LinkedIn Remarketing or General Ads: Which Is Better?

LinkedIn Remarketing and General Ads are effective digital marketing strategies, but their success heavily depends on when and how you use them.

LinkedIn Remarketing delivers powerful results when your website already has a decent volume of visitors, allowing you to re-engage warm prospects. On the other hand, General Ads offer flexibility and broad reach, helping you connect with new audiences who haven’t yet interacted with your brand.

Let’s dive into this blog to break down both strategies, understand how they work, and figure out the best scenarios to use each one wisely.

What is LinkedIn Remarketing?

LinkedIn Remarketing is a strategy where you show targeted ads to LinkedIn users who have already interacted with your business in some way such as visiting your website, engaging with your content, or filling out a lead form. These ads aim to re-capture the attention of potential customers who are already familiar with your brand. Retargeting the website visitors is one of the prominent winning strategies followed by brands across the globe.

What are LinkedIn General Ads?

General Ads are the ones where we target the people based on job title, membership groups, years of experience, industry etc.. We target people who might not even interacted with you before.

How Does LinkedIn Remarketing Work?

LinkedIn Remarketing uses tracking tools like the LinkedIn Insight Tag placed on your website. This tag collects data on visitors, which is then used to create matched audiences for retargeting on LinkedIn.

Types of remarketing LinkedIn offers:

• Website retargeting
• Video views retargeting
• Lead form retargeting

When and Where to Use LinkedIn Remarketing?

Ideal Scenarios:

• Your website has decent traffic.
• You want to re-engage users who’ve visited key pages.
• You're nurturing warm leads through the buyer journey.
• You have gated content, videos, or lead forms that can be retargeted.

Benefits:

• Higher engagement and conversion rates
• More cost-effective than cold traffic ads
• Tailored messaging boosts ROI

Read our blog on How to Retarget Your Audience on LinkedIn for a clearer understanding!

When and Where to Use LinkedIn General Ads?

Ideal Scenarios:

• You're launching a new product or service
• You want to reach new potential customers
• You're running brand awareness campaigns
• You’re targeting specific industries or job titles

Benefits:

• Broader reach for new customer acquisition
• Boosts brand visibility
• Highly customizable across platforms and goals

Some Tips for Using These Strategies Effectively

For LinkedIn Remarketing:

• Use clear segmentation (e.g., blog readers vs. product page visitors)
• Personalize your ad messaging to reflect user behaviour
• Don’t overdo it—avoid ad fatigue by rotating creatives
• Combine with lead gen forms to drive conversions directly within LinkedIn

For General Ads:

• Focus on compelling visuals and headlines
• Test multiple ad formats and placements
• Use A/B testing for optimization
• Monitor performance metrics like CTR, CPC, and conversion rate
• Ensure landing pages align with the ad intent

Key Differences at a Glance

Feature	LinkedIn Remarketing	General Ads
Audience	Warm (already visited/interacted)	Cold or broad (new prospects)
Conversion Rate	Higher	Moderate to Low
Cost Efficiency	Better ROI per conversion	Varies, but often higher cost per lead
Messaging	Personalized	Generic to Semi-targeted
Best Use Case	Lead nurturing & conversion	Brand awareness & audience expansion

Final Thoughts:

Choosing between LinkedIn Remarketing and General Ads isn’t about which one is better—it’s about when to use each one.

If you want to turn warm leads into customers, use LinkedIn Remarketing. To reach new people and build awareness, go with General Ads.

Connect with the experts at Flying Elephant Digital today to learn more and successfully implement a winning strategy tailored to your business goals.