How to Create LinkedIn Matched Audiences (Step-by-Step)

TL;DR: LinkedIn Matched Audiences lets you target specific people using email lists, company lists, or website visitors. Access via Campaign Manager > Account Assets > Matched Audiences. Create audiences by uploading CSV files (300+ contacts minimum) or using Insight Tag for website retargeting. Audiences typically match 40-60% of uploaded contacts to LinkedIn members.

Prerequisites

Before creating LinkedIn Matched Audiences, you need:

• LinkedIn Campaign Manager account with targeting permissions

• Insight Tag installed on website (for retargeting audiences)

• Email list or company list in CSV format

• Minimum 300 contacts/companies to meet LinkedIn's threshold

• Contact consent for marketing (GDPR/privacy compliance)

• Basic spreadsheet skills (CSV formatting)

What Are LinkedIn Matched Audiences?

LinkedIn Matched Audiences is a targeting feature that lets you show ads to specific people or companies based on:

1. Contact Lists: Upload email addresses to target those LinkedIn members
2. Company Lists: Upload company names/domains to target employees at those companies
3. Website Retargeting: Target LinkedIn members who visited your website
4. Video Retargeting: Target people who viewed your LinkedIn video ads
5. Lead Gen Form Retargeting: Target people who opened or submitted Lead Gen Forms
6. Event Retargeting: Target people who engaged with your LinkedIn Events

Key benefit: Precision targeting beyond LinkedIn's standard demographic filters. You choose exactly who sees your ads.

Match rates: Expect 40-60% of uploaded emails to match LinkedIn profiles. LinkedIn only matches emails associated with active LinkedIn accounts.

How LinkedIn Matched Audiences Works

The Matching Process

For Contact Lists:

1. You upload CSV with emails/phone numbers/LinkedIn profile data

2. LinkedIn hashes the data for privacy

3. LinkedIn matches to member profiles

4. Matched audience becomes targetable in campaigns

5. You never see which individuals matched (privacy protected)

For Website Retargeting:

1. Insight Tag tracks LinkedIn members visiting your site

2. Tag places them in retargeting pool

3. You create rules (e.g., "visited pricing page in last 30 days")

4. Audience updates automatically as members visit/leave based on rules

Match quality factors:

• Email format: Work emails match better than personal emails

• List age: Fresh lists (< 90 days) match better than old lists

• LinkedIn adoption: B2B industries match better (higher LinkedIn usage)

• Data accuracy: Clean, verified emails match better than scraped/purchased lists

Step 1: Access Matched Audiences in Campaign Manager

Navigate to the Matched Audiences interface:

1. Log into Campaign Manager at business.linkedin.com/campaign-manager

2. Select your ad account (top-left dropdown)

3. Click Account Assets in left sidebar

4. Click Matched Audiences

5. Click Create audience button

You'll see the audience type selection screen.

Step 2: Choose Your Audience Type

LinkedIn offers three primary Matched Audience types:

Type 1: Contact List Audience (Email/Phone Upload)

Best for:

• Targeting existing customers

• Re-engaging past leads

• Account-based marketing (ABM)

• Event attendee targeting

• CRM list marketing

Requirements:

• Minimum 300 contacts

• Valid email addresses, phone numbers, or LinkedIn member data

• CSV format

Expected match rate: 40-60%

Type 2: Company List Audience

Best for:

• Enterprise B2B targeting

• Account-based marketing (ABM)

• Reaching employees at specific companies

• Competitor targeting (your competitor's customers)

• Partner marketing

Requirements:

• Minimum 300 companies

• Company names or website domains

• CSV format

Expected match rate: 60-80% (easier to match companies than individuals)

Type 3: Website Retargeting Audience

Best for:

• Re-engaging website visitors

• Cart abandonment

• Nurturing blog readers

• Pricing page visitor follow-up

• Product page interest targeting

Requirements:

• Insight Tag installed and active

• Minimum 300 LinkedIn members visited in last 180 days

• Tag active for at least 48 hours

Match rate: 100% (Tag only tracks LinkedIn members)

Step 3A: Create Contact List Audience

To upload an email or phone list:

Prepare Your CSV File

Create a CSV with these columns (include header row):

Option 1: Email only (simplest)

email

john@company.com

jane@business.com

mike@startup.com

Option 2: Email + additional data (better matching)

email,firstname,lastname,title,company

john@company.com,John,Doe,Marketing Director,Acme Corp

jane@business.com,Jane,Smith,VP Sales,Tech Inc

Supported fields:

• email (recommended)

• firstname, lastname

• title (job title)

• company (company name)

• phone (mobile phone in E.164 format: +14155551234)

• countrycode (2-letter code: US, UK, DE)

CSV formatting rules:

• Use commas as delimiters

• Save with UTF-8 encoding

• Remove special characters from names (é → e)

• One contact per row

• Maximum 300,000 contacts per file

Upload Your File

1. In Matched Audiences, click Create audience

2. Select Contact list

3. Click Upload file

4. Drag CSV file or click to browse

5. Map your CSV columns to LinkedIn fields:

- Your column "email" → LinkedIn field "Email"

- Your column "firstname" → LinkedIn field "First Name"

1. Review mapping, click Next

2. Enter audience name: "Q1_Customer_List_2026"

3. Add description (optional): "All customers from Q1 2026"

4. Click Create

Processing time: 5 minutes to 24 hours depending on list size. Most lists under 10,000 process within 1 hour.

Check Match Results

After processing:

1. Go to Account Assets > Matched Audiences

2. Find your audience in the list

3. Check Audience size column

4. Click audience name to see details

Example results:

• Uploaded: 1,000 contacts

• Matched: 520 LinkedIn members (52% match rate)

• Status: Ready

If match rate is under 30%: Your list likely contains old, inaccurate, or personal (non-LinkedIn) email addresses.

Step 3B: Create Company List Audience

To target employees at specific companies:

Prepare Your Company CSV

Create a CSV with company information:

Option 1: Company name only
company

Acme Corporation

Tech Industries Inc

Global Solutions Ltd

Option 2: Website domain (better matching)

company,website

Acme Corporation,acme.com

Tech Industries Inc,techindustries.com

Global Solutions Ltd,globalsolutions.com

Supported fields:

• company (company name - recommended)

• website (company domain without https:// or www)

• email (company email domain for matching)

Formatting rules:

• Include official company names (as shown on LinkedIn Company Pages)

• Use primary domain only: salesforce.com not www.salesforce.com

• Remove special characters: & → and, © → (nothing)

• One company per row

• Maximum 300,000 companies

Upload Company List

1. Matched Audiences > Create audience

2. Select Company list

3. Upload CSV file

4. Map columns (Company → company, Domain → website)

5. Name audience: "Target_Accounts_2026_Q1"

6. Click Create

LinkedIn matches to Company Pages, then targets employees who list that company on their profile.

Company Audience Size

Audience size shown:

• Total LinkedIn members at those companies

• Includes all employees (unless you add additional targeting layers)

Example:

• Uploaded: 100 companies

• Matched: 95 companies (95%)

• Total audience: 45,000 members (all employees across those 95 companies)

Note: You'll typically match 60-80% of companies. Unmatched companies don't have LinkedIn Company Pages or use different official names.

Step 3C: Create Website Retargeting Audience

To target website visitors:

Define Retargeting Rules

1. Matched Audiences > Create audience

2. Select Website retargeting

3. Choose rule type:

Rule Type 1: Visited specific pages

• URL contains: /pricing

• Time window: Last 30 days

• Use case: Target pricing page visitors with demo offer

Rule Type 2: Visited any page

• URL contains: Any page

• Time window: Last 90 days

• Use case: Broad retargeting all visitors

Rule Type 3: Visited page A but not page B

• Visited: /product in last 30 days

• But did NOT visit: /thank-you (purchase confirmation)

• Use case: Target interested browsers who didn't convert

Rule Type 4: Multiple page visits

• Visited /blog AND /product in last 60 days

• Use case: Target engaged researchers

Set Audience Parameters

After defining rules:

1. Audience name: "Pricing_Page_Visitors_30d"

2. Description: "Visited /pricing in last 30 days"

3. Time window: 30 days (options: 30, 60, 90, 180 days)

4. Click Create

Audience size: Shows immediately if Insight Tag has historical data. Updates daily as members visit/leave based on time window.

Minimum size: Need 300+ members for audience to be usable in campaigns.

Retargeting URL Matching Options

LinkedIn supports several URL match types:

Best practice: Use "Contains" for flexibility. Matches URLs with UTM parameters, query strings, etc.

Step 4: Layer Audience with Campaign Targeting

Matched Audiences work alongside standard LinkedIn targeting:

Scenario 1: Narrow Targeting (AND logic)

Target only CMOs at your uploaded company list:

1. Create campaign

2. In targeting, add Company List Audience

3. Also add targeting: Job Title = "Chief Marketing Officer"

4. Result: Only CMOs at those specific companies see ads

Audience size: Much smaller (intersection of both criteria)

Scenario 2: Broad Targeting (OR logic via multiple campaigns)

Target both existing customers and cold prospects:

1. Campaign A: Target Contact List Audience only

2. Campaign B: Target job title + industry (no audience)

3. Run campaigns simultaneously

Audience size: Larger (union of both campaigns)

Scenario 3: Exclusion Targeting (NOT logic)

Target prospects but exclude existing customers:

1. Create campaign with standard targeting (job title, company size)

2. In targeting section, find Exclusions

3. Click Add exclusion > Matched Audience

4. Select "Existing_Customers" audience

5. Result: Ads don't show to existing customers

Use case: Avoid wasting budget showing acquisition ads to people who already bought.

Step 5: Use Matched Audiences in Campaigns

Apply your audience to a campaign:

1. Campaign Manager > Create campaign or edit existing

2. Set objective (any objective works with Matched Audiences)

3. In Audience section, scroll to Matched Audiences

4. Click Add matched audiences

5. Select your audience from list

6. Check estimated audience size (must be 300+ to activate)

7. Continue campaign setup as normal

If audience size is below 300: You'll see an error. Expand targeting or wait for audience to grow (for retargeting audiences).

Step 6: Monitor and Refresh Audiences

Contact/Company List Maintenance

These audiences are static—they don't update automatically.

Refresh schedule:

• Monthly: Update lists with new customers/leads

• Quarterly: Remove churned customers from lists

• Before major campaigns: Ensure lists are current

How to update:

1. Export fresh list from CRM

2. Matched Audiences > Click audience name

3. Click Refresh audience

4. Upload new CSV

5. Processing happens in background (original audience stays active during refresh)

Website Retargeting Maintenance

These audiences are dynamic—update automatically based on rules.

Maintenance tasks:

• Monthly: Review audience size trends (growing/shrinking)

• Quarterly: Adjust time windows (30d → 60d if audience too small)

• After website changes: Update URL rules if page structure changes

Audience Performance Tracking

Monitor which audiences perform best:

1. Campaign Manager > Select campaign

2. Click Demographics tab

3. Add breakdown: Audience Name

4. Compare performance metrics:

Action: Increase budget for best-performing audiences (Customer List in example).

Advanced Matched Audience Strategies

Strategy 1: Audience Stacking (Layered Targeting)

Combine multiple audiences for precision:

Example: Target decision-makers at companies that visited your site

• Company List: Target accounts

• Website Retargeting: Visited in last 60 days

• Additional targeting: Seniority = Director+

Result: Ultra-targeted audience of warm decision-makers

Strategy 2: Exclusion-Based Prospecting

Find similar people to your best customers:

1. Upload customer list as Matched Audience

2. Create campaign with broad targeting (industry, job function)

3. Add customer audience as exclusion

4. Add another customer list to help LinkedIn's algorithm learn (use lookalike-style broad targeting)

Result: Find similar prospects without advertising to existing customers

Strategy 3: Funnel-Based Retargeting

Create multiple audiences by funnel stage:

Audience A: Visited blog (top of funnel)

→ Ad: Educational content, low-commitment CTA

Audience B: Visited product page (middle funnel)

→ Ad: Product demo, case studies

Audience C: Visited pricing (bottom funnel)

→ Ad: Limited-time offer, free trial

Audience D: Visited pricing but not thank-you page (abandoned)

→ Ad: Urgency messaging, discount

Implementation: Create 4 campaigns, each targeting different funnel stage audience.

Strategy 4: CRM Lifecycle Marketing

Upload different CRM segments:

Audience 1: Leads (never purchased)
Audience 2: Customers (active accounts)
Audience 3: Churned (cancelled in last 6 months)

Campaign approach:

• Leads: Nurture with case studies

• Customers: Upsell new products

• Churned: Win-back offers

Strategy 5: Event-Based Sequences

Create time-based retargeting:

Day 0-7 after webinar: Upload attendee list

→ Ad: Thank you, here's the recording

Day 8-30: Refresh audience with non-purchasers only

→ Ad: Special offer for attendees

Day 31-90: Final touchpoint

→ Ad: Last chance before offer expires

Implementation: Manually refresh audience weekly, updating messaging.

Common Mistakes with Matched Audiences

Mistake 1: Uploading Lists Under 300 Contacts

Wrong: Uploading 100-email list expecting it to work
Right: Combine smaller lists or wait until you have 300+ contacts

LinkedIn requires 300+ matched members. If you upload 500 emails but only 200 match, audience won't activate.

Mistake 2: Using Old, Stale Data

Wrong: Uploading 3-year-old lead lists
Right: Use fresh data (<90 days old) for best match rates

Old lists have low match rates (25-35%) because:

• People change jobs (new email addresses)

• Emails become inactive

• LinkedIn profiles deleted

Mistake 3: Not Excluding Converters from Retargeting

Wrong: Continuing to show ads to people who already converted
Right: Create exclusion audience of converters (visited /thank-you page)

Wasting budget showing demo ads to people who already booked a demo.

Mistake 4: Forgetting GDPR/Privacy Compliance

Wrong: Uploading purchased email lists without consent
Right: Only upload lists where contacts opted in to marketing

LinkedIn requires you to have legal basis for using contact data. Violating this risks account suspension.

Mistake 5: Not Layering Additional Targeting

Wrong: Targeting company list audience with no additional filters
Right: Add seniority, job function filters to reach decision-makers only

Company lists include everyone from interns to C-suite. Layer targeting to reach buyers only.

Troubleshooting Matched Audiences

Issue 1: "Audience Too Small" Error

Causes:

• Uploaded list matched fewer than 300 members

• Website retargeting has fewer than 300 visitors

• Layered targeting reduced audience below 300

Fixes:

1. Upload larger list (aim for 600+ contacts to hit 300+ matches)

2. Expand retargeting time window (30d → 90d)

3. Remove some targeting layers

4. Wait for retargeting audience to grow (check daily)

5. Combine multiple small audiences into one

Issue 2: Low Match Rates (<30%)

Causes:

• Personal emails instead of work emails

• Old/stale data

• Emails from low-LinkedIn-adoption countries

• Typos in email addresses

Fixes:

1. Filter list for work emails only (@company.com)

2. Remove contacts older than 1 year

3. Validate emails with email verification tool before upload

4. Focus on B2B industries with high LinkedIn usage

5. Add additional data fields (name, company) to improve matching

Issue 3: Company List Not Matching

Causes:

• Company names don't match LinkedIn official names

• Companies don't have LinkedIn Company Pages

• Domains incorrect or misformatted

Fixes:

1. Search companies on LinkedIn, copy exact names

2. Use website domains instead of names (better matching)

3. Remove www and https:// from domains

4. Check for typos in company names

5. Try variations: "IBM" vs "International Business Machines"

Issue 4: Retargeting Audience Not Populating

Causes:

• Insight Tag not installed correctly

• Tag not active long enough (need 48 hours minimum)

• Website traffic under 300 LinkedIn members

• URL rules too restrictive

Fixes:

1. Verify Insight Tag with Pixel Helper extension

2. Wait 48-72 hours after tag installation

3. Check Google Analytics for overall traffic volume

4. Broaden URL rules (use "contains" instead of "equals")

5. Expand time window to 90 or 180 days

Issue 5: Audience Not Appearing in Campaign Targeting

Causes:

• Audience still processing

• Audience size below 300 minimum

• Wrong ad account selected

Fixes:

1. Wait for "Processing" status to change to "Ready"

2. Check audience size in Matched Audiences list

3. Verify you're in the correct ad account (top-left dropdown)

4. Refresh Campaign Manager page

Matched Audiences Best Practices

1. Upload fresh data regularly: Monthly refreshes for customer lists

2. Test match rates: Start with small test upload to check quality before bulk upload

3. Layer targeting strategically: Combine audiences with job title/seniority for precision

4. Use exclusions: Prevent existing customers from seeing acquisition ads

5. Segment by funnel stage: Create separate audiences for top/middle/bottom funnel

6. Respect privacy: Only upload lists with proper consent

7. Monitor performance: Track audience-level metrics to optimize spend

8. Combine with lookalike (when available): Use matched audiences to seed lookalike expansion

9. Create exclusion audiences: Upload unsubscribed/churned customers to exclude

10. Document naming conventions: Use consistent audience names (e.g., 2026_Q1_Customers)

Glossary

Verification Checklist

After creating Matched Audiences:

• [ ] Audience status shows "Ready" (not "Processing" or "Failed")

• [ ] Audience size is 300+ matched members

• [ ] Match rate is 40%+ for contact lists (60%+ for company lists)

• [ ] CSV data is current (less than 90 days old)

• [ ] Privacy compliance confirmed (contacts opted in to marketing)

• [ ] Audience naming convention is clear and consistent

• [ ] Audience appears in campaign targeting dropdown

• [ ] Test campaign created using the audience

• [ ] Layered targeting applied if needed (job title, seniority, etc.)

• [ ] Exclusion audiences created (existing customers, unsubscribes)

• [ ] Refresh schedule documented for future updates

• [ ] Performance tracking set up to monitor audience ROI