LinkedIn Leads Conversions API

Overview

Signals sends updated lead information back to LinkedIn, so campaigns running against LinkedIn lead forms can optimize towards leads that became qualified rather than towards raw form fills.

Use it when a lead is captured in a LinkedIn lead form and its outcome is recorded somewhere else: a CRM, a file drop, a database or a warehouse. Signals reads the lead status from that system and reports it against the conversion rule you map it to.

Choose LinkedIn Offline Conversions API instead when the conversion is an outcome recorded against a customer rather than a status change on a LinkedIn lead.

Platform documentationLinkedIn Conversions API reference

Supported sources

Sources supported by LinkedIn Leads Conversions API

Category	Supported
API	Datahash API
CRM	ActiveCampaign Agile Apptivo Attio Bexio Bitrix24 Capsule Close Coevera Copper Freshsales HubSpot Insightly Kommo LeadSquared Microsoft Dynamics Monday Odoo Pipedrive Salesforce VTiger Zoho
Database	Apache Cassandra ClickHouse CockroachDB Couchbase CouchDB IBM DB2 MariaDB Microsoft SQL Server MongoDB MySQL Oracle PostgreSQL
File & storage	Files - AWS S3 Files - GCP Files - FTP Google Drive Microsoft OneDrive Dropbox Filebase BackBlaze Cloudian DigitalOcean Linode MinIO OVHcloud Tencent Vultr Wasabi
Warehouse	Amazon Redshift Google BigQuery Snowflake

Prerequisites

Before connecting LinkedIn Leads Conversions API, make sure you have:

• A LinkedIn Ads account.
• A LinkedIn Business Manager account with access to that ad account.
• Leads whose LinkedIn lead ID is stored in your CRM or other source system. Without it an update cannot be tied back to the original form submission.
• Conversion rules already created in LinkedIn Campaign Manager for the lead stages you intend to report.
• A Datahash Studio account with the target project selected.
• A source connected in the same project holding the lead status data.

Authentication

In Studio, open Destinations, find LinkedIn, and click the Leads Conversions API tile. This connector uses single sign-on only. There is no manual credentials path, so there is no token for you to generate or rotate.

1. Click Sign in with LinkedIn.
2. Sign in with an account that has access to the ad account you intend to use.

Configuration

Account selection

1. Select the Ad account you want to send to from the dropdown.
2. Click Next.

Event mapping

1. Map the Source Event Name, which is the lead status set up when the source was integrated with Datahash, to the CAPI Conversion Rule you created in LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
2. Add further lead stages with the plus icon.
3. Click Finish.

One conversion rule per lead stage is the pattern that reports cleanly. Mapping several stages to one rule makes it impossible to tell afterwards which stage the optimization was learning from.

Conversion rules

Conversion rules are created in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, not in Studio. If the rule you need is not in the dropdown, create it first and then reopen this step.

In Campaign Manager, switch to the right ad account using the account name dropdown in the left navigation, open Analyze and then Conversion Tracking, click Create conversion and choose Conversions API. Set the conversion name, key behavior and value, choose Direct API as the source, then associate the conversion with the campaigns you want it to inform.

Manage instance

To add another, open Manage Connections and click Add Instance, then work through the same steps.

To change one, click the instance name and then the edit icon in the top right. Update the fields and click Finish. Clicking Cancel keeps the previous configuration active; updates apply only after you finish.

Data & identifiers

Signals sends the fields your source maps. Send identifiers already hashed where you can. Plain text also works: they are normalized and SHA-256 hashed before they reach LinkedIn.

Required

Field	When it is required
LinkedIn lead ID	Always. The ID LinkedIn generated when the lead form was submitted. It is what ties an update to the original lead.
Email address	Always. The address associated with that lead. Hashed.
Event time	Always.
Event name	Always. The lead status, for example Interested.
Last modified date	Always. The time the lead status changed. It is what separates one status change from the next on the same record.

Optional

Field	Format
Currency	Three-letter ISO currency code. Required with purchase events only.
Value	A number. Required with purchase events only.

This is the shortest specification of any destination in Signals: five required fields and two optional ones. There is no phone number, no name, no address, and no recommended tier to improve matching with. The lead ID and email do all the work, which is why both are required rather than one or the other.

Best practices

• Make sure the LinkedIn lead ID is populated on every record before you go live. It is the one field that cannot be substituted, and there is no second identifier to fall back on.
• Send the email address that LinkedIn captured on the form rather than one a salesperson typed in later. A corrected address will not match.
• Check that the last modified date actually updates when a record changes, since it is what distinguishes one status change from the next.
• Create one conversion rule per lead stage in Campaign Manager, and map them one to one.
• Send only the stages worth optimizing towards. Reporting every status change dilutes the signal LinkedIn learns from.
• Keep re-syncs and backfills deliberate. A replayed batch reports the same status changes a second time.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Leads rejected or unmatched. The LinkedIn lead ID is missing, or the email does not match the one captured on the form. Both are required and neither substitutes for the other.

The conversion rule dropdown is empty. No Conversions API rule exists on that ad account. Create one in Campaign Manager with Direct API as the source, then reopen the mapping step.

No events appearing. Confirm the mapping was finished rather than left open, and that the source is connected in the same project and sending.

All stages report against one rule. Several source event names were mapped to the same conversion rule. Split them so each stage has its own.

Duplicate conversions. Usually a replayed batch, or a lead returning to a status it already reported.

Delivery stopped. The sign-in grant may have been revoked, or the account’s access to the ad account removed. Reconnect through Sign in with LinkedIn.