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What is the minimum budget to run TikTok Ads?

A campaign budget, daily or total, must exceed $50, and an ad group daily budget must exceed $20, according to TikTok Ads Manager help. A 31-day ad group on a lifetime budget needs $20 times 31 days, which is $620. The budget type cannot be changed after the campaign is published.

What is the minimum budget for LinkedIn Ads?

The minimum daily budget is $10 for any ad format, and the minimum lifetime budget for a new, inactive campaign is $100, according to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Once a campaign launches, the lifetime minimum becomes $10 times the days scheduled. LinkedIn suggests $25 a day for new advertisers and $50 to $100 a day for existing advertisers.

What does $5,000 a month buy on each platform?

Under the stated planning assumptions in this playbook, TikTok buys 625,000 impressions, 6,250 clicks and 187.5 leads, producing 6.75 qualified meetings at $740.74 each. LinkedIn buys 138,007 impressions, 532.48 clicks and 53.25 leads, producing 4.47 qualified meetings at $1,117.86 each. TikTok buys 1.51 times as many meetings for the same spend.

Why is LinkedIn cost per lead so much higher than TikTok?

Because the auction prices are far apart: the planning assumptions used here are a $36.23 CPM and $9.39 CPC on LinkedIn against an $8.00 CPM and $0.80 CPC on TikTok. LinkedIn claws some of it back after the click — a 10% click-to-lead rate and 35% lead-to-MQL rate against TikTok 3% and 20% — but the media gap is wider than the funnel gap, so LinkedIn cost per lead lands at $93.90 against TikTok $26.67.

Can a $1,000 monthly budget run on TikTok?

Yes, but only as a lifetime budget or a short flight, not as a daily-budget campaign for a full month. A daily-budget campaign at the $50 floor costs $1,500 over 30 days. A $1,000 lifetime budget clears the $600 minimum for a 30-day ad group, and a 20-day flight at $50 a day costs exactly $1,000. On LinkedIn the same $1,000 is $33.33 a day, above the $10 floor and above the $25 suggested default for new advertisers.

When does LinkedIn beat TikTok on revenue?

When its meetings close better. At a $12,000 deal value and a 20% close rate on TikTok meetings, $5,000 of TikTok spend returns $16,200. LinkedIn must close above 30.18% of its meetings to match that revenue from the same $5,000. If your LinkedIn meetings genuinely close above 30.18%, LinkedIn wins; below that line, TikTok wins on revenue too.

Marketing • 12 min read

TikTok Ads vs LinkedIn Ads for B2B: The Cost, Targeting and Lead-Quality Playbook

TikTok sells cheap attention in a short-form video feed; LinkedIn sells expensive precision by job title and company. Neither publishes an average CPC or CPM, so this playbook prices both from their own published minimums, then works the $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 months with one stated set of planning assumptions and names the close rate where LinkedIn catches up.

By Enow A. Jovial • Published 2026-11-14

TikTok and LinkedIn sell the same outcome — a B2B buyer who books a meeting. TikTok sells cheap attention: short vertical video in a feed built for discovery, priced by an auction where bids are measured in cents per click. LinkedIn sells expensive precision: the same buyer reached by job title, company and seniority, priced by an auction where a single click costs more than a TikTok lunch. Neither publishes an average CPC or CPM, so this playbook prices both from their own published minimums, then works the $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 months with one stated set of planning assumptions.

At the stated assumptions, $5,000 a month buys 6.75 qualified meetings on TikTok at $740.74 each and 4.47 on LinkedIn at $1,117.86 each. TikTok wins on volume and cost per meeting; LinkedIn wins only when its meetings close better — at a $12,000 deal value and a 20% TikTok close rate, LinkedIn must close above 30.18% to match TikTok on revenue. Buy TikTok for reach and volume, LinkedIn for named-account precision — and never judge either on cost per click alone.

What each platform actually sells

Both run second-price auctions, charging for impressions, clicks and, on LinkedIn, message sends. TikTok Ads Manager sells In-Feed Ads in the For You feed, Spark Ads that boost an existing organic post, TopView as the first video on open, plus Catalog Ads, Shop Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads. Its guide puts In-Feed Ads at up to 60 seconds, with 21 to 34 seconds best. LinkedIn Campaign Manager sells Sponsored Content in the feed — single image, video, carousel — Message Ads and Conversation Ads in the inbox, Dynamic Ads, and Text Ads on the desktop right rail. LinkedIn charges per send on Message Ads, per click on action campaigns and per impression on awareness campaigns, and its auction rewards engagement, so an advertiser can win without the highest bid.

The structural difference is targeting. TikTok recommends starting broad: its budgeting page warns that narrow targeting can hurt performance. LinkedIn is built the other way: more than 20 audience attribute categories, including company size, skills, job title and seniority, with location required on every campaign. TikTok finds buyers by interest and behaviour; LinkedIn finds them by the job title on their profile.

TikTok: the published floors, and what they force

TikTok Ads Manager help states the minimums plainly: campaign budgets, daily or total, must exceed $50. Ad group daily budgets must exceed $20, and lifetime budgets are $20 times scheduled days — 31 days is $620. Once published, the budget type cannot be changed, so pick it before launch.

TikTok Ads Manager budget minimums page showing the $50 campaign floor and $20 ad group floor

TikTok also publishes recommendations: a $30 minimum daily ad group budget for web conversion in North America and EMEA, $20 for APAC, and a 7-to-14-day run to read results. Its video guide suggests testing creative variations on $20 to $30 a day, then scaling the strongest performers. Bidding is Lowest Cost, which spends the budget to maximise results, or Cost Cap, which caps the average cost per result.

TopView is the exception to everything cheap about TikTok: the first video on open, a 3-second full-screen takeover with sound on, bought on a CPM basis and available only to qualified customers through a sales representative. TikTok advises booking at least 60 days ahead for campaigns buying 100% of impressions on a chosen date. It is a launch-day instrument, not a lead-generation channel.

LinkedIn: the published floors, and the audience that eats them

LinkedIn states its minimums: the minimum daily budget is $10, for any ad format, and the minimum lifetime budget for a new, inactive campaign is $100. Once it launches, the lifetime minimum becomes $10 times the days scheduled. LinkedIn suggests $25 a day for new advertisers and $50 to $100 for existing ones.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager budget page showing the $10 daily minimum and $100 lifetime minimum

The $10 floor is a technical minimum, not a workable budget: at the planning CPC of $9.39, $10 a day buys about one click a day. Sponsored Content carries Lead Gen Forms, which collect a lead inside LinkedIn. Message Ads bill per send and put one message with one call to action in the inbox; Conversation Ads offer up to five buttons so the recipient picks a path. Dynamic Ads personalise creative from profile data, and Text Ads are the cheapest, lowest-performing format. Every standard format requires a company Page.

One figure in this playbook is not vendor-verified this cycle and is labelled as such: LinkedIn's 300-member audience floor. Current 2026 guides quote LinkedIn's audience-size help page: the minimum audience size for an ad set is 300 member accounts, with 50,000 suggested to drive results and 300,000 for Sponsored Content and Sponsored Messaging. Our editorial analysis could not open that help page directly this cycle, so treat 300 as reported, not verified. A list of 40 companies with two job titles each will often fall below it once location is applied; widen seniority or add industries first.

Neither vendor publishes an average CPC, CPM or CPL, so every rate below is a labelled planning assumption, not a vendor rate. TikTok: $8.00 CPM and $0.80 CPC, inside the $5–$12 CPM and $0.25–$1.50 CPC ranges in 2026 guides. LinkedIn: the Kiin 2026 panel median CPM of $36.23 and the Metadata 2026 benchmark median CPC of $9.39. Re-run the math with your own first-week actuals before scaling.

The decision table

Factor	TikTok Ads	LinkedIn Ads	Authority
Minimum daily	Campaign $50+; ad group $20+	$10, any format	Vendor help pages
Minimum lifetime	Ad group $20 × days (31 days = $620)	$100 new; then $10 × days	Vendor help pages
Billing	CPC, CPM, CPV	CPC, CPM, CPS (Message Ads)	Vendor pages
Planning CPM	$8.00	$36.23	Planning assumption
Planning CPC	$0.80	$9.39	Planning assumption
Worked CPL	$26.67	$93.90	A1–A6
Cost per meeting	$740.74	$1,117.86	A1–A6
Targeting	Interests; broad	20+ attributes; job title, company	Vendor pages
Audience floor	None published	300 members, reported	Reported, not verified

The reproducible math

\text{Impressions} = \frac{\text{Monthly spend}}{\text{CPM}} \times 1,000

\text{Clicks} = \frac{\text{Monthly spend}}{\text{CPC}} = \text{Impressions} \times \text{CTR}

\text{Leads} = \text{Clicks} \times \text{Click-to-lead rate}

\text{CPL} = \frac{\text{Monthly spend}}{\text{Leads}}

\text{Meetings} = \text{Leads} \times \text{Lead-to-MQL} \times \text{MQL-to-SQL} \times \text{SQL-to-meeting}

\text{Cost per meeting} = \frac{\text{Monthly spend}}{\text{Meetings}}

Planning assumptions, used on both sides. TikTok: CPM $8.00, CPC $0.80, implied CTR 1.00% ($8.00 ÷ ($0.80 × 10)); click-to-lead 3%; lead-to-MQL 20%; MQL-to-SQL 30%; SQL-to-meeting 60%. LinkedIn: CPM $36.23, CPC $9.39, implied CTR 0.39% ($36.23 ÷ ($9.39 × 10)); click-to-lead 10% on Lead Gen Forms; lead-to-MQL 35%; MQL-to-SQL 40%; SQL-to-meeting 60%. Deal value $12,000 and close rates are planning assumptions for the revenue examples only.

— A1, TikTok at $1,000 a month: impressions 125,000; clicks 1,250; leads 37.5; CPL $26.67; MQLs 7.5; SQLs 2.25; meetings 1.35; cost per meeting $740.74.

— A2, LinkedIn at $1,000 a month: impressions 27,601; clicks 106.50; leads 10.65; CPL $93.90; MQLs 3.73; SQLs 1.49; meetings 0.89; cost per meeting $1,117.86.

— A3, TikTok at $5,000 a month: impressions 625,000; clicks 6,250; leads 187.5; CPL $26.67; MQLs 37.5; SQLs 11.25; meetings 6.75; cost per meeting $740.74.

— A4, LinkedIn at $5,000 a month: impressions 138,007; clicks 532.48; leads 53.25; CPL $93.90; MQLs 18.64; SQLs 7.46; meetings 4.47; cost per meeting $1,117.86.

— A5, TikTok at $10,000 a month: impressions 1,250,000; clicks 12,500; leads 375; CPL $26.67; MQLs 75; SQLs 22.5; meetings 13.5; cost per meeting $740.74.

— A6, LinkedIn at $10,000 a month: impressions 276,014; clicks 1,064.96; leads 106.50; CPL $93.90; MQLs 37.27; SQLs 14.91; meetings 8.95; cost per meeting $1,117.86.

Reproduction of the worked monthly totals at $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 showing impressions, clicks, leads and meetings on both platforms

— A7, minimum-budget feasibility: a TikTok daily-budget campaign at the $50 floor costs $1,500 over 30 days, so a $1,000 envelope cannot run one for a full month. It fits as a lifetime budget — a 30-day ad group needs $20 times 30, or $600 — or as a 20-day flight at $50 a day. On LinkedIn the same $1,000 is $33.33 a day, above the $10 floor and the $25 suggested default.

— A8, the reach and meeting multiples: $36.23 divided by $8.00 is 4.53, so LinkedIn reach costs 4.53 times TikTok reach. $1,117.86 divided by $740.74 is 1.51, so a LinkedIn meeting costs 1.51 times a TikTok meeting.

— A9, revenue and the break-even close rate: assume a $12,000 deal value and a 20% close rate. At $5,000 a month, TikTok returns 6.75 meetings times 20% times $12,000, which is $16,200, a 3.24 return on ad spend. LinkedIn returns 4.47 meetings times 20% times $12,000, which is $10,734.83, a 2.15 return. For LinkedIn to match $16,200 from 4.47 meetings, each meeting must be worth $3,621.85 — a 30.18% close rate at a $12,000 deal value.

Targeting, formats and the funnel that follows the click

The click is where the platforms stop being comparable and start being complementary. On TikTok the click lands on your page, and the conversion depends on the page. On LinkedIn the click can stay inside the platform: Lead Gen Forms pre-fill profile data, which is why the planning click-to-lead rate here is 10% against TikTok's 3%. That pre-fill is also why LinkedIn leads convert to MQL at 35% in the planning assumptions against TikTok's 20% — the form friction is lower, but the intent signal is weaker, because a member who taps a pre-filled form has not visited your site.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager targeting panel showing job title, company size and seniority filters

Retargeting differs on each side. On TikTok, pools are built from video viewers, engagers and site visitors, and Spark Ads boost the organic post that already earned engagement, keeping its likes and comments as social proof. On LinkedIn, Matched Audiences retarget website visitors through the Insight Tag and upload company or contact lists, with Predictive Audiences expanding a seed list. The CRM must tag the source on every lead.

Operator boundaries matter more than any rate. TikTok is for you when your buyer can be reached by interest; when you can produce short vertical video every two to four weeks; and when your offer converts on a landing page without a sales conversation first. LinkedIn is for you when the buyer is a defined job at defined companies and the deal size justifies a $93.90 cost per lead. TikTok is not for you when the buying committee is twenty named accounts in one region. LinkedIn is not for you when the budget is $1,000 a month and the goal is volume, because $1,000 buys 0.89 meetings at the planning rates.

The failure mode on TikTok is buying cheap clicks and calling them pipeline: 1,250 clicks at $1,000 a month look like success until 37.5 leads become 1.35 meetings. The failure mode on LinkedIn is the mirror image: buying precise clicks at $9.39 each, then discovering the audience was 300 members wide. Both failures share one cause — judging the platform on the metric it makes look good instead of on cost per qualified meeting.

The buying protocol

Name the outcome first — meetings booked, not clicks or leads — and write the deal value and close rate down before spending.
Check the floors: TikTok needs $1,500 a month for a daily-budget campaign or $600 for a 30-day lifetime ad group; LinkedIn needs $300 a month at the $10 floor.
Build the LinkedIn audience first: company list plus job titles, location applied, forecast checked against the 300-member floor.
Launch TikTok with three In-Feed Ads at 21 to 34 seconds, one hook each, broad targeting, Lowest Cost bidding, $30 a day.
Launch LinkedIn with one Sponsored Content ad and a Lead Gen Form, Maximum Delivery bidding, $50 a day, CRM tagging the source on every lead.
Run both for 7 to 14 days, then re-price: replace every planning rate with your actual CPM, CPC and CPL, re-run A1 to A9, and move next month's budget to the lower cost per qualified meeting.

Who should not buy which

A team with $1,000 a month and a named-account list under 300 members should not buy LinkedIn first — the audience will not serve. A team with no video production capacity should not buy TikTok — the two-to-four-week refresh cadence is a staffing commitment, not a suggestion. A team selling a $500 product should not buy LinkedIn Sponsored Content — a $93.90 cost per lead needs a $12,000 deal to survive the funnel. A team selling a $50,000 platform should not judge TikTok by its $26.67 cost per lead alone — the question is whether its meetings close, and the break-even in A9 is 30.18% on the LinkedIn side. A team that cannot tag leads by source in its CRM should buy neither until it can.

Founder & CEO Insight — Enow A. Jovial

"The platforms want you to argue about cost per click. That is the wrong argument. TikTok sells a thousand impressions for $8 and LinkedIn for $36, and both numbers are meaningless until you know what a meeting costs and what it closes at. I have watched teams celebrate a $0.80 click and starve their pipeline, and curse a $9.39 click while it booked the meetings that closed. Price the meeting, measure the close rate, and let the loser go."

— Enow A. Jovial, Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Execution checklist

[x] Name the outcome, deal value and close rate before spending.
[x] Check the floors: TikTok $1,500 daily-budget month or $600 for a 30-day lifetime ad group; LinkedIn $300 floor.
[x] Build the LinkedIn audience first and check it against the 300-member floor.
[x] Launch TikTok with three 21-to-34-second In-Feed Ads on broad targeting.
[x] Launch LinkedIn with one Sponsored Content ad, Lead Gen Form and CRM source tags.
[x] Run 7 to 14 days, re-price with actuals, and move budget to the lower cost per meeting.

Start with the split the math supports: 70% of a $5,000 test on TikTok for volume, 30% on LinkedIn for named-account coverage, then move the whole second month to the lower cost per qualified meeting at your real close rate.