Tracking ROI on LinkedIn automation campaigns can be challenging, but tools like Closely, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and Shield Analytics make it easier to measure success. Whether you’re managing connection requests, follow-ups, or paid ads, these platforms help you monitor key metrics like response rates, meetings booked, and revenue attribution. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Closely: Combines LinkedIn and email tracking with AI-powered personalization starting at $49/month. Best for outreach automation and CRM integration.
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager: Native LinkedIn tool for paid ads, offering demographic insights and conversion tracking with flexible budgets starting at $10/day.
- Shield Analytics: Focuses on social selling metrics like engagement and network growth but lacks transparency in features and pricing.
Choosing the right tool depends on your campaign type and how deeply you need to track performance. Closely is ideal for outreach, Campaign Manager shines for ads, and Shield works for social selling insights.
How To Automate LinkedIn Lead Generation In 2025: Stage 5/7
1. Closely
Closely is a powerful automation platform designed to streamline outreach and deliver detailed analytics tracking. It focuses on LinkedIn automation, offering advanced tools to help businesses measure their prospecting performance with precision.
Key Features
Closely brings automation to the next level with its AI-powered personalization engine, which crafts tailored messages based on prospect data. Its Sales AI agents handle prospect research and engagement, reducing the need for manual work. The platform also features a unified inbox that merges LinkedIn and email replies, making communication easier to manage. Plus, its verified email and phone number finder ensures campaigns are backed by high-quality contact data.
To keep things running smoothly, Closely integrates seamlessly with popular CRM systems. This allows for efficient data flow, accurate revenue tracking, and organized campaign management.
Performance Tracking
When it comes to measuring performance, Closely doesn’t miss a beat. Its advanced analytics and lead scoring tools help businesses identify high-value opportunities, enabling sales teams to focus on prospects most likely to convert. These features ensure that LinkedIn outreach efforts are optimized for maximum return on investment (ROI).
US Localization
Closely is equipped to meet the needs of US-based businesses. It provides 24-hour customer support and assigns a dedicated customer success manager to help teams achieve their goals. The platform also accommodates US-specific formats for phone numbers and addresses and integrates effortlessly with popular US-based CRM systems and marketing tools.
Pricing
Closely offers flexible pricing plans to suit teams of all sizes:
- Starter Plan: $49/month – Includes 1 LinkedIn account and 1,000 credits
- Growth Plan: $127/month – Includes 3 LinkedIn accounts and 3,000 credits
- Essential Plan: $205/month – Includes 5 LinkedIn accounts and 5,000 credits
- Custom Plan: $350/month – Includes 10 LinkedIn accounts with customizable credits
The platform’s credit system is adaptable, allowing teams to allocate credits for various tasks like emails, phone number lookups, or AI-driven personalizations. This flexibility ensures businesses can tailor their outreach efforts to meet specific campaign needs.
Up next, let’s dive into LinkedIn Campaign Manager and how it tracks ROI.
2. LinkedIn Campaign Manager
LinkedIn Campaign Manager is LinkedIn’s built-in tool for managing and analyzing paid campaigns. While it’s primarily geared toward sponsored content and advertisements, it provides insights that can enhance your automated campaign tracking. This platform not only helps scale your advertising efforts but also provides valuable data to refine your overall strategy.
Key Features
The Campaign Dashboard delivers real-time performance data, making it easy to monitor and adjust your campaigns. The Audience Insights feature breaks down demographics like job title, industry, company size, and location, giving you a clear picture of who’s engaging with your content.
Conversion Tracking is another standout feature. By integrating the LinkedIn Insight Tag, you can track critical actions – such as form submissions, downloads, or purchases – across every stage of your sales funnel.
With A/B Testing, you can compare different ad variations to see which one resonates most with your audience. The platform automatically divides your audience for testing, helping you refine your messaging to achieve better results.
These features complement AI-driven automation by identifying the metrics that matter most for improving ROI.
Supported Metrics
LinkedIn Campaign Manager tracks a variety of metrics that directly impact your campaign’s success. CTR (click-through rate) measures how engaging your content is, while CPC (cost per click) highlights the cost of acquiring traffic. The platform also calculates CPL (cost per lead) and cost per conversion, offering a clear view of your campaign’s profitability.
Engagement metrics like likes, comments, shares, and follows provide a deeper understanding of how your audience interacts with your content. For video campaigns, video completion rates measure viewer engagement, while form completion rates track the effectiveness of lead generation efforts.
The tool also offers conversion value tracking, assigning dollar values to different actions. This feature helps identify which campaigns are driving the most valuable leads and customers, making it easier to allocate your budget effectively.
US Localization
LinkedIn Campaign Manager is tailored to meet the needs of US businesses with features like localized targeting, including US-specific job titles, industries, and company categories. Costs are displayed in US dollars, and support is available during US business hours.
The platform integrates seamlessly with popular US-based marketing tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Marketo. It also supports US phone number formats in lead forms and offers state-specific targeting for businesses focused on particular regions.
Additionally, tax reporting features are designed to meet US business requirements, simplifying expense tracking and tax preparation for advertising budgets.
Pricing
LinkedIn Campaign Manager uses a bidding system instead of fixed fees, giving you control over your spending. You can set daily or total budgets, with a minimum daily budget starting at $10.00. The platform offers flexible bidding strategies, such as cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM), and cost per send (CPS) for Message Ads.
Here’s a breakdown of typical costs:
- Sponsored Content campaigns: CPC rates range from $2.00 to $7.00, depending on your audience and industry competition.
- Message Ads: Costs typically fall between $0.20 to $0.80 per send.
- Dynamic Ads: These use a CPM model, with rates averaging $6.00 to $12.00 per 1,000 impressions.
There are no setup fees or long-term commitments, giving you the flexibility to start, stop, or adjust campaigns as needed. This makes it easy to scale up successful campaigns or pause underperforming ones without incurring penalties.
Next, we’ll take a closer look at Shield Analytics to further refine your performance tracking.
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3. Shield Analytics
Shield Analytics builds on the data insights provided by LinkedIn Campaign Manager, but it takes a more focused approach, zeroing in on social selling and outreach. This LinkedIn analytics tool is designed to help users assess how effective their LinkedIn activities are by tracking metrics like engagement, network growth, and how social interactions contribute to business results.
While Shield Analytics does track content performance and connection metrics, its publicly available documentation is fairly limited. Unlike platforms that offer extensive guides and integrated metrics, Shield Analytics keeps its focus on a narrower range of indicators. For the most accurate and up-to-date information – including details about dashboards, metric definitions, lead attribution, and subscription plans – you’ll need to visit its official website.
One notable gap in the documentation is how Shield Analytics addresses U.S. localization needs. It doesn’t specify whether it supports regional settings like U.S. currency formats, date and time conventions, or other localized preferences. If these features are critical for your workflow, it’s worth confirming directly with Shield Analytics.
Tool Comparison: Strengths and Weaknesses
After diving into the detailed reviews, here’s a side-by-side look at how these tools stack up. When you’re choosing a LinkedIn analytics tool for your automation campaigns, understanding each platform’s perks and drawbacks is key. These differences can directly influence how well you track and act on ROI. Below is a table summarizing the main strengths and weaknesses of each tool when it comes to LinkedIn automation.
| Tool | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| Closely | • Affordable automation starting at $49/month • Combines LinkedIn and email tracking in one dashboard • AI-powered personalization with performance insights • White-label options included in all plans • 24/7 support, plus a customer success manager |
• Credit-based plans may require upgrades for handling high-volume campaigns |
| LinkedIn Campaign Manager | • Native LinkedIn integration with real-time data • Basic analytics included at no extra cost • Offers demographic and engagement insights • Data comes directly from LinkedIn • Familiar interface for LinkedIn advertisers |
• Limited to paid ad campaigns • No automation for outreach sequences • Basic ROI tracking without advanced attribution tools • Lacks message personalization features |
| Shield Analytics | • Focuses on social selling metrics • Tracks network growth and engagement • Links social interactions to business outcomes |
• Sparse public documentation and unclear features • Narrow focus may miss broader campaign data • Pricing structure is not transparent • Detailed feature access requires direct inquiry |
Pricing and Usability
Pricing transparency varies widely. Closely starts at $49/month, making it a budget-friendly choice for small and medium-sized businesses. LinkedIn Campaign Manager offers basic analytics for free, though deeper insights depend on your ad spend. Shield Analytics, on the other hand, doesn’t disclose pricing upfront, which can complicate budget planning.
When it comes to ease of use, LinkedIn Campaign Manager stands out for its familiarity, especially for existing LinkedIn advertisers. However, it lacks automation features that can simplify campaign management. Closely combines automation and analytics in a single platform, requiring only a brief setup. Shield Analytics may pose challenges for some users due to limited documentation and less detailed explanations of its features.
Data Coverage and Integration
Data coverage is another key differentiator. Closely provides end-to-end visibility, from outreach to conversions, making ROI calculations more straightforward. LinkedIn Campaign Manager excels in demographic insights but focuses solely on paid campaigns. Shield Analytics specializes in social selling metrics, which might not capture the full impact of your efforts.
Integration capabilities also vary across the tools. Closely supports unlimited email accounts and CRM integrations, making it ideal for complex sales funnels. LinkedIn Campaign Manager, while seamlessly integrated into the LinkedIn ecosystem, often requires additional tools for multi-channel campaigns. Shield Analytics doesn’t clearly outline its integration options, which could limit its flexibility within a broader marketing strategy.
Localization for US Businesses
For US-based businesses, localization is crucial. Both Closely and LinkedIn Campaign Manager are well-suited for US users. However, Shield Analytics doesn’t specify its localization capabilities, which could lead to inconsistencies in data reporting and interpretation.
These insights can help you refine your strategy and zero in on the tool that best fits your needs.
Conclusion
When selecting a LinkedIn analytics tool, focus on one that matches your ROI objectives and simplifies your workflow. Tools like Closely, which combine automation, analytics, and AI-driven personalization into a single dashboard, can be particularly effective for businesses in the U.S.
Closely offers features that streamline prospecting and conversions while delivering actionable insights. Its Starter plan is competitively priced at $49/month, making it an accessible option for many.
Tracking data across every stage of your campaigns is crucial for understanding and improving ROI. Look for tools that provide clear interfaces, transparent pricing, and dependable support to ensure you have consistent, data-driven insights at your fingertips.
The ideal tool will seamlessly integrate into your process, blending automation with in-depth performance tracking to enhance your LinkedIn outreach and deliver measurable results.
FAQs
How does Closely’s AI-powered personalization improve LinkedIn outreach campaigns?
Closely uses AI-driven personalization to craft tailored messages for your LinkedIn outreach, helping make your campaigns more engaging and impactful. By analyzing profile data, it streamlines the process of customizing messages for each prospect, ensuring they feel relevant and increasing the likelihood of a response.
This efficient method not only saves you time but also improves conversion rates by delivering content that truly connects with your audience. With Closely, building meaningful connections and achieving better outcomes from your LinkedIn campaigns becomes a seamless process.
What are the key metrics to focus on when evaluating the performance of LinkedIn paid ads using Campaign Manager?
When assessing how well your LinkedIn paid ads are performing in Campaign Manager, it’s important to zero in on metrics that offer meaningful insights. Start with the click-through rate (CTR) – this tells you how engaging your ad is by showing the percentage of people who clicked on it after seeing it. Another key metric is conversions, which reveal how effectively your ad is driving specific actions, like form submissions or content downloads.
You’ll also want to keep an eye on cost per click (CPC) to see how efficiently you’re spending your budget and return on ad spend (ROAS) to measure the profitability of your campaigns. By tracking these metrics, you can fine-tune your approach and get the most out of your LinkedIn advertising efforts.
Why might Shield Analytics not be ideal for tracking all LinkedIn campaign data?
When it comes to tracking LinkedIn campaign data, Shield Analytics has a notable limitation: it only starts gathering data from the moment you begin using the tool. In other words, any historical data from before you started using Shield won’t be available. This could make it harder to assess long-term trends or evaluate the performance of past campaigns.