LinkedIn has announced that it will retire its lookalike audiences feature effective February 29, 2024. This change signals a shift in the platform’s approach to audience targeting and campaign management.
Post-February 2024, advertisers on LinkedIn will no longer have the option to create new lookalike audiences or modify existing ones. Existing lookalike audiences will become “static,” meaning they will no longer refresh with new data. LinkedIn clarified that while active ad campaigns using lookalike audiences will continue, they will do so with the static audience pool. If lookalike audiences are not utilized in an active or draft campaign for over 30 days, they will be automatically archived.
In place of lookalike audiences, LinkedIn recommends two alternatives: Predictive Audiences and Audience Expansion. Predictive Audiences are suitable for contact list, conversion, or Lead Gen Form data sources, whereas Audience Expansion is recommended for Matched Audiences and targeting based on LinkedIn attributes like skills or interests.
These new options are designed to help advertisers scale and reach similar audiences effectively, identifying potential buyers more likely to take action.
Advertisers should also note the discontinuation of the Lookalike API on February 29, 2024. This means that customers using a Marketing Partner, such as HubSpot, for creating a lookalike audience will need to adapt to the new methods.
For those with active campaigns using lookalike audiences, it’s important to start integrating predictive audiences or enable Audience Expansion to continue building dynamic audiences.
After the 30-day period, any unused lookalike audience will be archived and, if used thereafter, will only show static data. Furthermore, if an archived lookalike audience expires, it will be permanently deleted and become inaccessible.
LinkedIn’s decision to retire the lookalike audiences feature and introduce new targeting options reflects the platform’s ongoing efforts to evolve and enhance its advertising capabilities.
While this change requires an adjustment in strategy for marketers, the new alternatives, Predictive Audiences and Audience Expansion, offer promising avenues for more efficient and effective audience targeting. This shift underscores LinkedIn’s commitment to providing advertisers with advanced tools to reach and engage their target audiences more accurately.
