LinkedIn Ads

The LinkedIn Ads source reads daily campaign analytics from the LinkedIn Marketing API, plus the current list of ad accounts, campaign groups, campaigns, and creatives for one ad account. Use it to report LinkedIn spend and results next to your other paid channels in your own warehouse.

Skippr, your data department

Speak to an expert. Upfront insights in days, not months.

Book an intro call →

20 minutes · No sales pitch

Before you begin

You need a LinkedIn developer app with Advertising API access, a token for a user who can read the ad account, the ad account ID, and a destination that can rewrite daily partitions.

1. Create an app. In the LinkedIn Developer Portal, create an app linked to your company page. Under Products, request Advertising API access and wait for approval.
2. Get a token. Use the portal's OAuth 2.0 tools (or your own OAuth flow) to generate an access token with the r_ads and r_ads_reporting scopes, signed in as a user with at least Viewer access to the ad account in Campaign Manager. Access tokens last about 60 days. If LinkedIn has enabled refresh tokens for your app, also keep the refresh token, client ID, and client secret so Skipprd can renew the token itself.
3. Find the ad account ID. In Campaign Manager, the account ID is the number in the account list and in the URL. Both 123456789 and urn:li:sponsoredAccount:123456789 work.
4. Set up a destination. The analytics stream is rewritten one day at a time, so the destination must support partition replacement: Athena, Athena Iceberg, or SkipprLake. The examples below assume a data sink named lake already exists in skippr.yml.

export LINKEDIN_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN="your-access-token"

Configure

Python

from skippr import Config, DataSourceLinkedInAds, EnvRef, Pipeline

cfg = Config.discover()
src = cfg.data_source(
    "linkedin_ads",
    DataSourceLinkedInAds(
        ad_account_id="123456789",
        start_date="2026-01-01",
        access_token=EnvRef("LINKEDIN_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN"),
    ),
)
cfg.pipeline("linkedin_ads", Pipeline(data_source=src, data_sink=cfg.get_data_sink("lake")))
cfg.save()

CLI

skipprd connect data-source linked-in-ads \
  --pipeline linkedin_ads \
  --name linkedin_ads \
  --ad-account-id 123456789 \
  --start-date 2026-01-01 \
  --access-token '${LINKEDIN_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN}'

YAML

pipelines:
  linkedin_ads:
    data_source: data_sources.linkedin_ads
    data_sink: data_sinks.lake

data_sources:
  linkedin_ads:
    LinkedInAds:
      ad_account_id: "123456789"
      start_date: "2026-01-01"
      access_token: ${LINKEDIN_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN}

The CLI subcommand is linked-in-ads and the YAML kind is LinkedInAds. To let Skipprd renew tokens, replace access_token with oauth_token_url: https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken, oauth_client_id, oauth_client_secret, and oauth_refresh_token.

With the CLI, wire the lake destination into the same pipeline with skipprd connect data-sink … --pipeline linkedin_ads if it is not there already.

Check it worked

skipprd discover --pipeline linkedin_ads
skipprd sync --pipeline linkedin_ads --once

Then query linkedin_ads_ad_analytics_daily in your destination. You should see one row per campaign per day from start_date through yesterday.

Options

Key	Type	Default	Description
ad_account_id	string	Required	Campaign Manager ad account ID, with or without the urn:li:sponsoredAccount: prefix.
start_date	string	Required	First report day, YYYY-MM-DD.
access_token	secret	—	Bearer token with r_ads and r_ads_reporting. Used before OAuth refresh.
oauth_token_url	string	—	Token endpoint, https://www.linkedin.com/oauth/v2/accessToken.
oauth_client_id	string	—	App client ID.
oauth_client_secret	secret	—	App client secret.
oauth_refresh_token	secret	—	Refresh token.
rest_version	string	202411	LinkedIn API version, sent as the LinkedIn-Version header (YYYYMM).
api_version	string	—	Older name for rest_version. Used only when rest_version is not set.
end_date	string	—	Last report day, YYYY-MM-DD. Without it, Skipprd syncs through yesterday.
lookback_days	integer	3	Days before the last completed day to fetch again on every sync, so late conversions land.
processing_lag_days	integer	1	Never sync days more recent than this many days ago.
stream_profile	string	full	Which streams to sync: minimal, standard, or full.
streams	list of strings	—	Exact stream names to sync. Overrides stream_profile.

If you set any oauth_* field you must set all four. Secret fields only accept ${NAME} environment references (EnvRef("NAME") in Python).

What gets synced

Each stream lands as its own table named after the stream, with the dot replaced by an underscore.

Stream	Table	One row per	Profiles
linkedin_ads.ad_analytics_daily	linkedin_ads_ad_analytics_daily	campaign per day	minimal, standard, full
linkedin_ads.ad_accounts	linkedin_ads_ad_accounts	active, draft, or paused ad account the token can see	standard, full
linkedin_ads.campaign_groups	linkedin_ads_campaign_groups	campaign group in the ad account	standard, full
linkedin_ads.campaigns	linkedin_ads_campaigns	campaign in the ad account	standard, full
linkedin_ads.creatives	linkedin_ads_creatives	creative in the ad account	full

ad_analytics_daily rows have account_urn, date, pivot_value and campaign_urn (the campaign), and the metrics LinkedIn returns. When LinkedIn returns costInUsd, Skipprd also writes it as spend. Listing rows keep LinkedIn's fields and add account_urn and the entity's URN column (campaign_urn, creative_urn, and so on).

Report window. The first sync requests each day from start_date to yesterday, one request per day. Each later sync starts again at the last completed day minus lookback_days and rewrites those days in full. LinkedIn attributes conversions back to the click or view, so raise lookback_days to your conversion window if you need final numbers.

Listings. The account, campaign group, campaign, and creative streams read the current list on every sync and are written append-only, with no date column. Deduplicate on the URN column in your warehouse if you need one row per entity.

Discover. skipprd discover reads only ad_analytics_daily and does not save progress. It still starts at start_date, so keep start_date recent if you want a fast first discover.

Rate limits. LinkedIn sets daily request limits per app. Skipprd retries rate-limit (429) and server (5xx) responses with exponential backoff, up to 8 attempts per request. It honours Retry-After, waits 30 seconds on a 429 without one, and never waits more than 2 minutes between attempts.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
LinkedIn Ads requires access_token, LINKEDIN_ADS_ACCESS_TOKEN, or OAuth refresh credentials	No token is set, or its environment variable is empty.	Export the token in the shell or service that runs Skipprd.
LinkedIn Ads OAuth refresh requires oauth_token_url, oauth_client_id, oauth_client_secret, and oauth_refresh_token	Only some OAuth fields are set.	Set all four, or remove them and use access_token.
HTTP 401	The access token expired (after about 60 days) or was revoked.	Generate a new token, or configure OAuth refresh.
HTTP 403	The app lacks Advertising API access, the token lacks r_ads_reporting, or the user cannot see the ad account.	Check the app's products, the token's scopes, and the user's role in Campaign Manager.
HTTP 426 or an error about the version	LinkedIn retires each monthly API version about a year after release.	Set rest_version to a current YYYYMM version.
Duplicate campaigns or creatives in listing tables	Listings are appended on every sync.	Expected. Deduplicate on the URN column.
sink '…' does not support write policy ReplacePartition	The destination cannot rewrite daily partitions.	Use Athena, Athena Iceberg, or SkipprLake as the destination.

Next steps

• How sources land explains partition replacement and append-only listings.
• Google Ads and Meta Ads add your other paid channels.
• skipprd sync covers scheduling and continuous mode.