Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It?

LinkedIn Premium gives professionals, job seekers, salespeople, and recruiters extra tools to up their game, especially if LinkedIn is your go-to platform.

But is it worth the price? Let’s explore what LinkedIn Premium offers to help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.

What is LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium is a paid subscription that offers more features than the free version. 

It’s known to boost your visibility, provide insights, and give you tools to connect with the right people to grow your career or business. There are different tiers tailored for job seekers, sales professionals, and recruiters.

Benefits of LinkedIn Premium

InMail Messages

Premium lets you message people outside your network, bypassing connection limits of free accounts. It’s ideal for job seekers, sales pros, and recruiters to directly contact decision-makers.

Who’s Viewed Your Profile

See a complete list of everyone who’s viewed your profile in the last 90 days. This helps you track visibility and identify potential leads or recruiters, giving you insight into who’s interested in you.

LinkedIn Learning

Access a wide range of courses covering topics from leadership to coding. It’s an excellent resource for skill-building and career growth. Plus, you’ll receive a LinkedIn certificate for each course you complete, which you can showcase on your profile for recruiters to see.

Advanced Search Filters

Find people and companies with precision using filters like company size, industry, and seniority. Perfect for sales pros, recruiters, and business developers targeting specific audiences.

Anyone Can Reach Out

This feature lets anyone message you, even without InMail. It increases your chances of being contacted by recruiters or potential clients outside your network.

Enhanced Analytics

Premium gives deeper insights into who’s viewing your profile and how people find you. Use this data to optimize your profile and boost visibility.

How Much Does LinkedIn Premium Cost?

• LinkedIn Premium Career: $29.99/month, ideal for job seekers.
• LinkedIn Premium Business: $59.99/month, featuring enhanced networking tools.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: $99.99/month, tailored for sales professionals aiming to generate leads and build client relationships. Detailed pricing is available here.
• LinkedIn Recruiter Lite: $139.99/month, created for recruiters to find and engage top talent.

Each plan has a specific focus, so choosing the right one depends on your needs.

Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Sales?

For sales professionals, LinkedIn Premium—especially Sales Navigator—offers valuable tools to enhance lead generation, prospecting, and overall sales efforts. Whether you're in B2B sales or targeting individuals, 

Premium features help you build and nurture relationships effectively. Here’s why LinkedIn Premium can be a worthwhile investment for sales pros:

Advanced Lead and Account Search

Sales Navigator’s Advanced Search Filters allow you to target potential leads based on criteria like industry, job title, company size, seniority, and geography. 

This precise targeting helps you efficiently find decision-makers, saving time compared to broad searches. 

For example, if you're selling software to marketing directors at mid-sized companies, you can use Sales Navigator to pinpoint leads that fit this profile, increasing your chances of securing meetings and converting prospects into customers.

Lead Recommendations

Sales Navigator provides personalized Lead Recommendations based on your saved searches and interactions. This feature helps you discover new opportunities that might not have been on your radar, ensuring your pipeline stays fresh with qualified leads. 

As your strategies evolve, the recommendation engine adapts to suggest prospects that match your changing needs.

InMail for Direct Outreach

Reaching cold prospects can be tough, but with InMail, you can send direct messages to leads outside your network. 

This feature lets you bypass gatekeepers and connect directly with decision-makers, which is especially valuable for targeting senior executives. InMail tends to have higher open and response rates compared to cold emails, making it easier to introduce your services or request meetings without the usual connection limitations.

Real-Time Insights on Leads and Accounts

Sales Navigator provides real-time insights on your leads and target accounts. You’ll receive notifications about key events, such as job changes or company announcements, allowing you to reach out at the right time with relevant messages. 

For instance, if a decision-maker you’re targeting switches jobs, it’s a great opportunity to reconnect or introduce your services at their new company.

CRM Integration

Sales Navigator integrates with CRM systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Microsoft Dynamics. This means you can sync your leads, notes, and interactions from LinkedIn, giving you a unified view of your sales efforts. 

By centralizing your data, you can track interactions and create more consistent sales strategies across your team.

TeamLink for Expanded Network Access

If you're part of a sales team, TeamLink lets you tap into your colleagues' networks. This feature expands your reach and provides access to leads that might otherwise be out of your network. 

TeamLink shows you when team members are connected to your target prospects, enabling warm introductions that can lead to higher response rates.

Sales Insights and Analytics

Sales Navigator offers detailed analytics on your outreach efforts, helping you refine your strategies. You can track which messages get the best responses and which industries or roles engage most with your content. 

These data-driven insights allow you to adjust your approach in real time, improving the effectiveness of your prospecting.

Ability to Save Leads and Accounts

Managing multiple leads can be challenging, but Sales Navigator allows you to save leads and accounts for easy tracking. 

When you save a lead, you'll receive updates about profile changes, helping you stay on top of opportunities. This ensures you maintain a warm engagement strategy without losing sight of potential leads.

Take Conversations to the Mailbox with a Tool Like Skrapp

The Skrapp LinkedIn Chrome Extension helps you find more details about your prospects, including their email addresses. 

Not everyone is active on LinkedIn, so if you’ve sent connection requests, notes, or InMails without success, they may not be using LinkedIn regularly. In that case, reaching out via email could improve your chances of making a connection.

When LinkedIn Premium May Not Be Worth It for Sales Professionals

While Sales Navigator offers many useful features, it might not be necessary for every sales professional. If LinkedIn isn’t your main prospecting channel and you prefer traditional methods like cold calling or emailing, the free version may suffice. Additionally, in industries where decision-makers are less active on LinkedIn, the benefits of Premium might not justify the cost.

If you're just starting your sales outreach and have a limited pipeline, Sales Navigator’s advanced features could feel overwhelming. In that case, it might be better to build connections through the free version first and upgrade as your needs grow.

Conclusion: Should Sales Professionals Invest in LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful tool for sales professionals who rely on LinkedIn for prospecting and relationship building. With advanced search filters, lead recommendations, real-time insights, and direct messaging capabilities, it can significantly enhance your outreach efforts.

For those focused on high-value clients or long sales cycles, the $99.99/month price can be quickly recouped with just one or two successful conversions. However, if your industry doesn’t rely heavily on LinkedIn or you already have established sales pipelines elsewhere, the free version may still meet your needs.

Ultimately, LinkedIn Premium is a worthwhile investment if you plan to use it regularly for finding and nurturing leads. Just be sure to assess how central LinkedIn is to your overall sales strategy before committing to the monthly cost.

Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Job Seekers?

For job seekers, LinkedIn Premium offers features that can provide a significant edge in today’s competitive job market. Here’s a look at why it might be worth the investment (or not):

Stand Out from Other Applicants

With LinkedIn Premium's "Applicant Insights," you get detailed comparisons with other candidates applying for the same job, including their experience, skills, and education. This helps you tailor your profile or resume to highlight your strongest qualifications. 

Plus, Premium users are labeled as "Featured Applicants," which can help you catch the eye of recruiters and hiring managers, increasing your chances of landing an interview.

Direct Access to Recruiters with InMail

Reaching recruiters can be tough, but with LinkedIn Premium, you can use the InMail feature to message recruiters and hiring managers directly, even if you’re not connected. 

This can be a game-changer for bypassing standard application processes and introducing yourself to decision-makers. For instance, if you’re excited about a job posting, you can message the recruiter to express your interest and provide context about your application.

See Who’s Viewed Your Profile

LinkedIn Premium lets you see everyone who has viewed your profile over the last 90 days. This feature can help you identify potential opportunities and follow up with individuals who might be interested in you but haven’t reached out yet. 

If a recruiter views your profile, you can use InMail to introduce yourself or thank them for their interest. Plus, knowing who’s checking out your profile provides valuable feedback on its effectiveness.

Access to Job Market Data and Salary Insights

Premium users gain access to job market insights, including salary data and hiring trends. This information can help you make informed decisions about your job search, such as which companies are hiring actively and what salary to expect based on your location and experience level. 

For salary negotiations, LinkedIn Premium’s Salary Insights tool offers real-time data on earnings for similar roles, giving you leverage in discussions.

Advanced Search Filters

Navigating the job market can be overwhelming, but LinkedIn Premium’s Advanced Search Filters allow you to refine your job search by company size, industry, job function, and experience level. 

This saves you time by helping you focus on roles that match your preferences instead of wading through hundreds of generic listings.

LinkedIn Learning for Skill Development

One standout feature of LinkedIn Premium is access to LinkedIn Learning, which offers a vast library of professional development courses. If you're pivoting careers or need to enhance your skills, this resource can be invaluable. 

For example, if you want to apply for marketing roles but lack experience with tools like Google Analytics, you can take a LinkedIn Learning course to gain that knowledge and earn certifications to showcase on your profile.

Better Job Matching and Alerts

Premium job seekers enjoy personalized job recommendations based on their profile and skills. LinkedIn’s algorithm tailors job alerts to ensure you receive relevant positions. 

This makes your job search smoother and more efficient, so you won't waste time on irrelevant roles. Additionally, Premium users may get notified of new job postings before free users, allowing you to apply early and stay ahead of the competition.

When LinkedIn Premium May Not Be Worth It for Job Seekers

While LinkedIn Premium can be a great asset for active job seekers, it might not be necessary for everyone. If you’re passively job hunting or work in a field where LinkedIn isn’t a primary tool, the free version may suffice. 

For example, if you're in a niche industry where most positions are filled through networking, the extra features might not provide much additional value. Similarly, if you're applying to smaller companies or startups, many hiring managers may rely more on traditional application processes than on LinkedIn’s tools.

Conclusion: Should Job Seekers Invest in LinkedIn Premium?

If you're actively looking for a job, especially in a competitive field, LinkedIn Premium can be a worthwhile investment. 

The ability to message recruiters directly, stand out in applicant pools, and access detailed job insights can give you a meaningful advantage. Coupled with skill-building opportunities through LinkedIn Learning, Premium can enhance your job search efforts and professional growth.

However, if you’re casually exploring new opportunities or if LinkedIn isn’t your primary job search tool, the free version might meet your needs just fine. Before investing, consider how often you plan to use LinkedIn’s job-seeking features and whether the benefits justify the cost.

Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Recruiters?

For recruiters, LinkedIn Premium—especially LinkedIn Recruiter and Recruiter Lite—provides a suite of features designed to streamline talent sourcing, manage candidate pipelines, and enhance overall hiring efforts. 

With access to LinkedIn’s vast global network of professionals, recruiters can tap into top talent and make more informed hiring decisions. Let’s explore the key reasons why LinkedIn Premium can be a valuable investment for recruitment professionals:

Advanced Search for Candidates

A standout feature of LinkedIn Premium for recruiters is the Advanced Search Filters. These filters allow you to narrow down your candidate search based on specific criteria, such as experience level, industry, location, skills, current company, and language proficiency. This targeted approach saves time by ensuring you focus only on candidates who meet your precise requirements.

For example, if you're looking for a marketing manager with SEO expertise in a particular industry, advanced search filters help you identify candidates with the right mix of skills and experience, eliminating the need to sift through irrelevant profiles. This precision can lead to higher-quality candidates and faster hires.

InMail for Candidate Outreach

A significant challenge in recruiting is connecting with potential candidates who aren’t actively seeking new opportunities. LinkedIn Premium’s InMail feature allows recruiters to send direct messages to candidates outside their network, bypassing the need for a connection or email address.

This is especially valuable for sourcing passive candidates—those who may not be job hunting but could be open to the right opportunity. InMail enables recruiters to craft personalized outreach messages, sparking interest and initiating discussions with high-quality candidates who may not have been on their radar.

Moreover, InMail typically sees higher response rates than traditional email or cold calling, making it a more effective way to engage top talent.

Access to the Full List of Profile Viewers

With LinkedIn Premium, recruiters can see the complete list of individuals who have viewed their profile in the last 90 days. This feature is a powerful tool for identifying potential candidates already interested in your organization or searching for roles in your industry.

For example, if a candidate views your profile but hasn’t applied for a job, this presents an opportunity to reach out and gauge their interest in open positions. It’s a proactive way to engage with candidates who have already shown interest in your organization or field.

Candidate Recommendations

The Candidate Recommendations feature in LinkedIn Premium suggests potential candidates based on your current searches, saved searches, and past hiring patterns. This automated system helps recruiters discover new talent who may be a strong fit for open roles but haven’t surfaced in traditional searches.

For recruiters managing multiple roles, this feature saves time by surfacing candidates that closely align with your hiring needs. As you continue to use LinkedIn Recruiter, the recommendation engine becomes more accurate, refining suggestions based on your previous interactions and searches.

Enhanced Candidate Insights

LinkedIn Premium provides recruiters with deeper insights into candidates, including data on their current job responsibilities, career progression, and any recent skills or certifications. These insights help recruiters make informed decisions when assessing potential candidates, ensuring they focus on individuals who meet job requirements and fit the company culture.

For instance, recruiters can see how long a candidate has been in their current role, the specific skills they’ve developed, and whether they’ve been promoted internally. This additional information helps create a more complete picture of the candidate and can aid in prioritizing outreach efforts.

Manage Candidate Pipelines

With LinkedIn Recruiter, recruiters can build and manage a candidate pipeline, saving profiles, tracking interactions, and organizing prospects for current and future roles. This feature keeps your pipeline active and organized, allowing you to easily return to qualified candidates for similar positions later.

For example, if a strong candidate isn’t the right fit for a current role, you can save them to your pipeline and track their career progress over time. If a more suitable position opens up in the future, you can quickly reach out, saving time and effort in sourcing new talent.

Talent Pool Insights

LinkedIn Recruiter also offers access to Talent Pool Insights, providing data on hiring trends, the supply and demand for specific skills, and geographic locations where certain types of talent are concentrated. This data helps recruiters make strategic decisions about candidate sourcing, compensation packages, and the competitiveness of their job postings.

For instance, if you’re recruiting software developers, Talent Pool Insights might reveal a particular region with a high demand for developers with specific skill sets, influencing your approach to compensation or relocation offers.

Team Collaboration Features

For larger recruiting teams, LinkedIn Recruiter includes team collaboration features that enable members to share candidate profiles, notes, and messages. This ensures everyone is aligned during the hiring process, which is especially useful for high-volume hiring campaigns or when multiple recruiters work together to fill the same role.

Team collaboration also improves candidate tracking, preventing multiple team members from reaching out to the same candidate inadvertently, which could create confusion or harm your brand’s reputation.

Recruiting Metrics and Analytics

LinkedIn Recruiter allows you to track key recruiting metrics, such as InMail response rates, time-to-hire, and sourcing effectiveness. These analytics help identify which recruitment strategies are working and which areas need improvement. For example, if a specific type of message has a higher response rate, you can double down on that approach to boost outreach success.

This data-driven insight helps recruiters refine their efforts and focus on strategies that yield the best results, ultimately leading to faster, more successful hires.

When LinkedIn Premium May Not Be Worth It for Recruiters

While LinkedIn Premium’s recruitment tools are robust, they may not be necessary for every recruiter. If you’re filling roles where LinkedIn isn’t the primary hiring platform—such as entry-level positions or roles in industries that depend more on other job boards—the free version of LinkedIn might be sufficient.

Additionally, for smaller companies with lower hiring volumes, the cost of LinkedIn Recruiter (starting at $140/month for Recruiter Lite) may not justify the investment. In these situations, you can still effectively use the free version of LinkedIn by manually searching for candidates and networking within your industry.

If your organization already has an established pipeline of candidates or uses other recruitment software, the features of LinkedIn Recruiter may be redundant.

Conclusion: Should Recruiters Invest in LinkedIn Premium?

For recruiters, LinkedIn Premium—particularly LinkedIn Recruiter—is a powerful tool that can streamline the hiring process, enhance candidate sourcing, and improve the quality of hires. The ability to use advanced search filters, directly message passive candidates, and manage candidate pipelines makes LinkedIn Premium an invaluable asset for those relying heavily on the platform to find and attract top talent.

If you frequently source high-quality, hard-to-find candidates or recruit for senior-level or specialized roles, LinkedIn Premium can significantly boost your efficiency and success rate. However, for smaller recruiting efforts or industries where LinkedIn isn’t widely utilized, the free version or other hiring platforms might meet your needs without the premium cost.

Ultimately, the value of LinkedIn Premium for recruiters depends on your specific recruitment goals, the types of roles you’re filling, and how central LinkedIn is to your hiring strategy. For many recruiters, the ability to reach more candidates, gain deeper insights, and stay ahead of the competition makes the investment in LinkedIn Premium well worth it.

TL;DR

• Value Depends on Needs: LinkedIn Premium's worth varies based on your ongoing requirements.
• Justifies Cost: If you regularly use features like targeted searches, InMail, or analytics for sales, recruiting, or job seeking, it’s likely worth the expense.
• Project-Based Needs: For temporary or project-based needs, consider canceling the subscription once your goals are met.
• Reactivation: Reactivate the subscription as needed when new projects arise.
• Lower-Tier Options: Explore switching to a lower-tier plan if your needs decrease.

Remember, LinkedIn isn’t the only channel for reaching your prospects, recruiters, or candidates. You can always initiate a conversation via email. To do this, download the Skrapp Chrome extension to extract their business email from LinkedIn or their website, and start sending emails.