B2B advertising on LinkedIn Ads: Q3 2026 in numbers
How many B2B companies advertised on LinkedIn Ads in the third quarter of 2026, how many ads they ran, how long those ads lasted and which formats they used, from 737 companies measured every week.
+9%active ads on LinkedIn Ads from Q2 to Q3 2026, without the 10 largest advertisers
Romain GuyonFounder of Overt
Published 6 min read
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In short
- 69% of the 737 B2B companies measured every week ran ads on LinkedIn Ads in Q3 2026, and 46% ran ads in every single week of the quarter.
- The median advertiser had 16 to 17 active ads in a week over the summer, up from 13 in early April.
- Leaving out the 10 largest advertisers, active ads grew 9% from Q2 to Q3, to about 26,800 a week.
- The 10 largest advertisers ran 86% of all active ads.
- Ads are short-lived: half of those that stopped in Q3 ran three weeks or less, one in five a single week.
- Single image ads were 47.6% of active ads in early October, video 17.8%, document ads 10.4%.
How this report is measured
Overt counts, every week, the active ads of the companies it follows on LinkedIn Ads. This report uses a constant panel: the 737 companies measured in each of the 26 weeks from April 6 to September 28, 2026, most of them B2B software companies. Q2 covers the 13 weeks starting April 6 to June 29, Q3 the 13 weeks starting July 6 to September 28.
A constant panel keeps new companies from passing for market growth. A week that could not be measured is left out, never counted as zero.
Who advertises
Source: Overt, 737 B2B companies measured on LinkedIn Ads every week from April 6 to September 28, 2026.
The number of active advertisers barely moves from one week to the next. On LinkedIn Ads, B2B advertising is a steady program more than a series of bursts: among the companies that advertised in Q3, two in three did so every week.
How many ads
An advertiser on LinkedIn Ads rarely runs one ad at a time. The median advertiser had 13 active ads in a week in early April, 16 to 17 in July, and 14 to 16 in September.
The spread is wide. Averaged over Q3, a quarter of active advertisers ran fewer than 2 ads a week, and the top tenth more than 173. The 10 largest advertisers alone ran 86% of all active ads in the quarter: a total for the whole panel says more about a handful of companies than about the market.
Q3 against Q2
Leaving out the 10 largest advertisers, the panel ran 24,555 active ads in an average week of Q2 and 26,768 in Q3: 9% more. The growth happened in the spring; the summer held at its June level, with no August slowdown.
Active ads per week, without the 10 largest advertisers
LinkedIn Ads, 727 B2B companies, weeks of April 6 to September 28, 2026 · Q3 in blue
Q2Q3
Source: Overt. Each bar is one week; hover a bar for its value.
How long ads run
Most ads on LinkedIn Ads are replaced quickly. Of the 45,530 ads that started after April 6 and stopped during Q3, at 425 advertisers:
Source: Overt, ads on LinkedIn Ads that started after April 6 and stopped between July 6 and September 21, 2026.
The renewal is constant: 472 advertisers launched 56,236 new ads during Q3, a median of 20 new ads per advertiser over the quarter. The ads that last the longest are worth a look: an advertiser rarely keeps paying for an ad that doesn’t work.
Formats
In the week of October 5, across 39,572 active ads from 432 advertisers, single image ads were 47.6% of active ads, video 17.8%, document ads 10.4% and thought leader ads 11.1%. Document and video ads gained the most ground since January. The detail, format by format, is in LinkedIn Ads formats: which ones B2B advertisers actually run.
Beyond LinkedIn Ads
On Google Ads, 259 companies of the panel were measured every week of both quarters: 64.5% ran ads in Q3, 52% in every week, and the median active advertiser ran 34 ads a week. On Microsoft Ads, the panel measured every week is too small to publish.
Which ad platforms a company is set up for shows on its website, in the tags it installs. Across 1,499 company websites read between October 11 and 13, 2026:
Share of company websites with each ad platform’s tag
1,499 company websites, October 11–13, 2026
Source: Overt. A website counts once per ad platform, whatever the number of tags.
The newest name on the list, ChatGPT Ads, is already on as many company websites as X Ads: see which B2B companies are set up for ChatGPT ads.
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Frequently asked questions
How many B2B companies advertise on LinkedIn Ads?
In Q3 2026, 69% of 737 B2B companies measured every week ran ads on LinkedIn Ads at least once, and 46% ran ads in every week of the quarter.
How many ads does a B2B company run on LinkedIn Ads at once?
The median advertiser had 16 to 17 active ads in a week in July 2026 and 14 to 16 in September. A quarter of advertisers ran fewer than 2, the top tenth more than 173.
How long do LinkedIn ads run?
Of the ads that stopped in Q3 2026, half ran three weeks or less, one in five a single week, and a quarter eight weeks or more.
Did B2B advertising on LinkedIn Ads grow in 2026?
Yes. Leaving out the 10 largest advertisers, active ads grew 9% from Q2 to Q3 2026 across a constant panel of companies. The growth came in the spring; the summer held steady.
Which LinkedIn ad formats did B2B advertisers use in Q3 2026?
In early October 2026, single image ads were 47.6% of active ads, video 17.8%, thought leader ads 11.1% and document ads 10.4%.
Sources
- Overt, weekly active ads on LinkedIn Ads, 737 B2B companies measured every week from April 6 to September 28, 2026.
- Overt, active ads on LinkedIn Ads by format, week of October 5, 2026.
- Overt, ad platform tags on 1,499 company websites, October 11–13, 2026.
Romain Guyon is the founder of Overt, and runs paid media for B2B software companies.