Guide to Advertising a Job on LinkedIn
Learn how to advertise a job on LinkedIn, how free and promoted postings work, when LinkedIn is most useful and how to build a vacancy that attracts relevant professional candidates.
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Senior Software Engineer
Why advertise a job on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn combines a job marketplace with the world's largest professional network. That gives employers access not only to active jobseekers, but also to professionals who may discover a role through recommendations, their network, email or mobile notifications.
LinkedIn says its matching technology draws on insights from more than one billion members worldwide.
LinkedIn reported more than 66 million job seekers visiting LinkedIn Jobs each week in 2025.
LinkedIn reported around 11,000 job applications being made every minute across the platform in 2025.
LinkedIn says 83% of posted jobs get a qualified candidate within 24 hours, based on its global July 2023 data.
LinkedIn Jobs sits inside a professional network
Vacancies can be found through LinkedIn Jobs search, personalised recommendations, company pages, email and mobile notifications, and employee or recruiter sharing. Promoted jobs can receive additional placement in search and targeted marketing to members who match the role.
LinkedIn combines job advertising with candidate matching, promoted listings and recruiter tools to help employers reach and engage relevant professionals.
What jobs can perform well on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn covers a huge range of occupations, but its professional profile data and network-led discovery make it particularly natural for skilled, professional and career-led hiring. These are four common areas where LinkedIn is often worth including.
Software engineering, cloud, data, cyber security, product and other digital roles benefit from LinkedIn's skills-rich professional profiles.
Commercial, account management and business development hiring aligns well with a platform where candidates actively display sector and career experience.
Marketing, content, performance, communications and growth roles are highly compatible with LinkedIn's professional and employer-brand environment.
Accountancy, finance, consulting, legal and other professional-services vacancies can benefit from clear career histories and qualification signals.
Active and passive talent
LinkedIn is useful beyond active jobseekers because members can encounter relevant roles through recommendations and their professional network.
Profile-based matching
LinkedIn uses job and member data to recommend vacancies to professionals whose skills, location and experience align with the role.
Employer brand context
Candidates can move from the vacancy to your Company Page, employee profiles and company content, giving them more context before applying.
Strong campaign complement
LinkedIn often works well alongside conventional job boards because its audience and discovery model are meaningfully different.
How to post a job on LinkedIn
LinkedIn does not use one fixed advert price. Eligible employers can post a limited free vacancy, promote a job using a daily or total budget, or use contracted products such as Job Slots for ongoing hiring.
Post directly on LinkedIn
Create the vacancy from LinkedIn Jobs, choose whether to post without promotion or promote it, configure screening and application settings, then publish.
Post through Career Poster
Include LinkedIn within a wider job advertising campaign alongside other major job boards, with applications and campaign activity managed through one employer dashboard.
Create the vacancy
Add a clear title, location, workplace type, employment type, description and the qualifications that matter most.
Set application controls
Choose screening questions, rejection settings and whether candidates apply on LinkedIn or through your own website or ATS.
Choose free or promoted
Publish without promotion if eligible, or set a daily/total budget to increase visibility in search, recommendations and targeted placements.
LinkedIn's free-job limits, promotion recommendations and product availability can change by account, role and market. Promoted pricing is variable rather than a fixed UK rate, so check the budget shown in LinkedIn before publishing.
Tips for posting jobs on LinkedIn
LinkedIn's job-posting guidance focuses on accurate role data, relevant skills and qualifications, clear candidate-facing copy and removing unnecessary friction. These are the areas worth tightening before you publish.
Use a standard, recognisable title
Choose the title candidates actually use in their careers and searches. Avoid internal grading codes or novelty titles that weaken matching and make the vacancy harder to understand.
Set workplace type and location accurately
Be precise about whether the role is on-site, hybrid or remote and enter a valid location. LinkedIn uses this information when recommending jobs to members.
Separate must-haves from preferences
Keep essential qualifications genuinely essential. LinkedIn allows you to define must-have and preferred criteria, so avoid turning every desirable skill into a barrier.
Write for scanning, not internal approval
Use short sections, bullets and whitespace. Explain what the person will do, what success looks like and what the opportunity offers instead of pasting a dense internal job specification.
Add relevant skills and job data
Job function, industry, seniority and skills all help LinkedIn understand the vacancy. Accurate metadata gives its matching systems better signals than vague or overloaded fields.
Sell the company as well as the job
LinkedIn is an employer-brand environment. Give candidates a reason to care about the team, mission, development, flexibility and benefits, then keep your Company Page credible and current.
Use screening questions carefully
Ask about genuine deal-breakers such as work authorisation, a licence or a critical qualification. Too many questions can add friction and discourage otherwise relevant candidates.
Choose the right apply route
LinkedIn can collect applications itself or send people to an external careers page or ATS. Whichever route you choose, keep the process short, mobile-friendly and consistent with the advert.
Better job data improves both readability and matching
LinkedIn recommends using specific skills, functions and industries when posting. Its system also considers job title, description, location and qualification signals when finding or recommending relevant candidates, so vague inputs can reduce the quality of the audience you reach.
LinkedIn vs multi-board job advertising
LinkedIn has a uniquely professional, network-led audience. Multi-board advertising complements that by adding candidate traffic from dedicated job boards and specialist recruitment sites.
Advertising on LinkedIn direct
Direct LinkedIn advertising makes sense when professional profiles, employer brand, network discovery and LinkedIn's matching technology are central to your hiring strategy.
- Reach active and passive professionals
- Free job option for eligible accounts
- Flexible promoted-job budgeting
- Applications on LinkedIn or via your ATS
Multi-board job advertising
A multi-board campaign can retain LinkedIn exposure while also placing the vacancy on conventional job boards used by active jobseekers, giving the campaign several distinct routes to candidates.
- LinkedIn plus other leading job boards
- Broader mix of active and passive talent
- One employer dashboard and hiring workflow
- Packages from £195 + VAT
| Feature | LinkedIn direct | Career Poster multi-board |
|---|---|---|
| Core audience | LinkedIn professional network | LinkedIn plus separate job-board audiences |
| Pricing model | Free option or variable promoted budget | Fixed Career Poster package pricing |
| Candidate discovery | Search, recommendations, network and notifications | Multiple board search/recommendation ecosystems |
| Employer brand context | Strong Company Page and profile integration | Varies by included board |
| Management | LinkedIn hiring interface | Career Poster employer dashboard |
| Best use case | Target LinkedIn specifically | Diversify candidate sources |
Is LinkedIn the right job board for your vacancy?
LinkedIn can be excellent for professional hiring, but the right channel mix still depends on the role, seniority, salary, candidate scarcity, location and how much employer brand matters to the decision.
You are hiring professional or skilled talent
- The role is in technology, sales, marketing, finance, management or another professional field.
- Candidate skills and career history are useful matching signals.
- Your company has a credible LinkedIn presence.
- You want to reach people who may not be actively searching every day.
- Employer brand and professional reputation matter to the hire.
You need more than one candidate behaviour
- The vacancy is urgent, niche or historically difficult to fill.
- You need high-intent job-board applicants as well as LinkedIn discovery.
- The candidate pool is small in the target location.
- You want to compare response and quality across several channels.
- You do not want one platform to determine the entire campaign result.
Make LinkedIn one part of the campaign
- Advertise across LinkedIn and other relevant job boards from one place.
- Use one employer dashboard for applications and recruitment activity.
- Access included hiring and AI recruitment tools.
- Add sponsored exposure where the campaign requires it.
- Packages start from £195 + VAT.
LinkedIn is especially valuable when the person behind the CV matters as much as the CV itself.
For career-led professional roles, LinkedIn's profile depth, network context and recommendation engine can be a strong advantage. For broader or harder-to-fill hiring, combining it with dedicated job boards gives you a more balanced recruitment funnel.
Advertising a Job on LinkedIn FAQs
Common questions about free LinkedIn jobs, promoted budgets, advert visibility, applications and advertising through Career Poster.
How do I advertise a job on LinkedIn?
Open LinkedIn Jobs, choose Post a job, add the title and job details, configure screening and application settings, then choose whether to post without promotion or promote the vacancy.
Can I post a job on LinkedIn for free?
Yes, eligible members can currently have one free job active at a time, subject to LinkedIn's free-job posting and applicant limits.
How long does a free LinkedIn job stay active?
LinkedIn currently says free jobs can remain active for up to 14 days before being paused. If they are not promoted, they can automatically close after 30 days.
Is there an application limit on free jobs?
Yes. LinkedIn says free job posts typically have an application limit of around 10 to 30 applications depending on the role.
How much does it cost to promote a job on LinkedIn?
There is no single fixed price. LinkedIn lets you set a daily average or total budget, with recommended spend influenced by the role, location and market demand.
How are promoted LinkedIn jobs charged?
LinkedIn says promoted jobs use a pay-per-click model in the country where the job is posted, subject to the daily or total budget you set.
Where can a LinkedIn job appear?
Jobs can appear in LinkedIn search, recommendations, on the company page and through email or mobile notifications. Promoted jobs can receive additional targeted placements and higher visibility.
How large is LinkedIn's candidate audience?
LinkedIn says its platform contains more than one billion members. In 2025 it reported more than 66 million job seekers visiting LinkedIn Jobs each week.
Can candidates apply outside LinkedIn?
Yes. Employers can collect applications on LinkedIn or direct applicants to an external careers page or ATS.
Can I add screening questions?
Yes. LinkedIn supports screening questions and rejection settings. Current help guidance says every job posted from a personal member account includes one free screening question, with additional questions available on promoted jobs.
What is LinkedIn Hiring Pro?
Hiring Pro is LinkedIn's AI-assisted hiring experience for occasional hiring. It can help draft a job, recommend candidates and support applicant evaluation for promoted jobs.
What are LinkedIn Job Slots?
Job Slots are designed for employers with ongoing or higher-volume hiring. They are generally sold through LinkedIn Talent Solutions rather than priced as a one-off self-service advert.
What jobs are a good fit for LinkedIn?
LinkedIn can work across many sectors, but technology, sales, marketing, finance, management and other professional roles are particularly natural fits because candidate profiles carry rich career and skills data.
Can I advertise on LinkedIn through Career Poster?
Yes. Career Poster can include LinkedIn exposure within a wider multi-board job advertising campaign, depending on the package and campaign requirements.
Is LinkedIn direct or multi-board advertising better?
Direct LinkedIn posting is useful when the professional network is your main target. Multi-board advertising is stronger when you also want active jobseekers from other major recruitment platforms.
How do I get started?
Use LinkedIn directly if you only need a LinkedIn job post, or compare Career Poster packages if you want LinkedIn included within a broader recruitment campaign.
Reach professionals on LinkedIn — and add more candidate channels when you need them.
Post directly on LinkedIn for a focused professional-network campaign, or use Career Poster to combine LinkedIn with other leading job boards from one employer dashboard.
