LinkedIn Updates: Competitor Research, User Privacy, Campaign Tools, and More

Summary

Podcast Summary: Social Media Marketing Talk Show

Episode: LinkedIn Updates: Competitor Research, User Privacy, Campaign Tools, and More
Date: October 27, 2025
Host: Jerry Potter (with LinkedIn strategist Judy Fox)
Theme: A deep dive into key LinkedIn updates affecting competitor analytics, privacy policies, campaign management tools, and advertising measurement—with actionable takeaways for marketers.

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode focuses on crucial recent changes to LinkedIn that impact marketers and businesses using the platform, including the move of competitor analytics behind a paywall, updates to user privacy and data sharing (especially concerning AI training), new ad campaign creation and measurement tools, and the broader trend toward more paid features and AI integration in social media platforms.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. LinkedIn Competitor Analytics Now Behind a Paywall

[02:04 – 03:21]

• Change: Competitor analytics, previously free, has become a paid feature—now available only with LinkedIn’s Company Page Premium at $99/month.
  • What’s changing: Previously, users could compare their company to nine competitors and view trending competitor posts; now, free access is limited to just one competitor.
  • Implication: Businesses must assess the value of in-depth competitor data relative to the new cost.

Notable Quote:

“It's tough to hear when something is getting pulled back, being put behind a paywall... The ability to see what nine other competitors are doing is basically what this feature is.”
— Judy Fox ([02:04])

• Industry Trend: Increasing subscription fees and pay-to-play models across social platforms as companies seek new revenue streams.

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2. LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy Update (with AI Training Implications)

[04:03 – 06:27]

• Effective date: November 3, 2025.
• Scope: Expands LinkedIn’s use of user data to train their AI (large language models).
• User Options:
  • In some regions (notably Europe and Hong Kong), users can opt out of having their data used for AI training and targeted ads.
  • The ability to opt out remains an ongoing setting, not a one-time window.
  • Settings will remain consistent (no removal of existing privacy choices), with updates and new options being added.

Notable Quotes:

“The ability to opt out of training AI data is still available and it will continue to be available. It's not a moment in time that if you don't turn it off, you're opted in... take a deep breath, you're going to be okay.”
— Judy Fox ([05:24])

“They're now saying it's going to be more readable. They have a Dos and Don'ts section that you're going to want to read.”
— Judy Fox ([05:51])

• Host’s Perspective: Some users may want to allow ad tracking to observe marketing trends.

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3. Improvements to LinkedIn Campaign Tools for Advertisers

[07:37 – 10:13]

• New Features:
  • Streamlined campaign creation—especially beneficial for SMBs.
  • Faster audience building via customer URL lists.
  • “Draft with AI” feature lets users generate multiple ad creatives and expand content using generative AI.
  • Integrations with Canva and Adobe Express for easy templating and image exports.
  • Enhanced support for A/B testing.

Notable Quote:

“It sounds like LinkedIn is listening to consumers, that it is all about speed and streamlining. The ability to do campaign creation and optimize for small businesses...”
— Judy Fox ([07:37])

• Accessibility:
  • New “one-hour launch plan” for rapid, efficient campaign deployment—lowers the knowledge barrier for smaller companies.
  • A more cost-effective approach to experimenting with ads versus more expensive platforms.

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4. New LinkedIn Measurement Tools: Company Intelligence API & Conversion Lift Testing

[10:13 – 12:11]

• Company Intelligence API:
  • Offers improved B2B attribution, connecting LinkedIn campaigns to sales pipelines and revenue metrics.
  • Provides a holistic view of the buyer journey, including early-stage engagement and prioritization.
  • Initial users saw a 287% increase in companies reached—highlighting enhanced campaign impact.

Notable Quote:

“It’s basically a way to see the full buyer journey, early stage engagement... And apparently in the beta process, some of the users included said there was a 287% increase in companies reached.”
— Jerry Potter ([09:48])

• Conversion Lift Testing:
  • Directly compares conversion rates between users exposed and not exposed to ads, demonstrating real ad impact.
  • Tests run for 30–90 days; built into Campaign Manager for users with the Insight Tag or Conversion API enabled.
  • No longer have to rely on gut instinct or external research firms—true attribution is more accessible.

Notable Quotes:

“Now we can do all of this so much faster at scale… you can really see the true lift based on your ad exposure, which is really, really neat.”
— Jerry Potter ([10:46])

“I think the idea that a tool can do that for you and split the group and create those different test groups… for it to do all of that and see those final results, I can't even imagine what we did before any of this."
— Judy Fox ([11:00])

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the growing pay-to-play trend:

  “It's part of a growing trend that we're all seeing where subscription fees, pay to play are going to come into account for any social media app at this point.”
  — Judy Fox ([03:38])

• On privacy transparency:

  “They're not going to change your previous privacy choices. They're basically adding settings that you may need to address.”
  — Judy Fox ([05:51])

• On LinkedIn’s AI ad creation:

  “The small businesses can generate multiple ad creative that way, use existing content... with the Canva and Adobe Express integrations… optimize any kind of templates, export images.”
  — Judy Fox ([08:22])

• On true advertising measurement:

  “Most of the time it was just kind of like, let's hope this works... but now... so many different things simultaneously. So this is a pretty cool way to actually see if the specific campaign on LinkedIn worked.”
  — Jerry Potter ([11:21])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Competitor analytics paywall – [02:04 – 03:21]
• Rising subscription trend – [03:38]
• LinkedIn privacy update & opt outs – [04:03 – 06:27]
• Streamlined LinkedIn ad tools & AI drafting – [07:37 – 08:58]
• Company Intelligence API & B2B attribution – [09:48]
• Conversion lift testing – [10:13 – 12:11]

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Conclusion

Takeaways for Marketers:

• Evaluate the ROI of LinkedIn's enhanced (but now paid) competitor analytics.
• Review privacy settings, especially opt-outs for AI training, ahead of the Nov. 3 update.
• Explore new campaign tools and AI drafting features for quicker, more effective ad creation.
• Leverage measurement APIs and conversion lift testing for true campaign attribution—the days of “let's hope this works” are numbered.

Connect with Judy Fox:

“Just find me on LinkedIn. It's J U D I F O X. Feel free to follow me. Connect and let's check our user agreements on LinkedIn, our settings.” ([12:33])

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For continuous, practical updates on social media marketing, follow the Social Media Marketing Talk Show and consider AI Business World for in-depth, practical AI training in marketing.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Talk show, your guide to the ever changing world of social media.

[C]

All right, on today's show, we're going to explore some LinkedIn updates that anyone in marketing should know about, including. LinkedIn had a very popular feature that was free until about 10 days ago. So we'll tell you what that was and how you can still access it if you need it. Also, they're going to start using more of our info to train their AI, but some people can opt out, so we'll make sure that you're aware of that. And a new ads measurement tool to know how well your paid campaigns are really working. It's really smart. We'll update you on that as well. My name is Jerry Potter, host of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a Social Media examiner production where we break down all the latest social media news and what it means for marketers like you. Today I'm joined by Judy fox. Judy's a LinkedIn strategist and her course is called the LinkedIn Business Accelerator Program. Judy, welcome back to the show.

[B]

Excited to be here.

[C]

All right, so let's start off with this was free and now Microsoft wants to charge for it. Microsoft being LinkedIn's parent company, what is this feature that they took away about 10 days ago?

[B]

It's tough to hear when something is getting pulled back, being put behind a paywall. So it is the competitor analytics is becoming a paid feature. It is going to start on. It's already started. It sounds like October 15th. I just looked at the date and realized, wait, that has already passed. So if you have noticed that the absence of that feature, that may be something to look into. If you have not noticed the absence, then maybe it wasn't that critical. For your company to access the features going forward that they're going to put behind premium company pages. It is $99 a month. Your company is going to want to look into that. The ability to see what nine other competitors are doing is basically what this feature is. You can, you can see trending posts from three other companies and without that feature, it sounds like they're only going to let you look at one competitor going forward. So you want to balance how important is it to see those trending posts from three competitors and your comparison of your company page growth, your follower growth, your analytics in comparison to other nine competitors?

[C]

Well, and again, LinkedIn being owned by a software company, no surprise that, that they kind of wait in this direction and. But you know, for a successful company, $99 a month may be worth it, especially with some of the other features that you get with company premium. I'm almost surprised because for profiles, it's already like $60 a month, isn't it?

[B]

Something like that, yes. So $99 a month. Yeah. That's an interesting to point out. With how much money it is versus personal profiles, what's the basis of that dollar amount? I would say it's part of a growing trend that we're all seeing where subscription fees, pay to play are going to come into account for any social media app at this point.

[C]

Yeah. All right. LinkedIn is updating their privacy policy because they want to use more of our info to train their large language models so that you can still maybe skip reading the entire thing guilt free. Judy, can you just give us a quick update on what this is saying?

[B]

Yes, let's focus on the fact that these will update on November 3rd. So we have not passed that date yet. So good news, as of today, it's October 24, 2025. On November 3rd, they will be updating their agreements. They will roll out the any type of user agreement language. It's going to first affect how data is being shared with any affiliates or the regions for advertising and I guess data collection. Did you want to add anything there? Did I get anything? Okay, we're good.

[C]

Looking at me like, I'm, like I'm the lawyer. No.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

No. But yeah, and it sounds like there's a lot of things. I think the important thing to know though is that in the affected regions, and this is going to be, I think Europe and Hong Kong and some other areas, you can opt out for certain data uses, including AI training, which I know is one of the big ones that some marketers, depending on what they post and what they're doing are concerned about and then targeted ads as well. Personally, I allow all ad tracking because as a marketing geek, I want to see what people are doing.

[B]

Yeah. And I will add that the ability to opt out of training AI data is still available and it will continue to be available. It's not a moment in time that if you don't turn it off, you're opted in. It sounds like, based on my reading, that you can opt out anytime. So if you do miss the deadline or you listen to this later, take a deep breath, you're going to be okay. Opt out whenever you are able to. The other part is the user agreements. They are changing the language. They're now saying it's going to be more readable. They have a DOS and Don'ts section that you're going to want to read. And I would say the other big piece is none of the settings are being removed and they're not going to change your previous privacy choices. They're going to keep all of your settings the same. They're basically adding settings that you may need to address.

[C]

Okay, that's good. That's good of them.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that, that will update coming up on November 3rd. All right, we've got some more LinkedIn updates, but we've also been quietly planning something at Social Media examiner that we've never done before. Excited to tell you about AI Business World. So this is going to be a conference in a conference at Social Media Marketing World. So when you attend, this is going to be two days of packed practical AI training featuring expert AI practitioners sharing real workflows, not just theory. And so if you want to discover which AI tools actually work and which ones to skip, how to build workflows that save hours each week and walk away with a plan you can implement right away, AI Business World is the place you want to be. So if you already got a Social Media Marketing World ticket, you're done, you got it, you're covered, it's all included, free. But if you want just the AI training, you can get standalone tickets to AI Business World for only 597 during the early bird sale. So take advantage of this right now. Go to AI businessworld.info claim your spot again with early bird [e-mail]. all right, let's talk a little bit about LinkedIn ads. And anytime they can make these more accessible for small businesses, it's always a good thing. So tell us about this latest update, Judy.

[B]

Yes, well, first, I'm Going to give a quick shout out to AJ Wilcox who is my ads expert that I lean on. And I will also say that the power of advertising. It sounds like LinkedIn is listening to consumers, that it is all about speed and streamlining. The ability to do campaign creation and optimize for small businesses, the ability to build an audience faster using a URL customer list I am reading just in case the targeted preferences are going to be really more streamlined going forward. The ability to draft with AI. I do like that LinkedIn says the word draft with AI.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

The small businesses can generate multiple ad creative that way, use existing content and I guess expand on the content and the advertising they've already created with images and any generative AI text they can support with the Canva and Adobe Express integrations are going to let LinkedIn users optimize any kind of templates, export images. And it sounds like there's going to be more support for a B testing going forward.

[C]

Yeah, which is great. And anything they can do to kind of simplify that. Especially since like playing around on LinkedIn ads tends to be more expensive than playing around on Facebook ads.

[B]

Oh yeah, definitely.

[C]

So it's nice that they've done this. I also saw they shared what they call a one hour launch plan to help small businesses quickly set up, launch and optimize campaigns efficiently. But I think this is one of the greatest things in the paid marketing side that AI has come along and done is now you don't have to have all the knowledge and you can still try a campaign and see what happens. So that's going to be really cool. They're doing some new things too in terms of measurement, which we'll talk about here in just a second. But LinkedIn also I saw unveiled something that they're calling the Company Intelligence API which is designed to improve basically B2B attribution by connecting campaigns to your pipeline and your revenue. So it's basically a way to see the full buyer journey, early stage engagement, you can prioritize high interest counts, all of these different things. And apparently in the beta process of this, some of the users included said There was a 287% increase in companies reached. So that is obviously the more information you have, assuming you can interpret it, which AI helps us with. This is potentially a huge game changer with on the paid ad side. So. And then we have. Sorry, I just paused. I wanted to give you a chance if you had anything you want to.

[B]

Add to that, but I think you covered that one.

[C]

Okay. All right. And Then on a related note too, they're also introducing conversion lift testing. And before we started the show today, Judy and I were kind of talking about this off the air, as you'd say. And when I used to work in radio, sometimes people would, you know, pay for these incredibly expensive research projects where you'd run a research project, run your paid campaign, then run another research project to find out how well it worked. And now we can do all of this so much faster at scale. And so they call it conversion lift testing. And essentially what will happen is you run your campaign and then it'll compare conversions between somebody who has been exposed to your ads versus people who have not seen your ads. So you can really see the true lift based on your ad exposure, which is really, really neat.

[B]

I think the idea that a tool can do that for you and split the group and create those different test groups within the campaign manager. It does say that these tests are going to run between 30 and 90 days. And for it to do all of that and see those final results, I can't even imagine what we. Before any of this.

[C]

Right. Well, people used to just follow their gut, you know, I mean, to go back to when I worked in traditional radio and, you know, the salespeople would always joke, we're selling air. And sometimes there would be measurable things. We still hear it in podcast ads where it's like, use this code for a discount, and that's how they track something. But most of the time it was just kind of like, let's hope this works. And, oh, we saw an increase in sales. So maybe it was the radio campaign, but now businesses are running podcast ads, LinkedIn campaigns, Facebook campaigns. So many different things simultaneously. So this is a pretty cool way to actually see if the specific campaign on LinkedIn worked. Yeah. Which I love.

[B]

That'll definitely impact your messaging inside your own business for speaking up. You know, the chain of command for what is working and what is not working.

[C]

Yeah. By the way, if you want to access this, it's right in Campaign manager for all global advertisers, if you have the insight tag or the conversion API enabled. So you can go and check that out. So, quick reminder, learn more about AI business world today. Get your early bird Tickets. Go to aibusinessworld.info Again, aibusinessworld.info and Judy, where's the best place to discover more about you?

[B]

Just Find me on LinkedIn. It's J U D I F O X. Feel free to follow me. Connect and let's I'LL check our user agreements on LinkedIn, our settings.

[C]

Let's get together and read the privacy.

[B]

Yes, let's read the fine print together.

[C]

That's a wild weekend there. All right, if you want to add another Podcasts you're Listening lineup. If you enjoy this one, you'd probably love the Social Media Marketing Podcast as well. Search for it wherever you get your podcast. And until next time, may you be wise with your marketing decisions. Thanks, everyone. Bye.

[B]

Thank you. Bye. The Social Media Marketing Talk show is a Social Media examiner production. For more social media insight, visit social mediaexaminer.com.

[A]

Foreign Business World 2026 our first ever dedicated AI conference, taking place April 29th and 30th in Anaheim, California. Learn from top AI practitioners about which tools work and workflows that will literally save you hours daily. It's included free with Social Media Marketing World 2026 tickets, or it's only $597 as a standalone ticket. Secure your spot at AIbusinessworld live before pricing increases.