Building a great LinkedIn campaign isn’t just about writing strong ad copy or picking the right audience. It’s about setting up the foundation correctly — the part most people skip past when they’re eager to launch.

But here’s the truth: Even small setup mistakes inside LinkedIn Campaign Manager (CMT) can quietly destroy performance, drain your budget, and skew your results before the first impression even hits.

Here are five setup mistakes to avoid if you want your campaigns to run efficiently, target accurately, and perform at the level LinkedIn is capable of.

1. Using the Wrong Location Setting

One of the most common mistakes is choosing the wrong location type.

When setting up your campaign, always use “Permanent location” (not “Recent or permanent”).

Here’s why: If your goal is to reach people who actually live and work in a specific area — not travelers, commuters, or people just visiting — the Permanent setting gives you the most accurate audience data.

“Recent or permanent” can mix in people temporarily passing through, which makes sense for local events or tourism campaigns, but not for most B2B targeting.

By using Permanent location only, your targeting aligns with where prospects actually reside and conduct business — resulting in more consistent impressions, cleaner audience segments, and better reporting accuracy.

2. Leaving Audience Expansion On

This one’s sneaky.

Audience Expansion sounds helpful — “reach more people similar to your audience.” But in practice, it’s like letting LinkedIn add lookalikes you can’t see or control.

If you’ve spent time building a refined ICP — specific roles, industries, seniorities, and company sizes — why let the platform guess who else fits that mold?

By default, LinkedIn turns Audience Expansion on. Turn it off unless you’re intentionally running a broad awareness test or scaling a proven audience.

3. Misusing AND/OR Logic in Targeting

This one breaks more campaigns than people realize.

When you layer targeting in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, the AND and OR logic changes everything:

• AND narrows your audience (e.g., Marketing AND HR → must fit both).

• OR broadens it (e.g., Marketing OR HR → either is fine).

One misplaced “OR” can balloon your audience from 80K to 800K overnight. Always double-check your logic structure before launching — it’s one of the easiest ways to maintain precision and ensure your campaigns hit the right people and only the right people.

4. Ignoring the LinkedIn Audience Network Settings

The LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN) lets your ads appear on partner sites and apps — and while it can boost reach, it’s not always clean traffic.

I’m not against using it. In fact, I often segment it into its own campaign.

Here’s why:

• You can curate categories by excluding irrelevant placements (like gaming, gossip, or general entertainment).

• You maintain budget control, since Audience Network tends to drive cheaper impressions but lower engagement quality.

• You can optimize bidding separately — I usually start with maximum delivery (impression-based) before switching to manual CPC once I see solid engagement.

The key is: don’t mix it with your main campaigns. If you’re going to use it, treat it like its own channel — with its own structure, budget, and strategy.

5. Not Switching to Manual Bidding (at the Right Time)

Here’s one that even experienced advertisers miss.

LinkedIn’s “Maximum Delivery” is fine to start with — it’s impression-based, helps the algorithm learn quickly, and gets you data.

But once performance stabilizes, switch to Manual Bidding. That’s when you take control over cost per click — and it’s also when LinkedIn starts applying Quality/Relevance Scores to your campaigns.

Those scores don’t exist under impression-based bidding, which means if you never switch, you’re never optimizing based on ad quality.

In short:

• Start with Maximum Delivery for learning.

• Switch to Manual CPC once stable.

• Monitor the Quality Score — that’s your efficiency signal.

Final Thoughts

LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager looks simple on the surface — but the smallest setup details separate the good accounts from the great ones.

If you’re serious about performance:

• Double-check your targeting logic.

• Disable features that dilute control.

• Structure your campaigns for clarity and learning, not chaos.

Because the difference between a “working campaign” and a high-performing one usually comes down to these hidden levers — the settings no one talks about.