LinkedIn Ads is gathering serious momentum, with fast growth in video and event advertising for B2B brands, while Microsoft Advertising keeps posting strong, large-scale results. Effective today, Matt Derella came into the company in 2024 is stepping into a wider role, overseeing LinkedIn Ads as well as go-to-market for Microsoft Advertising.
The two businesses will keep running as separate organizations, each dedicated to helping customers grow by connecting them with the more than one billion LinkedIn members and Microsoft users across Copilot, Bing, Xbox, Outlook, Edge, Windows, and MSN.
LinkedIn Ads is expanding at roughly 14% year over year, fueled by robust uptake of video and event ads, which are up more than 20% and 50% year over year, respectively. Microsoft Advertising, meanwhile, continues to post steady, strong results, with search and news advertising climbing 12% (9% on a constant-currency basis).
Costs are increasing, so be mindful of increased spend across platforms
This news comes at an interesting time. Advertisers have reported greatly inflated CPCs on the platform and with budgets constrained businesses will be keen to learn how they can get the most from their ad-spend, any connection between the different platforms in the eco-system will have to be based on ROI. Some of the headline stats from Evergreen Growth can be found below:
CPM of £22–£35 for UK B2B targeting — and the article is explicit that the often-quoted £6–7 CPM only holds if you target the whole world with no filters. The moment you layer on job titles, industry, or company size, it jumps.
CPC of £4.40–£12, climbing to £5–£6.50 just for director-level-and-above seniority, and into double digits for legal and financial services. The UK average reference line sits at £7.50.
CPL of £50–£150 as the headline range, stretching to £275+. Even the “cheap” Lead Gen Form route averages ~£75, while website forms average ~£165.
CTR of just 0.44%–0.65% for Sponsored Content — so you’re paying premium prices against low baseline engagement. Q4 cost spikes from budget flush, with January typically cheaper — seasonality that compounds the pressure.
