LinkedIn Offline Conversions API
Overview
Section titled “Overview”LinkedIn Offline Conversions API reports conversions that happened away from your website, so LinkedIn campaigns can be measured against outcomes recorded in your own systems.
For most LinkedIn advertisers that means a meeting held, a call taken, a demo booked or an opportunity marked won in a CRM, rather than a purchase in a shop. Signals reads the outcome from the source and reports it against the conversion rule you map it to.
Choose LinkedIn Leads Conversions API instead when the conversion is a status change on a lead captured through a LinkedIn lead form.
Supported sources
Section titled “Supported sources”Sources supported by LinkedIn Offline Conversions API
| Category | Supported |
|---|---|
| API | |
| CRM | |
| Database | |
| File & storage | |
| Warehouse |
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”Before connecting LinkedIn Offline Conversions API, make sure you have:
- A LinkedIn Ads account.
- A LinkedIn Business Manager account with access to that ad account.
- Conversion rules already created in LinkedIn Campaign Manager for the conversions you intend to report. Studio maps to them; it does not create them.
- A Datahash Studio account with the target project selected.
- A source connected in the same project holding the offline conversion data.
Authentication
Section titled “Authentication”In Studio, open Destinations, find LinkedIn, and click the Offline Conversions 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.
- Click Sign in with LinkedIn.
- Sign in with an account that has access to the ad account you intend to use.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”Account selection
Section titled “Account selection”- Select the Ad account you want to send to from the dropdown.
- Click Next.
Event mapping
Section titled “Event mapping”- Map the Source Event Name, which is the event name set up when the source was integrated with Datahash, to the CAPI Conversion Rule you created in LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
- Add further events with the plus icon.
- Click Finish.
The properties sent with each event have to satisfy the requirements of the conversion rule you mapped it to. A rule expecting a value will not accept an event that carries none.
Conversion rules
Section titled “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
Section titled “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
Section titled “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
Section titled “Required”| Field | When it is required |
|---|---|
| Event time | Always. |
| Event name | Always. It is the value mapped to a conversion rule during setup. |
| Last modified date | Always. |
| Email address | Always. One address per person. Hashed. |
Optional
Section titled “Optional”| Field | Format |
|---|---|
| Job title | Not hashed. |
| Company name | Not hashed. |
| External ID | A unique ID of your own, such as a CRM record ID. Not hashed, so send the same raw value on every event for that person. |
| Value | Send where the conversion has a revenue figure attached. |
LinkedIn Offline Conversions matches on a single email address. It does not accept a phone number, and it does not use name, date of birth or address fields. What it does accept, and no other offline destination does, is job title and company name, which reflects how LinkedIn identifies people.
That makes email quality the whole game here. There is no second identifier to fall back on if the address is wrong or missing.
Best practices
Section titled “Best practices”- Treat email as the only identifier, because it is. Clean it at source, lowercase it, and check for typos before it is hashed.
- Send job title and company name where you hold them. They are specific to this destination and unusual enough to be easy to overlook.
- Create the conversion rules in Campaign Manager before you start the setup, or the mapping step will stop you part way through.
- Map one source event to one conversion rule, so the reporting stays readable.
- Send only the outcomes worth optimizing towards rather than every stage a record passes through.
- Verify in Campaign Manager under Analyze, then Conversion Tracking, against the rule you mapped.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
Section titled “Troubleshooting & FAQ”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.
Match rates are low. Email is the only identifier this destination accepts, so a low rate almost always means missing or malformed addresses at source. Adding other fields will not help.
No conversions appearing. Confirm the mapping was finished rather than left open, and that the source is connected in the same project and sending.
Events are rejected. The properties sent do not satisfy the mapped conversion rule. A rule defined with a value expects one on every event.
Duplicate conversions. Usually a replayed batch after a failed delivery, or a record whose event name was reported twice.
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.