LinkedIn To Launch Its Own Ad Network

At a time when most social networks are still trying to figure out how to make money from advertising, one social network is bucking the trend. LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals, has so much demand from advertisers that it will be launching its own ad network on Monday. In conjunction with ad network Collective Media (which targets high-end media sites), LinkedIn will let other select sites target its users when they visit those partner sites.

Most social networks have a hard time selling ads at more than $1 CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), but LinkedIn’s rate card shows display ads starting at $30 CPMs and going up to $76.50. Text ads range from $12 to $20 CPMs. Even with the regular discounting from the rate card that many advertisers might recieve, LinkedIn is still doing much better than most social networks. That is because it has a more desirable audience that advertisers want to reach.

LinkedIn claims 27 million registered users. According to comScore, 5.2 million from the U.S. visited the site in July (8.7 million worldwide). LinkedIn claims that the average household income of its members is $110,000, 64 percent are male, the average age is 41, and 49 percent are decision makers. (In contrast, the average Wall Street Journal reader, according to LinkedIn, makes $102,000 per household, is 48 years old, and only 40 percent are business decision makers).