LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms are lead forms that open inside LinkedIn when someone clicks your ad, already filled in with details from their profile, such as name, contact information, company, seniority, job title and location. The person can send them in a click without typing, and you collect the leads in Campaign Manager or send them to your CRM.
The point is to stop sending people off LinkedIn to a landing page they may never finish. The form comes to them, pre-filled, and they stay in the app.
Everything below comes from LinkedIn's own Marketing Solutions pages and Help Center, read in October 2026.
Where Lead Gen Forms appear
LinkedIn says Lead Gen Forms work with its in-feed ads and with Message Ads. A member clicks the call-to-action button on your ad, for example to download an ebook or sign up for a webinar, and the pre-filled form opens. LinkedIn's in-feed single image ads, for instance, show up in the feed on desktop and mobile and on the LinkedIn Audience Network.
What the form collects
| Part of the form | What LinkedIn says |
|---|---|
| Pre-filled profile details | Name, contact info, company name, seniority, job title and location, taken from the member's LinkedIn profile |
| Your own questions | You can select up to 12 informational fields when you create a form, to tailor it to your objective |
| Submission | One click on the form, with no typing by hand |
| After submitting | A thank-you page that sends people to your ebook, website or another destination you choose |
That 12-field ceiling is the number to plan around. Every extra field you add makes the form a little less effortless, so use the slots for questions that help you qualify the lead, not for things you could look up later.
How to set up a Lead Gen Form campaign
- Go to Campaign Manager. From your LinkedIn homepage, click Advertise in the upper-right corner, or if you don't see it, open the For Business menu and click Advertise under My Apps.
- Choose the ad account you want to use, or create a new one if you don't have access to one.
- Create a new campaign, as LinkedIn's Lead Gen Forms page tells you to.
- Build your form: keep the pre-filled profile fields you need and add up to 12 informational fields.
- Add a thank-you message and the destination people go to after they submit.
- Attach the form to your ad's call-to-action, then launch.
If you're new to the ads side of LinkedIn, read my guide on what LinkedIn advertising is before you build your first campaign.
LinkedIn's examples are an ebook download and a webinar sign-up, and that's a good guide to what works: something specific and useful enough to trade a work email for. A vague "contact us" rarely earns the click. LinkedIn also publishes a Lead Gen Forms playbook and the full creative requirements on the same page, so check the requirements before your designer starts.
How to get your leads out
LinkedIn gives you two routes. You can download your leads directly from Campaign Manager, or connect Lead Gen Forms to the CRM or marketing automation tool you already use, so new leads arrive there automatically.
Do one or the other on day one. A lead that sits in Campaign Manager for a week is a lead that's gone cold. If you don't have a CRM yet, my list of free lead generation tools includes options that can catch them.
How to tell if it's working
LinkedIn's built-in reporting shows three numbers for Lead Gen Form campaigns: your cost per lead, your lead form fill rate, and the specific professional audiences you're turning into leads. Watch the fill rate first. If people open the form but don't send it, your offer or your extra questions are the problem, not your targeting.
Lead Gen Forms vs LinkedIn AutoFill: don't mix them up
There's a separate, older product with a similar job. LinkedIn AutoFill was a plugin for your own website that filled in forms from a visitor's LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn says that, as of May 2025, it isn't accepting new domains for AutoFill. If you already have AutoFill on your site, it keeps working as usual, but you can't add it to a new website.
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So if you've read an old guide telling you to install AutoFill on your landing page, that route is closed for new sites. Lead Gen Forms, inside LinkedIn's ads, are the way to get pre-filled leads now.
Track website visitors too
Lead Gen Forms capture people who never leave LinkedIn. To see what ad clickers do on your own site, LinkedIn's Help Center points you to the Insight Tag, a small piece of JavaScript for campaign reporting and website retargeting. You install it from your ad account in Campaign Manager: click Measure on the left menu, then Signals manager, then Insight Tag. You can add it yourself, send it to a developer or use a tag manager.
My verdict
Lead Gen Forms are the simplest way to turn LinkedIn ad clicks into named B2B leads, because the hardest part, typing, is done for the prospect. Keep your extra questions well under the 12-field limit, offer something worth a work email, and connect the form to your CRM before you launch. And ignore any guide that still tells you to add AutoFill to a new website: LinkedIn stopped taking new domains in May 2025.
To see where the forms fit in the bigger picture, take a look at my tour of LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
Frequently asked questions
What are LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?
LinkedIn describes them as pre-filled lead forms that open when a member clicks your ad's call-to-action, using details from their LinkedIn profile so they can submit without typing.
How many fields can a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form have?
LinkedIn's Help Center says you can select up to 12 informational fields when creating a Lead Gen Form, on top of the details pre-filled from the member's profile.
Which LinkedIn ads can use Lead Gen Forms?
LinkedIn says Lead Gen Forms are available for its in-feed ads and for Message Ads.
How do I download leads from LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms?
You can download leads directly from Campaign Manager or connect Lead Gen Forms to your CRM or marketing automation tool.
Can I still add LinkedIn AutoFill to my website?
Not to a new site. LinkedIn says that as of May 2025 it isn't accepting new domains for AutoFill, though existing setups keep working.
