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Understanding how LinkedIn Ads budgets work is key to controlling spend and improving efficiency. Here’s how we approach daily and lifetime budgets to keep campaigns profitable and predictable.

Daily budgets vs lifetime budgets

LinkedIn allows us to choose between:

• Lifetime budget – The campaign stops automatically once the total spend is reached.
  
• Daily budget – Sets a maximum spend per day.
  
• Combination – A daily limit that also ends the campaign once a total spend is reached.
  
  

We prefer daily budgets because we monitor accounts every day and can shut campaigns off manually when needed. Lifetime budgets can be useful if we want to set a firm cap without daily monitoring.

The 50% overspend rule

If we set a daily budget, LinkedIn allows itself to overspend that amount by up to 50%.

If overspending happens regularly, it’s a sign that we may be paying too much for traffic.

• If using manual bidding (our preferred method), we can lower bids incrementally until the budget lasts all day without overspending.
  
• If using maximum delivery bidding (LinkedIn’s default), overspending is almost guaranteed. Switching to manual CPC bidding is usually more cost-effective.
  
  

When budgets reset

Once a daily budget is reached, LinkedIn removes the campaign from the auction until the next day.

However, LinkedIn’s “next day” is midnight UTC—which may fall in the middle of the afternoon or evening depending on where we are located.

For example:

• In the UK: midnight UTC is local midnight.
  
• On the US West Coast: midnight UTC happens around 5–6 p.m.
  
  

Changes to bids or budgets

If we adjust bids or budgets during the day, LinkedIn won’t apply those changes until midnight UTC.

This means that if a campaign is overspending, it will keep overspending until the end of the day, no matter what changes we make.

Key takeaways

• Use daily budgets for more control, lifetime budgets for set-and-forget campaigns.
  
• Watch for consistent overspending—adjust bids if necessary.
  
• Manual CPC bidding gives more cost control than maximum delivery bidding.
  
• Understand how LinkedIn’s UTC-based timing affects budget resets and changes.
  
  

Want more LinkedIn Ads tips?

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