Chapter 7: Audience Lists: Types and Best Practices

First-party data comes directly from your own sources, such as CRM records, website visitors, and customer lists. This data typically has higher intent, meaning these audiences are already familiar with your brand, but the scale is often limited. On the other hand, third-party data is sourced from LinkedIn’s platform, including interest-based targeting, job titles, and firmographics. While it offers broader reach, these audiences may not have immediate intent, making them better suited for awareness and top-of-funnel campaigns. Combining both can help balance precision and scale for a well-rounded LinkedIn ad strategy.

[fs-toc-omit]Types of Audience Lists and Use-Cases

1. Contact List Uploads (Matched Audiences)‍

Upload CSVs of emails from your CRM, webinar attendees, and newsletter subscribers.

• Use Cases:
  
  • Nurturing leads who have engaged with previous content.
  • Running ABM campaigns by targeting decision-makers at specific accounts.
  • Cross-selling and upselling to existing customers.
• Pro Tip: Ensure a high match rate is to provide the following signals in this order:
  1. LinkedIn Profile URL
  2. Personal Emails
  PS: If you are feeding in business emails, you should give it in conjunction with First Name,
  Last Name and LinkedIn. Follow this up with a fuzzy match.

2. Account List Targeting (Company Lists)‍

Upload a CSV of company names and domains to target employees from those firms.

• Use Cases:
  
  • ABM: Target employees within strategic accounts.
  • Expansion: Find lookalike companies in your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
  • Retention: Run ads to existing customers with upsell/cross-sell messaging.

Pro Tip: Segment lists into tiers (e.g., “High-Intent Enterprise Accounts” vs. “Mid-Market Expansion”) for tailored messaging.PS: Read more on how you can use Account List Targeting and Website Retargeting with Factors Audience Sync, in Chapter 10 on Introducing Factors’ AdPilot – 2X your LinkedIn Ads ROI.

3. Website Retargeting

‍Uses LinkedIn Insight Tag to track and retarget visitors based on pages they’ve viewed.

• Use Cases:
  
  • BoFu: Target visitors who landed on high-intent pages (pricing, demo request).
  • MoFu: Retarget blog readers with case studies or webinars.
  • Exclusion Lists: Remove existing customers from prospecting campaigns.
• Pro Tip: Set up time-based retargeting (e.g., "Visited pricing page in the last 7 days") to increase relevancy.

4. Engagement-Based Retargeting

‍Target users who engaged with LinkedIn Ads, videos, lead gen forms, or company pages.

• Use Cases:
  
  • Retarget video viewers with deeper content (e.g., "Watched 75% of our demo video? Here’s a case study.")
  • Convert form-fill drop-offs by serving them another ad.
• Pro Tip: Combine video ad viewers + website visitors for a hyper-qualified audience.

5. Lookalike Audiences‍

Expands your audience by finding similar users to an existing list.

• Use Cases:
  
  • Scale account-based marketing (create lookalikes from your best-performing accounts).
  • Discover new prospects who match customer traits.
• Pro Tip: Use high-quality seed lists (e.g., ‘closed-won customers’ rather than generic website visitors) for best results.

➡️Audience Lists not working out for you? With our Audience Builder, you can segment high-intent accounts based on their engagement across channels. Book a Demo to see how!

Quick glance:

💡Tip: Instead of relying on a single audience, combine multiple filters to refine targeting. Here are some examples:

• Mid-Market SaaS CMOs who visited the pricing page
• Enterprise Sales Leaders at ABM target accounts who engaged with our LinkedIn posts
• Product marketers in fintech companies with 200+ employees who opened our lead gen form but didn’t submit it.

Audience Lists: Best Practices

1. Optimize Contact and Account List Uploads

• For contact lists, upload using first name, last name, company name, and job title (from the experience section of a user’s LinkedIn profile).
• Upload large lists. Use at least 10,000+ contacts for better reach, but avoid bloated lists with irrelevant leads.
• Update lists quarterly to avoid outdated contacts.
• Use CSV files with separate columns for names, companies, and emails.
• Improve precision using firmographics and combining contact lists with filters like job title, industry, and seniority.
  
  

2. Improve Match Rates for ABM

• Use company domains instead of names to ensure that they match your LinkedIn profiles accurately.
• Include subsidiaries and parent companies to help in cases where target companies may be operating under multiple names.
• Layer with job titles and functions to ensure your ads reach decision-makers within target accounts.
• Test different seniority levels. C-levels might be more challenging to reach; try targeting Directors and VPs, too.
  
  

3. Maximize Website Retargeting Performance

• Segment by page visits. For example, blog readers should be treated differently from demo page visitors.
• Exclude irrelevant traffic and avoid targeting job applicants or existing customers.
• Use time-based segmentation. Shorter time frames (e.g., last 30 days) work best for high-intent visitors.
• Create segments based on intent. Create a ‘high-intent’ segment for visitors who visited pricing or product pages but didn’t convert.
  
  

4. Get the Most from Engagement-Based Retargeting

• Retarget video viewers. People who watched 50%+ of your video are more likely to be engaged (and interested).
• Retarget form openers. Many open/ click on forms but don’t submit them, so it makes sense to re-engage them.
• Create sequential messaging. Show different ads (types and content) based on previous engagements to push audiences further down the funnel.
• Exclude those who have already converted (obviously!). Avoid wasting dollars on leads already in your CRM.
• Combine engagement retargeting with website retargeting for more precise audience refinement.
  
  

5. Use Lookalike Audiences Wisely

• Start with high-quality seed audiences. Best customers, high-intent leads, or top-performing accounts. Test lookalikes of Closed-Won Deals for high-value audience expansion.
• Adjust bid strategy. CPC or CPM bids may need to be adjusted based on audience performance.
• Monitor and refine. Lookalikes can drift over time; keep an eye on lead quality and make changes when needed.
  
  

6. Combine Audience Types for Best Results

• Test multiple audiences in different ad sets to compare performance.
• Monitor frequency and fatigue. 
• Adjust if audiences are seeing ads too often.
  
  

ABM Strategy? Use account lists + job title targeting + website retargeting.
Lead Nurturing? Website visitors + form openers + engagement retargeting.
Scaling Reach? Lookalikes of customers + firmographic filters.

➡️Read more about optimizing LinkedIn ad targeting by focusing on intent signals and engaging high-interest companies effectively in our blog on Making LinkedIn Ads Work: Targeting B2B Audience Intent.

Common Mistakes while Setting Up Audience Lists: