LinkedIn generated $19,817 million in revenue for Microsoft in fiscal year 2026, an increase of $2.0 billion or 11%, with growth across all lines of business. That figure comes from an annual report filed with the SEC. Most LinkedIn advertising statistics in circulation do not come from anywhere comparable.
Microsoft discloses what LinkedIn earns. It does not disclose what a LinkedIn ad costs. Two disclosures carry almost all the verifiable data: Microsoft’s Form 10-K and the European Commission’s register of very large online platforms. One of them is about to get thinner, because LinkedIn was previously reported as a standalone unit in the Productivity and Business Processes segment, a practice ending in fiscal 2027.
Key Takeaways
- LinkedIn revenue climbed to $19,817 million in fiscal 2026 from $17,812 million a year earlier.
- Ads and subscriptions together reached $9,659 million across Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions in fiscal 2026.
- LinkedIn out-earned Microsoft search ads by $4,641 million in fiscal 2026.
- LinkedIn EU reach sits at 45.2 million logged-in active users, against a floor of more than 45 million monthly EU users.
- Fourth-quarter growth held at 12%, up 10% in constant currency.
- LinkedIn represented 6.0% of Microsoft’s total fiscal 2026 revenue.
Editor’s Choice
- Microsoft’s total fiscal 2026 revenue reached $331,839 million.
- Search advertising revenue reached $15,176 million in fiscal 2026.
- The restated Search and advertising line totals $24,835 million for fiscal 2026.
- LinkedIn’s strongest quarter delivered $5,189 million in fiscal 2026 Q4.
- Bing reports 119 million average monthly active users in the EU.
- LinkedIn logged-out traffic reaches 132.5 million site visits monthly in the EU.
LinkedIn Advertising Statistics in Microsoft’s Filings
- LinkedIn revenue reached $19,817 million in fiscal 2026 against $17,812 million in fiscal 2025.
- Microsoft’s total revenue reached $331,839 million in fiscal 2026, leaving LinkedIn at 6.0% of the company.
- Microsoft reports LinkedIn revenue in millions in an SEC-filed exhibit covering fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026.
- The annual report attributes the rise to growth across all lines of business, naming no single driver.
- Four monetized solutions sit inside the line: Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, and Sales Solutions.
- Microsoft ties advertising revenue to member engagement and the quality of the sponsored content delivered to those members to drive Marketing Solutions.
- Search advertising grew more slowly in dollars, rising $1.3 billion or 9%.
- Excluding traffic acquisition costs, search ads grew 12% on higher search volume and revenue per search.
| Metric | FY2025 ($ millions) | FY2026 ($ millions) |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn revenue | 17,812 | 19,817 |
| Search advertising revenue | 13,878 | 15,176 |
| Microsoft total revenue | 281,724 | 331,839 |
Source: Microsoft Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, September 2026
By the numbers: LinkedIn produced $19,817 million for Microsoft in fiscal 2026 against $17,812 million the year before, a gain the company attributes to growth across all lines of business. The same filing puts Microsoft total revenue at $331,839 million, of which LinkedIn supplied 6.0%.
LinkedIn Quarterly Revenue Trend
- Revenue rose in every fiscal 2026 quarter against the matching quarter of fiscal 2025.
- The weakest fiscal 2026 quarter still beat every quarter of fiscal 2025.
- Second-quarter revenue exceeded third-quarter revenue in both fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026.
- Reported growth stayed at or above 10% in every fiscal 2026 quarter.
Recent Developments
- September 2026: A Microsoft filing confirmed LinkedIn Talent Solutions and Sales Solutions will now be reported in the Industry Solutions cloud revenue growth metric.
- September 2026: Search and advertising restated to $24,835 million for fiscal 2026 and $22,171 million for fiscal 2025.
- July 2026: Microsoft’s annual report recorded LinkedIn revenue growth of 11% for the fiscal year.
- July 2026: The fourth-quarter release reported LinkedIn revenue up 12%, or 10% in constant currency.
- September 2026: The Commission register listed LinkedIn at 45.2 million logged-in active users and 132.5 million logged-out site visits.
LinkedIn Revenue Growth Rate by Quarter
- Growth accelerated through the year, moving from 10% in Q1 to 12% in Q4.
- Constant-currency growth trailed reported growth in every fiscal 2026 quarter.
- The widest currency gap appeared in Q3, where reported growth of 12% fell to 9% in constant currency.
- Full-year growth landed at 11% reported and 9% in constant currency.
Currency movements matter more here than they look. A three-point gap between reported and constant-currency growth implies a meaningful share of the Q3 increase came from exchange rates rather than from selling more advertising. Headline growth numbers erase that distinction.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Revenue, Derived From the Restatement
Microsoft does not publish Marketing Solutions revenue on its own. The September 2026 restatement makes it calculable, because Search and advertising brings together our advertising businesses by adding LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, along with LinkedIn Premium Subscriptions, to the prior Search advertising disclosure. Subtracting the old search line from the new combined line isolates the two LinkedIn components.
- The combined figure reached $9,659 million in fiscal 2026.
- A year earlier, the same calculation gives $8,293 million.
- That implies growth of roughly 16.5%, above the 11% reported for LinkedIn overall.
- The quarterly figures sum to the annual difference in both fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026.
One caveat governs every use of this number. It combines advertising with paid memberships, so it is not LinkedIn advertising revenue on its own, and anyone reporting it as such overstates the ad business. Microsoft bundles the two deliberately, and no filing splits them.
LinkedIn Versus Microsoft’s Other Revenue Lines
- LinkedIn ranks fourth among Microsoft’s product lines by fiscal 2026 revenue.
- Server products and cloud services lead at $129,425 million.
- XBOX remains larger than LinkedIn at $21,790 million.
- Windows and devices trail LinkedIn at $17,084 million.
- Search advertising trails LinkedIn by a wider margin at $15,176 million.
The comparison worth holding onto is LinkedIn against search. Microsoft’s professional network out-earns the company’s entire search advertising business, which is what makes the fiscal 2027 reporting change consequential rather than cosmetic.
LinkedIn’s Share of Total Microsoft Revenue
- Microsoft’s revenue base grew to $331,839 million from $281,724 million.
- LinkedIn’s share slipped despite revenue growth of 11%.
- Applying the same math to fiscal 2025 gives a 6.3% share.
What LinkedIn Ads Cost, and What Nobody Can Verify
Search demand for LinkedIn ad costs runs far ahead of the available evidence. Microsoft’s filings report revenue, growth rates, and the qualitative drivers of that growth, then stop.
- Microsoft’s filings disclose LinkedIn revenue of $19,817 million and no matching price per impression.
- The annual report names revenue drivers as demand from enterprises and professionals for subscriptions to Talent Solutions, Sales Solutions, and Premium Subscriptions offerings.
- For advertising, it cites member engagement and the quality of the sponsored content delivered to those members.
- Neither statement carries a price attached to an impression or a click.
| Metric | In Microsoft’s FY2026 filings? | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn total revenue | Yes | Form 10-K and Form 8-K exhibit |
| LinkedIn revenue growth rate | Yes | Form 8-K investor metrics |
| Marketing Solutions revenue alone | No | Bundled with Premium Subscriptions |
| Cost per thousand impressions | No | Not a reported metric |
| Cost per click | No | Not a reported metric |
| EU monthly active users | No | European Commission register |
Source: Microsoft Form 10-K FY2026 and European Commission designated-platform list, 2026
That gap is the honest answer to the most common question about LinkedIn ads, and it deserves stating rather than papering over. A campaign planner can benchmark LinkedIn against a digital marketing budget using disclosed revenue and audience size. A planner cannot cite a verified platform CPM, because no primary source publishes one.
Why Published LinkedIn CPM Benchmarks Disagree
The benchmark figures circulating for LinkedIn come from parties measuring their own book of business. An agency reporting the CPM it paid describes the accounts it manages, the industries it serves, and the bids it chose. That is a sample selected by the reporter, not a platform average.
| Benchmark source | What it actually measures | Why it is not a platform average |
|---|---|---|
| Agency performance reports | Accounts that agency manages | Sample chosen by the reporter |
| Martech platform dashboards | That vendor’s own customers | Excludes every non-customer |
| Practitioner surveys | Self-reported recollection | No auction-level verification |
| Microsoft SEC filings | Total LinkedIn revenue | Contains no price per impression |
Source: Microsoft Form 10-K FY2026, September 2026
Two of those rows apply equally to Facebook and Instagram cost benchmarks, assembled the same way from the same kind of managed-account data.
The same pattern repeats across platform statistics: engagement depth is disclosed more readily than price. Cost figures quoted for TikTok and YouTube generally trace back to advertiser-side reporting rather than to platform disclosure, which is why cross-network cost comparisons rest on agency data.
Key finding: Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 annual report discloses LinkedIn revenue of $19,817 million and names member engagement and sponsored-content quality as the drivers of Marketing Solutions. It publishes no cost per impression, no cost per click and no click-through rate, so every circulating LinkedIn CPM benchmark originates outside the platform’s own reporting.
LinkedIn’s EU Audience Under the Digital Services Act
European rules require large platforms to publish user numbers, which is how the audience figure below acquires a legal reporting obligation behind it.
- The Commission designates platforms with more than 45 million users per month in the EU as very large online platforms.
- Designation rests on user numbers provided by platforms and search engines rather than on Commission measurement.
- Platforms must refresh those figures at least every 6 months.
- The named EU entity is LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, supervised from Ireland.
| Service | Measurement basis | EU monthly figure (millions) |
|---|---|---|
| Logged-in active users | 45.2 | |
| Logged-out site visits | 132.5 | |
| Bing | Average monthly active users | 119 |
Source: European Commission designated-platform list, 2026
Read that table with its disclaimer attached. The register states the figures are as reported by the provider and without prejudice to the assessment by the Commission of the methodology used to calculate the active recipients of service. Regulatory mandate is not regulatory verification.
The 45.2 million figure also deserves attention for how close it sits to the designation floor. Marketing material routinely describes a membership base in the hundreds of millions. The reported logged-in EU active audience sits barely above the designation threshold, which is the gap between registered LinkedIn accounts and people an advertiser can reach in a given month.
LinkedIn Versus Bing as Microsoft Ad Audiences
Microsoft owns two ad surfaces on the Commission’s register, and they rank in opposite orders on reach and revenue.
- Bing reports 119 million EU average monthly active users, ahead of LinkedIn’s logged-in figure.
- LinkedIn still generated more revenue, at $19,817 million against $15,176 million.
- Both services report through Irish entities, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company and Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited.
| Microsoft ad surface | EU reach (millions) | FY2026 revenue ($ millions) |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn, logged-in users | 45.2 | 19,817 |
| Bing (Microsoft Search advertising line) | 119 | 15,176 |
Source: Microsoft Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1 and European Commission designated-platform list, 2026
Revenue per unit of European reach runs higher on LinkedIn than on search, which points to professional targeting commanding a premium. That comparison sets global revenue against EU-only reach, so it is evidence by inference rather than by disclosed price, and it should be read that way. Comparable reach-and-revenue splits appear in Bing and Google search data across the wider search market, and we see the same disclosure asymmetry in X/Twitter audience reporting.
How EU Rules Changed LinkedIn Ad Targeting
LinkedIn’s ad targeting has already been altered once by European regulators, and the sequence sits in the Commission’s own enforcement log.
- Designation as a very large online platform came in April 2023.
- A first request for information followed in January 2024.
- March 2024 brought a request for information on potentially targeted advertising based on sensitive data.
- In June 2024, a Commissioner statement addressed steps announced by LinkedIn to comply with DSA provisions on targeted advertising.
- Once designated, a service has 4 months to comply with the DSA.
Targeting sits at the center of LinkedIn’s pitch to advertisers, since job title, employer and seniority are the attributes buyers pay a premium for. Regulatory pressure on which attributes may be used is therefore a pricing question as much as a compliance one. Generative‑AI ad‑creation tools have shifted the same way, with the creative layer automating faster than the targeting layer.
What Changes When LinkedIn Leaves the Reporting Line
- From fiscal 2027, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions will now be reported in the Search and advertising revenue (ex TAC) growth metric.
- Talent and Sales Solutions will move instead into the Industry Solutions cloud revenue growth metric.
- Industry solutions restated to $20,345 million for fiscal 2026, blending LinkedIn units with other businesses.
- Search and advertising restated to $24,835 million for fiscal 2026, the line that absorbs LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.
- The standalone LinkedIn line closes at $19,817 million for fiscal 2026.
- Fiscal 2026 is therefore the last year reported with LinkedIn as a standalone unit.
| LinkedIn business line | FY2026 reporting home | FY2027 reporting home |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing Solutions | Search and advertising | |
| Premium Subscriptions | Search and advertising | |
| Talent Solutions | Industry solutions cloud | |
| Sales Solutions | Industry solutions cloud |
Source: Microsoft Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, September 2026
Why it matters: After fiscal 2026 no regular filing is expected to state LinkedIn revenue as a single number. Marketing Solutions merges into a Search and advertising line worth $24,835 million on a restated fiscal 2026 basis, and Talent and Sales Solutions merge into Industry solutions at $20,345 million. The $19,817 million figure becomes the final standalone benchmark.
Anyone tracking LinkedIn advertising over time should archive the fiscal 2026 numbers now. Once the business splits across two aggregated metrics, year-over-year comparisons will require the restated history in this one filing. The derivation isolating Marketing Solutions also stops working the moment the old search line disappears.
How effective is LinkedIn advertising?
Effectiveness cannot be answered from public filings, so the honest response states what can be measured instead. Microsoft reports that LinkedIn revenue grew 11% in fiscal 2026 with growth across all lines of business, which shows advertisers renewing in aggregate. It reveals nothing about the return any individual campaign earned. Advertisers measuring their own visitor‑to‑lead conversion rate against LinkedIn spend hold better evidence than any published benchmark.
What is the average LinkedIn ads CPM?
No verified average exists. Microsoft’s fiscal 2026 filings disclose LinkedIn revenue of $19,817 million with no accompanying price per impression. European Commission disclosures cover audience size rather than cost.
Figures presented elsewhere as the average LinkedIn CPM are drawn from managed-account samples, so they describe the reporting agency’s clients rather than the platform auction. The same sampling limit applies to published Facebook ad statistics and to every other network benchmark built from managed accounts. Treat any single number as a sample, not a benchmark.
Is 10,000 impressions a lot on LinkedIn?
Context decides, and the useful comparison is audience size. LinkedIn reports 45.2 million logged-in active users each month in the EU alone, so 10,000 impressions represents a very small slice of one region’s reachable audience. Whether that volume is worthwhile depends on how narrowly it was targeted, since a campaign aimed at a few thousand qualifying decision-makers may exhaust its audience well below that figure.
Conclusion
LinkedIn earned Microsoft $19,817 million in fiscal 2026, out-earning the company’s search advertising business while reaching 45.2 million logged-in monthly users in the EU. Those two numbers, plus a derived $9,659 million covering Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions, are close to the full inventory of what primary sources verify about LinkedIn’s advertising business. Everything else commonly published as a LinkedIn benchmark comes from someone’s client list.
The reporting window is also closing. From fiscal 2027, Microsoft folds LinkedIn into two aggregated metrics, so the figures above become the last standalone record. Advertisers comparing networks will have one fewer disclosed line to work from. Campaign teams weighing placement against mobile optimization budgets will still be citing these LinkedIn advertising statistics years from now, because no newer standalone set is coming.
