This post was originally posted in March 2020 and was most recently updated in August 2021.

Over the years, we have written several posts on how to gain access to client ad accounts (and pages) as an agency. We’ve covered Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook.

To round out our major social channels, we also wanted to cover LinkedIn.

Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn requires advertisers to have access to the business page as well as the ad account to create and launch ad campaigns.

Before we jump into assigning admins and granting ad account access, let’s talk about some common terms that LinkedIn uses in regards to its platform.

What is Sponsored Content?

There are three ways companies can share information across the LinkedIn platform.

All three of these options require the access level of Page Admin to create and share the content.

Organic Updates

These appear in the LinkedIn feed of users who follow you and they also appear on your LinkedIn or Showcase page after the fact. You can think of them as the longer-lasting update option that has less of a targeted audience.

Sponsored Content

This option is a feed update to targeted members outside of your organization’s visitors and followers. This content can be a single image, carousel or video. This content remains available on your LinkedIn or Showcase page after the fact as well.

Direct Sponsored Content

This content option is what most advertisers likely think of as “LinkedIn ads”. This content appears in the feed of a targeted LinkedIn member. Again, it can be a single image, carousel or video. The most important differentiator here is the fact that these updates are not available on your LinkedIn or Showcase page after the fact.

One note about direct sponsored content: It’s important to note that if you’re trying to A/B test direct sponsored content, the system will optimize your campaign for the content with the highest clickthrough rate, which may ultimately throw off traditional ad testing.

LinkedIn Page Access

In order to create and post ads (also called direct sponsored content by LinkedIn) on behalf of a LinkedIn page, you’ll need to have the assigned role of Sponsored Content Poster OR Designated Admin.

Assigning a role to a user for the Page requires a connection to that user.

According to LinkedIn, Sponsored Content Posters have the ability to do the following:

Sponsored Content Poster access gives employees the ability to share and sponsor updates on an organization’s LinkedIn Page.

Direct Sponsored Content posters are also reflected under the Sponsored Content Poster admin section of a Page, but aren’t separately labeled. Direct Sponsored Content Poster access allows advertisers to create Sponsored Content ads through a LinkedIn Ads account on behalf of the organization. The ads display on the homepage feed of LinkedIn members, not on the LinkedIn Page feed.

Lead Gen Forms Manager level allows the user to download leads from Campaign Manager

To grant access, go to the business page within the LinkedIn interface (this is NOT done in Campaign Manager), and click the Admin Tools dropdown in the right corner.

Select Manage Admins.

To add an admin to the Page, make sure you’re on the Page Admins tab.

Give the user the necessary access and click save.

If you need to add someone to promote sponsored content, that is under the Paid Media Admins tab. Click ‘add paid media admin’ and search for the user you want to add. Select the role that you want the person to have. I’d recommend selecting all of the options or at least Sponsored Content Poster and Lead Gen Forms Manager. Click Save.

You may remember that previously, you needed to be 1st degree connections with the user you were trying to grant admin access. That recently changed and you no longer have to be connections.

The fun doesn’t stop here! Now you need access to Campaign Manager, which is a separate access point.

Assigning Access in Campaign Manager

If someone with admin access can assign you (or another user) access, they just need to follow these simple steps:

Within the account in Campaign Manager, click the wheel dropdown in the top right navigation. Click Manage Access.

The user permissions will appear with current user access levels. Click Edit.

Click “Add User to Account+”.

Search for the user you are looking to add. Select them.’

Select the proper user access level and click “save changes at the bottom”.

You’ll want to make sure the level is Account Manager or Campaign Manager in order to view reports, create campaigns, and edit campaigns. The Account Manager level also allows you to manage users for the account, edit account details and view billing history.

For more information on the different user roles, check out this help article from LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Granting access to an account or gaining access to a client’s Campaign Manager or Page can be difficult, but hopefully, this guide will help you!