Microsoft Ads can now show Audience ads only to the LinkedIn companies you pick. Test it on one account list before you move budget.

Until last month, LinkedIn profile data in Microsoft Advertising could raise or lower your bid but couldn’t limit who saw the ad. PPC News Feed reported on October 27 that Audience campaigns now have a “Targeting setting” for company, industry, and job function with two options, “Bid only” and “Target and bid.” With “Target and bid,” ads go only to people whose LinkedIn profiles match.

So an account list can now be bought against outside LinkedIn’s own ad platform. We think B2B teams running account-based programs should test it now, on one list, and compare the results directly with what they already pay LinkedIn. We wouldn’t move budget yet, because neither report says how much of a list Microsoft can match.

What changed

Both trade reports give the same path to the setting: Campaigns, then an Audience campaign and ad group, then Demographics, then Company, Industry, or Job function, then Add, then Targeting setting. PPC Land (November 1) quotes Microsoft’s help page as saying that for Search, Dynamic Search Ads, and Microsoft Shopping campaigns, “LinkedIn profile targeting is always Bid only.” Only Audience campaigns get the choice.

PPC Land also reports these limits from Microsoft’s documentation:

• A ceiling of 1,000 companies per ad group or campaign, attributed to a July 2026 version of Microsoft Learn.
• Company lists are built inside the platform. Importing them “from external files or other platforms is not supported.”
• “Not all possible companies, industries, and job functions are available for targeting.”

Microsoft’s help page didn’t load when we tried to check these on November 10, so the quotes above are as PPC Land reported them.

Why it matters for account-based programs

Before this change, if you wanted an ad shown only to people at your target companies, as defined by their LinkedIn profiles, you bought it on LinkedIn. Now you can buy the same company and job-function filters on Microsoft’s Audience Network inventory.

That helps in two situations. If your LinkedIn Ads cost per target account has been climbing, you have something to test it against. If your list is small, a few hundred accounts, you can reach the same buying group outside the LinkedIn feed and add frequency there.

The setting has real limits. Job function is coarser than job title or seniority, so “Marketing” at a target company includes the coordinator and the CMO. With a 1,000-company cap and no list import, a large target list has to be split up and rebuilt by hand. And neither report says how many people at a given company Microsoft can match, which is the number that decides whether a test is worth running.

How we’d test it

1. Pick one tier of accounts, under 1,000 companies, that you already run on LinkedIn Ads.
2. Build the same list in a Microsoft Audience campaign set to “Target and bid,” matching job function to your LinkedIn targeting as closely as the categories allow.
3. Run both over the same weeks and compare cost per engaged target account and pipeline from those accounts.
4. Check delivery in the first week. If spend barely moves, the matched audience is too small to test.

What would change our mind

We’d stop recommending a test if early users reported that matched reach for typical ABM lists is too small to spend a meaningful budget, or if Microsoft’s documentation showed the setting is limited to a few markets. We’d argue for moving real budget if a test like the one above showed cost per engaged account well below LinkedIn Ads, with similar pipeline from those accounts.

If you’ve turned on “Target and bid,” how much of your account list did Microsoft actually reach, and what did it cost next to LinkedIn?