Bid Pricing & Forecasts

When you finish this page you know what to bid, which daily budget LinkedIn accepts, and how many impressions, clicks and spend a targeting spec should deliver, before creating anything. Both endpoints take the same spec targeting object as Estimate audience reach. Non-LinkedIn accounts return {"available": false} at HTTP 200, so a multi-platform UI can call them unconditionally.

Suggested bid and budget bounds

Call POST /v1/ads/targeting/bid-pricing with accountId, adAccountId, spec and the campaign type. It answers "what should I bid, and what budget does LinkedIn accept" for that targeting.

import Zernio from '@zernio/node';

const zernio = new Zernio();

const { data: pricing } = await zernio.adtargeting.getLinkedInBidPricing({
  body: {
    accountId: '66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d',
    adAccountId: '517258773',
    spec: { countries: ['US'] },
    campaignType: 'SPONSORED_UPDATES',
    bidType: 'CPM',
    currency: 'USD',
    objectiveType: 'WEBSITE_VISIT',
    dailyBudget: 50
  }
});

console.log(pricing.pricing.suggestedBid.default.amount);

Response (200), every amount a decimal string with its currency:

{
  "available": true,
  "pricing": {
    "bidLimits": {
      "min": { "amount": "8.52", "currencyCode": "USD" },
      "max": { "amount": "88.59", "currencyCode": "USD" }
    },
    "suggestedBid": {
      "min": { "amount": "22.10", "currencyCode": "USD" },
      "default": { "amount": "31.47", "currencyCode": "USD" },
      "max": { "amount": "41.20", "currencyCode": "USD" }
    },
    "dailyBudgetLimits": {
      "min": { "amount": "10.00", "currencyCode": "USD" },
      "default": { "amount": "50.00", "currencyCode": "USD" },
      "max": { "amount": "100000.00", "currencyCode": "USD" }
    }
  }
}

Pick a unitCost inside bidLimits, and warn the user when their daily budget sits below dailyBudgetLimits.min, the account-and-targeting-specific version of LinkedIn's flat $10/day minimum. campaignType defaults to SPONSORED_UPDATES, bidType to CPM, matchType to EXACT and currency to USD.

Impressions, clicks and spend forecast

Call POST /v1/ads/targeting/supply-forecast with the same spec, a future window and a budget. It projects delivery over that window.

curl -X POST "https://zernio.com/api/v1/ads/targeting/supply-forecast" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ZERNIO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "accountId": "66b2e19d8c3f5a7e9d0b1c2d",
    "adAccountId": "517258773",
    "spec": { "countries": ["US"] },
    "campaignType": "SPONSORED_UPDATES",
    "timeRangeStart": 1798848000000,
    "timeRangeEnd": 1801440000000,
    "objectiveType": "WEBSITE_VISIT",
    "dailyBudget": 50,
    "competingBid": { "bidType": "CPM", "amount": 10 }
  }'

• timeRangeStart and timeRangeEnd are Unix milliseconds, and the start must be in the future.
• Either dailyBudget or totalBudget is required.
• competingBid is required for manual-bid forecasts. Omit it and pass optimizationTarget instead for an auto-bid forecast.

Response (200), one series per metric and granularity:

{
  "available": true,
  "forecast": [
    {
      "metricType": "IMPRESSION",
      "granularity": "CUSTOM",
      "timeSeries": [
        { "timestamp": 1798848000000, "value": 184000, "adForecastRange": { "lowEnd": 120000, "highEnd": 250000 } }
      ]
    },
    {
      "metricType": "CLICK",
      "granularity": "CUSTOM",
      "timeSeries": [
        { "timestamp": 1798848000000, "value": 920, "adForecastRange": { "lowEnd": 600, "highEnd": 1300 } }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

LinkedIn returns roughly 20 series. metricType is LinkedIn's own value, forwarded verbatim: IMPRESSION, CLICK, SPENDING, MAX_POTENTIAL_BUDGET, COST_PER_MILLION_IMPRESSIONS and COST_PER_MILLION_CLICKS are the ones this endpoint returns for every forecast, so read the metricType on each series rather than assuming a fixed set. Granularities are DAILY, SEVEN_DAY, THIRTY_DAY and CUSTOM (the sum over the requested range, the number you would quote to a client). LinkedIn caps the daily spending forecast at 1.2x the daily budget and returns 0 once the total budget is exhausted.

If it fails

A 400 means the targeting is invalid, a budget is missing, or LinkedIn rejected the forecast window; LinkedIn's own code is in the message:

{
  "error": "END_DATE_MAX_HORIZON_FOR_FORECAST",
  "type": "invalid_request_error",
  "code": "invalid_field_value",
  "param": "timeRangeEnd"
}

Move timeRangeEnd inside LinkedIn's forecast horizon and repeat the call.

Related

• Create ads: where the bid goes.
• Estimate audience reach: the same spec, for audience size.
• Bid pricing and Supply forecast: every field.