How much of your 2019 budget is allocated to LinkedIn? According to this Digiday study , marketers say they're shifting budget there away from other digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Though ads can be expensive, marketers who participated in the study said the platform is only getting better, and they're happy with the results they're seeing.

Now let’s see how that translated when we took a look at numbers for Q1 2019, where we analyzed nearly 2 billion ad impressions and just over 4 million clicks for ads on LinkedIn.

Be sure to read the Q1 2019 PPC Benchmark Report for additional ad performance trends. Check out our Benchmark Report page for the latest reports by quarter.

LinkedIn CPC, CPM, & CTA for Q1 2019 at-a-glance

• Median CPC was $3.99
• Median CPM was $7.85
• Median CTR was 0.18%

LinkedIn CPC back on the rise

AdStage data found that median CPC ended its decline, jumping up 27 cents in the first quarter and down $1.27 from where it was the same time last year.

LinkedIn CPM up 28 cents Q/Q

According to our calculations, median CPM increased by 3.7% Q/Q, and is over a dollar more expensive than what it was this same time last year.

LinkedIn CTR drops

In Q1, we found that median CTR for ads on LinkedIn dropped 0.08% from last quarter, and is up slightly Y/Y.

Q 1 2019 LinkedIn ad performance data from 2B Impressions and 4MM Click s

LinkedIn ad trends Q1 2019

Record levels of engagement. What was once a platform used almost solely to upload resumes and update profiles is attracting more people for longer periods thanks to its content strategy. In Q1, not only did LinkedIn report reaching 610 million members in over 200 countries and territories, but its parent company, Microsoft, pointed out record levels of engagement . "LinkedIn revenue increased 33% (up 33% in constant currency) with record levels of engagement highlighted by LinkedIn sessions growth of 34%.”

Interest-based targeting for B2C marketers. LinkedIn is getting creative with the ways it’s helping advertisers reach that engaged audience. In Q1, the professional networking company announced interest-based targeting through its self-serve ad platform. B2C marketers know all about interest-based targeting, but there hasn’t been much useful data available to B2C marketers to date. LinkedIn says the new capability recognizes the fact that people are more than just their job title, and have interests outside of the office. However, LinkedIn is building its interests lists by extrapolating job titles, initially providing marketers with a list of 200 professional interests like “AI” and “customer experience” to choose from. Interest-based targeting will not only help marketers increase scale, but also humanize their interactions with potential leads.

Download the entire report for all the stats on CPM, CPC, and CTR benchmarks for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Google Display Network, Twitter, and Bing Ads.