LinkedIn Ads Targeting by Job Function
Target entire departments — not just specific titles — to reach every relevant person in the buying committee.
What is Job Functions targeting on LinkedIn?
Job function targeting on LinkedIn lets you reach people based on the broad functional area they work in — Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Finance, Operations, and so on. Unlike job title targeting, which requires you to manually build a list of every relevant title, job function targeting automatically groups all titles within a department into a single selectable audience. This makes it the most efficient way to reach entire departments at scale, and it is the targeting dimension most B2B SaaS advertisers should start with before layering on additional filters.
How job functions targeting works
Members do not select their job function on LinkedIn. Instead, LinkedIn's algorithm infers it from the member's current job title using natural language processing. A person with the title "Senior Marketing Manager" is automatically classified under the "Marketing" function. A "Sales Development Representative" is classified under "Sales." The inference is generally accurate for titles with clear functional keywords, but can struggle with ambiguous or cross-functional titles — a "Growth Manager" might be classified under Marketing, Sales, or Business Development depending on the other signals the algorithm picks up.
Campaign Manager provides approximately 26 job function categories, including Accounting, Administrative, Arts and Design, Business Development, Community and Social Services, Consulting, Education, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Healthcare Services, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Marketing, Media and Communications, Military and Protective Services, Operations, Product Management, Program and Project Management, Purchasing, Quality Assurance, Real Estate, Research, Sales, and Support. These are fixed categories — you cannot create custom functions. The granularity is moderate: there is no separate function for "Revenue Operations" or "Customer Success," so people in these roles are distributed across related functions.
Think of job function as sitting between seniority (which is very broad — all Directors regardless of department) and job title (which is very narrow — only "Demand Generation Manager"). Job function gives you everyone in a department regardless of their specific title or seniority. This means selecting the "Marketing" function includes the CMO, the Marketing Director, the Content Marketing Specialist, the Marketing Coordinator, and the Marketing Intern. It is a wide net within a specific functional area.
Effective targeting combinations
This is the foundational combination for B2B LinkedIn campaigns and the one you should test first before trying anything more complex. Select the job function that matches your buyer's department and add seniority levels that match their authority. For a B2B SaaS product sold to marketing leaders: "Marketing" function + "Director" and "VP" seniority. This single combination creates a clean, scalable audience that requires no title list maintenance and automatically includes new marketing leader titles as they emerge in LinkedIn's taxonomy. Add company size as a third layer to complete your core targeting.
When your product is vertical-specific and relevant to an entire department, combine job function with industry. Targeting the "Finance" function in the "Healthcare" industry reaches all finance professionals at healthcare companies — from the CFO to the Accounts Payable Specialist. This is a powerful setup for vertical SaaS products or industry-specific solutions where anyone in the target department might be an influencer or user. Add seniority as a third layer if you want to focus on decision-makers rather than the entire department.
This combination is an advanced technique for advertisers who want comprehensive coverage with a precision overlay. Start with a broad job function targeting campaign to capture every relevant person in the department. Then run a second campaign targeting specific high-value job titles within that function. The function campaign provides broad coverage and catches titles you might miss. The title campaign lets you bid more aggressively and write hyper-specific copy for your most important buyer title. Exclude the specific titles from the function campaign to avoid overlap and run both simultaneously.
- Start with Job Function and Add Seniority as Your Primary Targeting Approach: For most B2B SaaS campaigns, the best starting point is Job Function + Seniority. This combination gives you everyone in the right department at the right authority level — without requiring you to build and maintain an exhaustive list of job titles. Targeting the "Marketing" function at "Director" and "VP" seniority captures every marketing leader regardless of whether their title is "Director of Marketing," "Director of Demand Generation," "VP of Growth," or "Head of Brand." You get comprehensive coverage of the buying committee with minimal setup effort.
- Use Job Function When Your Buyer Persona Spans Many Titles: Job function targeting shines when your product is relevant to an entire department rather than a specific role. If you sell a project management tool, your buyer could be anyone in "Product Management," "Program and Project Management," or "Engineering" — titles ranging from "Product Manager" to "Engineering Director" to "Scrum Master" to "Technical Program Manager." Listing all possible titles would take hours and you would inevitably miss some. Job function captures them all in one click and ensures your targeting stays current as new titles emerge.
- Watch for Cross-Functional Title Misclassification: Some roles sit at the intersection of multiple functions, and LinkedIn can only assign one. "Sales Operations Manager" might be classified under Sales or Operations. "Marketing Analytics Manager" might appear under Marketing or under a data-related function. If you are targeting a cross-functional role, consider selecting multiple related functions to avoid missing people who were classified under the adjacent function. Check audience size estimates as you add functions to gauge how much incremental reach each one provides.
- Use Job Function Exclusions to Remove Noise from Broad Campaigns: If you are running a broad campaign using company-level targeting (industry + company size) and want to remove irrelevant roles, job function exclusions are more efficient than trying to list every irrelevant title. Instead of excluding hundreds of individual titles, exclude entire functions. If you sell to marketing teams, exclude functions like "Administrative," "Legal," "Healthcare Services," and "Military and Protective Services" to ensure your budget is not wasted on people who will never buy your product.
Common mistakes to avoid
Confusing Job Function with Job Title Targeting
New advertisers sometimes select a job function thinking they are targeting specific titles, or vice versa. These are fundamentally different dimensions. Job function is a broad category (all of "Marketing"), while job title is a specific role ("Content Marketing Manager"). If you target the "Marketing" function without seniority filters, you will reach every person in every marketing role at every level — from the CMO to the summer intern. This produces a massive, unfocused audience. Always combine job function with seniority to control who within the function you actually reach.
Selecting Too Many Functions in One Campaign
Some advertisers select 5-8 job functions in a single campaign to maximize reach. This defeats the purpose of function-based targeting. If you select Marketing, Sales, Finance, Operations, and IT, you are essentially targeting half the professional world. The resulting audience is so broad that you cannot write relevant ad copy — what message resonates with both a Marketing VP and an IT Director? Limit each campaign to 1-2 closely related functions and write copy that speaks specifically to their concerns. If you need to reach multiple functions, create separate campaigns for each.
Not Accounting for Emerging Roles That Lack Clear Function Mapping
LinkedIn's ~26 job functions were defined years ago and do not always map cleanly to modern organizational structures. There is no job function for "Revenue Operations," "Customer Success," "Growth," or "People Operations" — roles that have exploded in B2B SaaS. People in these roles are scattered across adjacent functions: RevOps might be under Sales or Operations, Customer Success might be under Support or Sales, Growth might be under Marketing or Business Development. If your ICP includes these modern roles, job function targeting alone will miss or misclassify a significant portion of your audience. Supplement with skills or job title targeting for these roles.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between job function and job title targeting on LinkedIn?
Job function is a broad category like "Marketing" or "Sales" that groups all roles within a department, regardless of specific title or seniority. Job title targeting lets you select specific roles like "Marketing Manager" or "VP of Sales." The key tradeoff is reach versus precision. Job function gives you comprehensive coverage of an entire department with minimal setup — but includes people at every level. Job title gives you precise control over exactly which roles you target — but requires manually building and maintaining a title list, and you will inevitably miss some relevant titles. For most B2B campaigns, start with job function plus seniority, then test job title targeting as a refinement.
Can someone be classified under multiple job functions on LinkedIn?
No. LinkedIn assigns each member to a single primary job function based on their current job title. This means cross-functional roles are forced into one category. A "Marketing Operations Manager" is classified under either Marketing or Operations — not both. For advertisers, this means targeting a single job function will inherently miss some people whose role spans multiple functions. If your buyer persona is cross-functional, select 2-3 related functions to improve coverage. Alternatively, use skills or job title targeting to catch the people who were classified under the wrong adjacent function.
How does LinkedIn assign job functions to new or non-standard roles?
LinkedIn uses a machine learning model that maps job titles to functions based on keyword analysis and contextual signals. For standard titles with clear functional keywords ("Sales Director" maps to Sales, "Software Engineer" maps to Engineering), the mapping is accurate and fast. For new or non-standard titles, the model makes its best guess based on the words in the title and how similar titles have been classified historically. Very new roles like "AI Ethics Officer" or "Head of Web3" may take time to be accurately classified, and early classifications might change as LinkedIn gathers more data. If you are targeting people in very new roles, check back periodically to see if the function mapping has improved.