How to Delete LinkedIn Ad Account

Closing your LinkedIn Ad account is a final step, much like cleaning out an old office. Before you turn in the keys, you need to make sure you’ve packed up everything important. This guide will walk you through the essential pre-closure checklist, the step-by-step process for deletion, and what to expect afterward.

Before You Hit Delete: A Pre-Closure Checklist

Once an ad account is closed on LinkedIn, it's gone for good - along with all its historical data. Taking a few preparatory steps ensures you don't lose valuable insights or run into unexpected issues along the way.

1. Settle Any Outstanding Balances

LinkedIn requires your account to have a zero balance before it can be closed. If you have any pending invoices or an outstanding balance, you'll need to pay them off first. You can check your billing status by navigating to the Billing Center within your Campaign Manager.

2. Pause All Active Campaigns

Before you can close the account, all advertising activity must stop. Go through your Campaign Manager and ensure every campaign, including those that are scheduled but not yet running, is set to “Paused.” This prevents any further spend from accumulating while you finalize the closure.

3. Export Your Historical Data

This is arguably the most critical step. When you close your account, you lose permanent access to all campaign performance data, including metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, and costs. This historical information is vital for analyzing past performance and shaping future strategies.

• Navigate to the ‘Reporting’ tab within Campaign Manager.
• Select the campaigns and the time frame you want to export.
• Customize the columns to include all the metrics you need (spend, CPL, CPC, conversion rate, etc.).
• Download this data as a CSV file and store it securely. Do this for all significant campaign periods.

Without this backup, you will have no record of your past LinkedIn Ads performance.

4. Confirm You Have the Right Permissions

Not everyone with access to the Campaign Manager can close an account. To perform this action, you must have Account Manager permissions. Other roles like Campaign Manager, Creative Manager, or Viewer do not have the authority to delete the account. If you don't see the option to close the account later on, it's almost certainly a permissions issue.

5. Inform Your Team and Stakeholders

If you're part of a team, make sure everyone who uses the account is aware of the impending closure. This prevents confusion when a colleague tries to log in to launch a campaign or pull a report and finds the account is gone. Clear communication ensures a smooth transition.

How to Close Your LinkedIn Ad Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

After you’ve completed the checklist above, the actual process of closing the account is straightforward. Follow these steps carefully.

Step 1: Open Campaign Manager

Log into your LinkedIn account and navigate to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

Step 2: Select the Correct Ad Account

If you manage multiple ad accounts, a list will appear. Carefully select the specific account you wish to close to avoid deleting the wrong one by mistake.

Step 3: Access Account Settings

Once you are in the correct ad account dashboard, click the account name in the top bar. A dropdown menu will appear. From this menu, click on the gear icon labeled Account Settings.

Step 4: Navigate to Close Account

On the Account Details page, you'll see information about the account name, associated company page, currency, and status. On the bottom left of this panel, you will find a link that says “Close account.” Click this.

Step 5: Confirm Closure

LinkedIn will display a final confirmation pop-up window. This is your last chance to turn back. The prompt will remind you that this action is permanent and that you will lose all access to campaign data associated with the account. If you are certain, click the “Close account and log out” button to complete the process.

Your account is now officially closed. Any users who had access will no longer be able to see or manage it.

What to Expect After You Close the Account

Closing the account is final, but a few things happen afterward that you should be aware of:

• Final Invoice: You may receive one last invoice from LinkedIn for any ad spend that occurred between your last billing date and the moment you paused all campaigns.
• Permanent Data Loss: We've said it before, but it bears repeating: all performance data, audiences, and campaign history are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
• Irreversibility: There is no "undo" button. Once an ad account is closed, it cannot be reactivated. If you wanted to advertise with that company page again, you would need to create a brand new ad account from scratch.

Thinking Twice? Alternatives to Deleting Your Ad Account

Sometimes, permanent deletion is not necessary. If you just need to stop advertising for a while or want to secure the account, consider these alternatives that keep your valuable data intact.

Pause All Campaigns

If you plan to advertise again in the future, simply pausing your campaigns is the best option. This immediately stops all ad spend but preserves all your data, audiences, and ad creative for later use. You can easily un-pause them whenever you're ready to restart your marketing efforts.

Remove Your Payment Method

If you’ve paid all outstanding balances, you can remove your credit card or other payment methods from the Billing Center. This effectively prevents any new charges from being made to the account. It serves as a strong safeguard against accidental ad spend without permanently deleting your history.

Revoke User Access

Is the reason for closure related to specific personnel changes? Instead of deleting the entire account, you can simply manage user access. As an Account Manager, you can remove other users or change their permission levels. This secures the account while retaining its history and settings.

Final Thoughts

Closing a LinkedIn Ad account is a simple process, but its consequences are permanent. By following the preparatory checklist - paying balances, pausing campaigns, and exporting historical data - you ensure the closure is clean and you don't lose valuable business insights that could inform future strategies.

Dealing with data exports across platforms like LinkedIn Ads is often a manual, time-consuming task. Before closing old accounts, we help our users connect all their marketing and sales sources in one place. With Graphed, you can consolidate your performance history into live, real-time dashboards automatically, so even if you deactivate an ad account, your long-term trend data remains accessible without you ever needing to wrangle a CSV file again.