What is LinkedIn buyer group targeting, and should I use it for ABM?

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Buyer groups is a LinkedIn audience option that uses AI to find the decision-makers and key stakeholders likely to buy in a product category, such as cybersecurity or HR software. You pick up to three of 56 categories, and LinkedIn builds the audience from profiles, engagement and connections, not your customer data. For ABM, use it as a layer: combine it (AND) with your target company list to reach more of each account's committee. It switches off audience expansion and A/B testing, and job titles can only be exclusions, so keep title targeting when you know exactly which roles buy.

As of October 2026.

How does LinkedIn decide who is in a buyer group?

It uses LinkedIn's own signals, not your data. LinkedIn's help names three: member profiles (experience, role, company background), sales and marketing engagement (how similar buyers engage with similar products), and professional relationships (1st-degree connections at the company and influence networks). It says, "We don't use individual customer data to build audiences." LinkedIn aims at two kinds of people: decision-makers with authority over the purchase, and key stakeholders with significant influence who may not have that authority. LinkedIn's product team said on The LinkedIn Ads Show podcast in September 2025 that the model refreshes every day.

Which product categories can I pick?

Any of 56 product categories, up to three per ad set, though LinkedIn recommends the one that best fits your goal. LinkedIn's API docs give examples such as Customer Support Software, Cybersecurity Software, Human Resources Software and Marketing Software. Add a source URL, ideally a specific product page rather than your homepage, and Campaign Manager suggests matching categories. Hover over a category to see its description. On the podcast, LinkedIn's product manager said the categories are "largely in software as a service and tech today," so if nothing fits what you sell, buyer groups won't help you.

How do I set it up?

Build it in the ad set's audience step.

  1. Create an ad set and pick your objective.
  2. Optional: in What You're Marketing, click Add new and enter your product page name and URL, or pick an existing URL.
  3. Under Who is your target audience?, click Add Buyer Groups.
  4. Choose up to three product categories.
  5. Check the estimated audience size in Forecasted results.
  6. Optional: refine with OR for inclusions and Exclude for exclusions.
  7. Click Save audience if you want audience insights; you only see them on a saved audience.
  8. Pick the ad format, set budget and schedule, add ads, and click Launch ad set.

LinkedIn's help doesn't say which objectives support buyer groups. Check the audience step for your objective.

What can I combine it with?

Only some audience types, and job details only as exclusions.

How you add itWhat you can add
AND (narrow)Company list, from a CSV or a third-party integration
OR (widen)Contact list, custom segments, retargeting audiences, skills, product category interests
ExcludeCompany list (third-party integration), contact list, company size, industry, name, followers or employees, job titles, job functions, seniorities, retargeting audiences

LinkedIn adds your own company to the exclusions for you. Audience expansion and predictive audiences turn off when you use buyer groups. You can keep LinkedIn Audience Network on, but buyer groups don't serve on Apple iOS devices there.

Should I use buyer groups for ABM?

Yes, as a layer on your account list, not in place of it. LinkedIn's best practices say to AND your target company list with a buyer group category to reach full buying committees at priority accounts. To find new accounts instead, exclude your target list, then use the Companies hub in Campaign Manager to find similar accounts. LinkedIn's overview of its AI audiences describes buyer groups as "Account-Based Marketing (ABM) focused."

Two things to watch. Your company list has to stay current, so sync it from your CRM rather than re-uploading (see keeping a HubSpot or Salesforce list synced to a LinkedIn matched audience). And if you share a saved buyer groups audience with another ad account, the company list in it isn't shared.

Is it better than targeting by job title?

It's different, and neither always wins. Job title targeting reaches exactly the roles you list and works for any product. Buyer groups let LinkedIn choose across roles for a product category, including people a title list would miss. On the podcast, LinkedIn's team said that for early adopters, 70 to 80% of the buyer group audience was new compared with their role and title targeting, and that early adopters saw "up to a 20% increase in sales conversions." Those are LinkedIn's own figures, not independent tests.

You can't mix the two the way you might expect: job titles, functions and seniorities can only be exclusions in a buyer groups audience. Use title targeting when your buying committee is small or unusual and you know who it is. Use buyer groups when the committee is broad and you suspect you're missing people.

How do I test whether it works?

Compare it with a historical ad set, because A/B testing isn't available for buyer groups ad sets. LinkedIn suggests:

  • Test 1 or 2 key ad sets first.
  • Match a past ad set without buyer groups that started from the same targeting, such as the same company list.
  • Keep schedule, budget, objective, bidding, placements, ad format and ads the same.
  • Test at the consideration or demand generation stage, where engagement can be measured.
  • Judge engagement quality after 30 to 60 days, and pipeline after at least 60 days or one full sales cycle.

Before launch, keep exclusions few, so you still reach roles that could influence the purchase. LinkedIn does suggest excluding first-party lists, such as customers and Lead Gen Form submitters, to reach members who haven't engaged with your brand. After launch, check professional demographics reporting before adding broad title exclusions.

What are the limits?

  • No A/B testing, audience expansion or predictive audiences on the same ad set.
  • No Apple iOS delivery through LinkedIn Audience Network.
  • Only 56 product categories.
  • Job titles, functions and seniorities only as exclusions.
  • Saved buyer groups audiences share across ad accounts in Campaign Manager, not Business Manager.
  • Through the API, buyer groups don't support Lead Gen Forms or conversions as source data.

What changed recently?

In September 2025, LinkedIn's product team said on The LinkedIn Ads Show that buyer groups were available to all advertisers globally in the classic campaign flow. LinkedIn's help pages don't state availability. In March 2026, Marketing API version 202603 added a buyerGroups targeting facet, so tools built on the API can target the same categories. LinkedIn's main buyer groups help page was last updated about seven months ago, and its setup page about three months ago. On October 14, 2026, a LinkedIn blog post on buying group strategy cited Forrester research that the average buying group spans 22 stakeholders across three or more departments.

Where Tofu fits

Tofu Ads Agent (our product) reaches buying committees a different way. It builds LinkedIn company audiences from a HubSpot or Salesforce list or report, then targets the job titles, seniorities and functions you describe at those named accounts. It doesn't use LinkedIn's Buyer Groups feature, so if you want LinkedIn to pick the committee for a product category, set that up in Campaign Manager.

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