisers can run campaigns through a program called BrandLink.

The company said it expects BrandLink revenue to nearly triple in the current fiscal year but did not share the figure.

"We estimate that 80% of B2B budgets go into search and social media, with Google and LinkedIn the primary beneficiaries of those B2B dollars," said Luke Stillman, a managing director at trend advisory firm Madison and Wall.

Video is also fast becoming the preferred format on LinkedIn, especially among younger professionals such as Millennials and Gen Z.

"Gen Z is our fastest-growing demographic on the platform. They are our fastest-growing in terms of engagement with content," Josephson said.

A growing trend of executives aiming to reach audiences directly has also helped. Video posts from CEOs have also increased by 68% on LinkedIn over the last two years, it said.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)