Guide 10 of 17 in Level 1: Get set up

Connect your LinkedIn Ads account to Blackbox

To connect LinkedIn Ads to Blackbox (blackbox.plus), sign in as a LinkedIn member who has a role on the Campaign Manager ad account; Viewer is enough for reporting, and approving changes needs Campaign manager or higher. In Blackbox, open Data, click Connect a channel, choose the LinkedIn Ads tile and Continue to LinkedIn. LinkedIn asks to read and manage your advertising; sign in and allow it. Back in Blackbox, you see every ad account that member can reach. Tick the ones for this brand and save, and the last 30 days of campaign performance load. Blackbox reads campaigns and ads with spend, clicks, results for each campaign's objective, reach, and who saw them by job function, seniority, industry and company. It cannot change a budget, pause, resume or launch anything unless you approve that change in Blackbox first. Campaigns it creates arrive in Campaign Manager as drafts for you to finish, and it never publishes to your LinkedIn Page feed or reads your messages or connections.

You'll need
  • A role on the ad account — Viewer is enough to report. To approve changes, you need Campaign manager or higher on the ad account, plus a role on the Company Page that sponsors the ads.
  • The right LinkedIn login — LinkedIn shares what the signed-in member can reach, so sign in as the person with that role.
Time
About 3 minutes 4 steps Updated
You'll end with
Your LinkedIn ad account connected, with 30 days of campaign results in Blackbox
Do it in Blackbox Open Data, after you sign in
Example
Connecting LinkedIn Ads from the Data page

How to connect your LinkedIn Ads account to Blackbox

  1. Step 1:Open Data

    In Blackbox, click Data in the left menu.

    You'll see: Your channels, with Connect a channel at the top right.

  2. Step 2:Pick the LinkedIn Ads tile

    Click Connect a channel, then the LinkedIn Ads tile under Ad platforms.

    You'll see: What you need and what happens next, with Continue to LinkedIn below.

  3. Step 3:Approve on LinkedIn

    Click Continue to LinkedIn, sign in as the member with the ad account role, and allow access.

    You'll see: You’re back on Data, with every ad account that member can reach.

  4. Step 4:Tick this brand’s ad accounts

    Tick the ad accounts that belong to this brand and click Save.

    You'll see: LinkedIn Ads shows as connected, and the last 30 days start loading.

Blackbox can read

  • Your campaigns and ads, with their spend, impressions, clicks, engagements and video views
  • Results for what each campaign is for: landing-page clicks for website visits, leads for lead generation, video views for video campaigns
  • Reach and frequency for the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, this month and last month
  • Who saw your ads: job function, seniority, industry and company
  • Daily performance history, so trends and comparisons work
  • The ad account names and currencies, so figures are labeled correctly

Blackbox will not

  • Change a budget, pause, resume or launch anything unless you approve that change in Blackbox first
  • Publish to your LinkedIn Page feed — ad content it creates is sponsored content, not a page post
  • Reach ad accounts you did not tick

Good to know

  • New to Blackbox? Setup connects your first channel as one of its steps — see How to get started with Blackbox.
  • LinkedIn asks to read and manage your advertising. Changes are proposed in Blackbox and nothing reaches the ad account until you approve that exact change.
  • Campaigns Blackbox creates arrive in Campaign Manager as drafts, so you can refine targeting there before anything runs.
  • It reads advertising accounts and the organization assets needed to run ads — never your personal feed, messages or connections.
  • The audience breakdown leaves out groups too small to report without identifying people, and arrives about a day late.
  • To turn these numbers into a report for a client, see How to report on LinkedIn Ads.

Official docs

If something doesn't work

No ad accounts appeared

The member you signed in as has no role on any Campaign Manager ad account. Ask an admin to add them, then connect again.

A campaign from Blackbox is sitting in Campaign Manager as a draft

That is on purpose. Finish the audience and location targeting in Campaign Manager, then activate it there — nothing goes live on its own.

Pause and resume are refused

The connection was made before Blackbox asked for permission to manage ads. Reconnect from the Data page and the controls start working.

Why are my results landing-page clicks?

Results count what each campaign is for, as Campaign Manager’s key results do: landing-page clicks for a website-visit campaign, leads for lead generation, video views for a video campaign, engagements for an engagement campaign. Other campaigns count website conversions.

Why can’t I see reach day by day?

LinkedIn only gives reach as one total for a whole period, because the same person seen on two days counts once. Pick the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, this month or last month to see reach and frequency.

I want to disconnect it

On the Data page, open the ⋯ menu on the channel's row and choose Disconnect. Blackbox hands the access back to LinkedIn at the same time. Past suggestions stay, but the synced numbers are cleared: reconnecting loads the last 30 days again, and older daily numbers don't come back.

Stuck at any step? Send us a message and we'll do it with you on a call. All of Level 1: Get set up