LinkedIn has set up a new advertising unit called BrandWorks as it expands further into business-to-business marketing and creator-led campaigns.
The platform expects the unit to reach an annualised run rate of about $100 million in the next fiscal year, according to a source familiar with the plan.
The Microsoft-owned company introduced BrandWorks internally in March 2026. Since then, the team has expanded by roughly 60%, with new hires coming from TikTok, Meta and X.
It now focuses on building higher-performing campaigns for enterprise clients, including SAP, IBM and ServiceNow.
BrandWorks also runs programmes that link advertisers with creators. One of them, Top Voices 360, supports sponsored content partnerships and has generated over $20 million between May 2025 and May 2026.
“We’re developing services that are designed to meet the marketer where they are,” said Alex Josephson, vice president of BrandWorks, who previously built a similar offering called Twitter Next.
LinkedIn is enhancing its focus in B2B advertising, even as it competes with much larger companies in digital ads. Its advertising business brought in $8.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to rise to $9.7 billion in 2026, with a further increase to $11.3 billion expected in 2027.
Even with that growth, LinkedIn is still smaller than Meta and Google in overall ad scale. Still, it has carved out a strong niche, with about 80% of B2B marketing budgets now flowing into search and social platforms.
“We estimate that 80% of B2B budgets go into search and social media, with Google and LinkedIn the primary beneficiaries of those B2B dollars,” said Luke Stillman, managing director at trend advisory firm Madison and Wall.
LinkedIn’s ad footprint is also expanding in relative terms. It accounts for about 3.2% of US digital ad spend, 2.4% in the UK, and less than 2% across markets such as Brazil, France, Canada and Germany.
Video has become an important part of its strategy. The company reports that vertical video uploads rose by 36% in 2025. CEO video posts have also increased by 68% over the past two years.
Younger users are driving some of that transition. LinkedIn says Gen Z is its fastest-growing audience, with higher engagement in video content and creator-led posts.
BrandWorks by LinkedIn also supports BrandLink, a video-focused advertising programme. The company expects BrandLink revenue to nearly triple in the current fiscal year, although it has not disclosed the base figure.
