Should I use LinkedIn Conversation Ads or Message Ads in 2026?

TofuAnswer by the Tofu team · checked

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Use conversation ads if you want to offer more than one next step (a demo, a guide, a webinar), want to retarget people who open or click, or need the Brand awareness or Engagement objective. Use message ads for one offer with one button, on the Website visits, Lead generation or Website conversions objectives. Both are LinkedIn Sponsored Messaging, both are charged per send, and both now carry a required Not Interested button. LinkedIn's own advice is to test both. If replies are near zero, check delivery, sender, language and copy before you blame the format.

As of October 2026.

What's the difference between conversation ads and message ads?

Both land in the member's LinkedIn Messaging inbox, on desktop and mobile, and only when the member is active on LinkedIn. A message ad is one message with one call-to-action (CTA) button. A conversation ad is a decision tree you build: each button can open a landing page, open a Lead Gen Form or show the next message.

Message adsConversation ads
ButtonsOne CTA (up to 20 characters), plus Not InterestedUp to 5 per message and 50 per conversation (up to 25 characters each). Not Interested takes one of the 5 in the intro message
Subject lineUp to 60 charactersOptional, up to 60 characters. Without one, the inbox preview shows the first message
Message lengthUp to 1,500 charactersUp to 8,000 characters per message
ObjectivesWebsite visits, Lead generation, Website conversionsBrand awareness, Website visits, Engagement, Lead generation, Website conversions
Retarget people who engagedNot one of LinkedIn's retargeting sourcesYes: people who opened the conversation or clicked any CTA
Charged bySendSend
Ad rotation on Lead generationNow defaults to Optimize for performance (from July 2026, per LinkedIn's API change log)Same

One small conflict: LinkedIn's step-by-step page for creating a conversation ad lists four objectives and leaves out Engagement. Its Sponsored Messaging, conversation ads and Engagement objective pages all include it.

With conversation ads you also get a flowchart in Campaign Manager (on the Ads tab) that counts clicks on each button, so you can see which path people take.

What changed for LinkedIn message and conversation ads in 2026?

LinkedIn's Marketing API change log on Microsoft Learn lists two changes, and its Help Center confirms both for Campaign Manager. A third is rolling out.

  1. A Not Interested button on every ad (June 2026). In API version 202606, LinkedIn says a Not Interested CTA "is automatically rendered" on message ads and on the first message of conversation ads, and that it "is applied to new and existing ads at render time." You can't remove it. A member who clicks it can delete or archive the message, and LinkedIn shows them fewer ads from that ad set. In a conversation ad it uses one of the five button slots in the intro message, so an older ad with five CTAs must drop one when you edit or duplicate it. Tools that read conversation ads through the API now see a NOT_INTERESTED reply type for ads made in Campaign Manager.
  2. Lead generation ad sets favor the best performer (July 2026). From the July 2026 release, message and conversation ad sets on the Lead generation objective default to optimized creative selection. Campaign Manager calls it Optimize for performance: more impressions go to the ads that do best. Before, LinkedIn's API rejected that setting and forced even rotation. To keep a clean test between ads, switch back to Rotate ads evenly (ROUND_ROBIN in the API). For every other objective, Rotate ads evenly is still the only option for Sponsored Messaging.
  3. Click and conversion optimization (rolling out). LinkedIn's pricing page says optimized manual bidding and click optimization are "gradually being made available" for Website visits ad sets that use Sponsored Messaging, and conversion optimization for Website conversions. Once you have it, Sends stops being an optimization goal for those ad sets. You're still charged per send.

Are LinkedIn conversation ads worth it for B2B?

They can be, if you'll use what message ads don't offer. One conversation ad can serve buyers at different stages: a button for a demo, one for a guide, one for "tell me more." It's the only one of the two formats you can retarget from, and the flowchart shows which offer people pick.

The case against comes from practitioners, not LinkedIn. AJ Wilcox of B2Linked, a LinkedIn ads agency, wrote on April 22, 2026 that in its testing conversation ads came in "around a 35% open rate, while Message Ads are closer to 50–55%," and that message ads ran at "about 40% lower cost per lead" with everything else the same. He gives no sample size, and none of the LinkedIn help pages listed under Sources give open rates for either format. Treat it as a reason to test, not a verdict.

To test fairly:

  • Use the same audience, sender, offer and Lead Gen Form or landing page for both.
  • Put each format in its own ad set with a similar budget.
  • If you test several ads inside one Lead generation ad set, set rotation to Rotate ads evenly.
  • Judge on leads and pipeline, not opens.

LinkedIn's best-practice page for message ads says Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to launch.

Why are my LinkedIn conversation ads getting no responses?

Work through these in order:

  • Delivery is capped on purpose. LinkedIn "strictly controls the number of times a member can see Sponsored Messaging within a given time period," and only sends when members are active. Sends build slowly, and the same person is unlikely to get your ad twice in a short period.
  • Europe needs opt-in. In the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland, only members who chose sponsored messages in their inbox can receive them. Members who chose banner ads instead won't get your message.
  • Language filters harder than in the feed. If the ad set targets English, LinkedIn only sends to members whose profile language is English. In Sponsored Content, English targeting includes everyone. Run one ad set per language.
  • The sender. LinkedIn says a "recognized, prominent, or credible person" as sender helps message ads. A sender must be your 1st-degree connection and accept a permission request sent to their primary email. If they later reject it or are removed from the ad account, their ads are canceled, and that can't be reversed.
  • Personalization that falls back. If a member turns off ad personalization or has no current job on their profile, macros switch to generic text: %FIRSTNAME% becomes "LinkedIn Member" and %COMPANYNAME% becomes "your company."
  • Too much text. LinkedIn suggests message ad body copy "generally under 500 characters," and Campaign Manager flags conversation ad messages over 500 characters because "fewer characters can drive higher engagement."
  • An easy exit. Every ad now shows Not Interested next to your buttons. Make the first button the obvious next step, since it stays pinned at the bottom of the screen as people scroll (LinkedIn is still rolling that out, and not on iOS).
  • The message got archived. LinkedIn's newer Sponsored Messaging page says these ads move to the member's Archived Messages folder when a new message is served to them. Its older conversation ads page says 20 to 40 days after the member receives it. Members can still open it from Archived, but it leaves the main inbox.
  • You're reading the wrong metric. For Sponsored Messaging on Brand awareness, Website visits and Website conversions, LinkedIn's key result is message sends, so results can climb while clicks stay at zero. Open the flowchart to see clicks per button. On Website visits, at least one button must lead to a landing page.

How much do LinkedIn conversation ads cost?

LinkedIn doesn't publish a price. Message and conversation ads are charged per send, and the price comes from an auction against other advertisers trying to reach the same people, so "there isn't a set cost per result." What you pay moves with your audience, your bidding strategy and your ad's relevance. In LinkedIn's pricing table, Sponsored Messaging ad sets are charged by sends under both Maximum delivery and manual bidding, and Cost cap isn't listed for them.

Where Tofu fits

Tofu Ads Agent (our product) builds conversation ads on LinkedIn, as well as single image, carousel, document and video ads and Lead Gen Forms, using your brand's fonts, colors, logos and approved templates. It doesn't build message ads. Campaigns Tofu builds are staged in your own LinkedIn ad account switched off and never launch automatically; a person turns them on. Its weekly bid, budget and creative recommendations stay proposals until you approve them. Tofu doesn't change LinkedIn's rules: the frequency limits, EEA opt-in and Not Interested button apply the same way.

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