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Matched Audiences Utilization

What AdGradr checks

Section titled “What AdGradr checks”

AdGradr evaluates whether your account uses LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences features. It flags accounts with no Matched Audiences defined at all as the most significant finding. Accounts missing website retargeting audiences or missing contact/company list uploads receive progressively lighter flags.

Why this matters

Section titled “Why this matters”

Matched Audiences (retargeting, contact lists, company lists, and lookalikes) typically deliver 30-50% lower CPL than cold prospecting alone. This is the single highest-leverage optimization for most LinkedIn accounts.

Why the gap is so large: LinkedIn’s professional graph data is valuable, but broad prospecting still reaches a lot of people who are not in-market. Matched Audiences let you layer your own first-party data (who visited your site, who is in your CRM, which companies you are targeting) on top of LinkedIn’s targeting. The result is dramatically higher relevance and conversion rates.

What good looks like

Section titled “What good looks like”
  • Website retargeting audiences segmented by behavior: all visitors (30 days), pricing page visitors, blog readers, converters (for exclusion).
  • Contact list uploads from your CRM: customers (for exclusion and lookalikes), prospects (for targeting), leads that went cold (for re-engagement).
  • Company list uploads for ABM: target accounts from your sales team, competitor customers, event attendees.
  • Lookalike audiences built from your best customer lists, not just website visitors. Customer-based lookalikes outperform visitor-based lookalikes.
  • Regular list refreshes. Upload updated lists monthly. Stale lists target people who already converted or left their roles.

Common mistakes

Section titled “Common mistakes”
  1. Not having any Matched Audiences. The most common mistake. Running LinkedIn with only LinkedIn’s native targeting is like running Google Ads without remarketing.
  2. Uploading lists once and forgetting. People change jobs, convert, churn. Lists need monthly refreshes to stay accurate.
  3. Building lookalikes from website visitors instead of customers. Website visitor lookalikes find people similar to everyone who visited your site. Customer lookalikes find people similar to those who actually bought. The difference in CPL is significant.
  4. Not excluding converters. If your retargeting campaigns do not exclude people who already filled out your form, you are paying to re-acquire leads you already have.

How to fix it

Section titled “How to fix it”
  1. Start with website retargeting. If your Insight Tag is firing (check in Campaign Manager under Account Assets > Matched Audiences), create audiences for: all visitors (30 days), key page visitors (pricing, demo, product pages), and converters (for exclusion).
  2. Upload your CRM lists. Export your customer list, prospect list, and target account list. Upload each as a separate Matched Audience. LinkedIn matches on email, company name, or company domain.
  3. Build lookalikes. Once your customer list has 300+ matches, create a lookalike audience. Use this as a prospecting audience layer.
  4. Set a monthly reminder to re-upload updated lists.
  5. Use ICP-first targeting. Prioritize Matched Audiences and retargeting over broad prospecting. Layer CRM + retargeting + ICP attributes for the tightest targeting.

When to ignore this check

Section titled “When to ignore this check”
  • Brand new accounts (under 60 days old) may not have enough website traffic or CRM data to build useful Matched Audiences. Focus on cold prospecting first, then build retargeting as traffic accumulates.
  • Accounts with very small CRM lists (under 300 contacts) may not get enough LinkedIn matches for the feature to work. Focus on growing the list before uploading.

Want someone to handle this? The Click Makers team manages LinkedIn Ads accounts for companies spending $10K+/month. Get in touch to see if we are a fit.