Why Your LinkedIn Campaigns Are Now 'Ad Sets': The 2026 Rename Explained

LinkedIn has renamed the structure of Campaign Manager. Starting October 2025, what was previously called a Campaign Group is now labeled as a Campaign, and what used to be called a Campaign is now labeled as an Ad Set. The change is being gradually rolled out across all advertiser accounts and aligns LinkedIn's terminology with the conventions used in Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads.

The rename is a UI change, not an API change, which creates a specific gap that affects every advertiser who depends on automated reporting, scripts, or Sheet templates. This guide explains what changed, why it matters for your reporting workflow, and the action plan to keep your dashboards working.

What changed

The Campaign Manager hierarchy still has four levels. The names of two of them changed; the other two stayed the same.

The change is consistent with the naming used by Meta Ads (which has Campaign / Ad Set / Ad) and Google Ads (which has Campaign / Ad Group / Ad). LinkedIn published the change as an alignment with industry-standard naming conventions to make Campaign Manager easier for advertisers coming from other platforms. The full announcement is documented in the LinkedIn help center for advertisers who want the official source.

Why it matters

For new advertisers, the rename is helpful. For long-time LinkedIn advertisers and the agencies that report on their accounts, three implications hit immediately.

Existing reports reference labels that no longer match the UI. Any dashboard, Sheet template, or client deliverable that says "Campaign Group" is now using a label that the LinkedIn UI does not show. The numbers behind those labels are still correct, but the wording does not match what the client sees when they log into Campaign Manager.

The API kept the old terminology. The LinkedIn Marketing API still uses campaignGroup and campaign in its endpoints, request payloads, and response fields. So a developer writing Apps Script today still queries /adCampaignGroups and gets a campaignGroup object back, even though the UI now calls that thing a "Campaign". This UI-API gap is the most disruptive part of the rename for anyone who builds reporting on top of LinkedIn data.

The same word now means different things in different contexts. When a client says "let's review the campaign", they mean what the UI now calls a Campaign (formerly Campaign Group). When an analyst says "the campaign data shows...", they probably mean what the API still calls a campaign (formerly Campaign, now Ad Set in the UI). Without a vocabulary check, the two people are talking about different things.

What this means for your reporting

If you pull LinkedIn data into Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Power BI, or BigQuery, three concrete impacts:

Sheet templates and Looker Studio dashboards keep working but show outdated labels. Connectors (whether you use a no-code add-on, Apps Script, or a warehouse pipeline) keep pulling the same fields. Numbers do not change. But the column headers and dashboard labels in your templates still say "Campaign Group" if you wrote them before the rename. Updating the labels is a cosmetic fix, not a data fix.

Apps Script and direct API integrations are unaffected technically. Your code that calls https://api.linkedin.com/rest/adCampaignGroups continues to work. The endpoint paths, request schemas, and response field names did not change. If your script worked yesterday, it works today.

Client-facing reports need a vocabulary update. The deliverable a client sees needs to use the new terminology, even if your internal pipeline uses the old. Otherwise the client looks at the dashboard, opens Campaign Manager in another tab, and sees different words. Confusion follows. If you maintain LinkedIn reporting across multiple clients, our guide on automating agency reporting across clients covers the patterns that scale this label cleanup without rewriting every template by hand.

Cross-channel comparisons just got cleaner. If you build a single sheet pulling Meta, Google Ads, and LinkedIn alongside each other, the new LinkedIn naming finally aligns. A Meta "Ad Set" and a LinkedIn "Ad Set" now refer to the same conceptual level. We covered the cross-channel reporting workflow in detail in our Claude paid media guide; the LinkedIn rename simplifies the vocabulary side of that setup.

Dynamic URL tracking parameters: the detail most posts miss

Beyond the UI rename, LinkedIn also updated the dynamic URL tracking parameters used in ad URLs. This is the part that actually changes data flowing into your analytics, so it deserves its own treatment.

The parameter values changed; the parameter keys stayed the same.

Two practical implications. First, LinkedIn automatically updates existing ad sets to use the new dynamic parameter values. You do not need to re-enter parameters in old ads. Second, when you create new ad sets or edit existing ones, you must use the new dynamic URL tracking parameters. The old parameter names will no longer be available in the picker.

The trickiest part is what happens to existing tracked URLs in the wild. The official LinkedIn documentation notes: "the parameter value will change while the parameter key remains the same as the previous naming." In practice, this means a URL that landed in your analytics with utm_campaign=Q4-Brand-Push was tracking what LinkedIn used to call a "Campaign" and now calls an "Ad Set". The query key in your URL has not changed, but the conceptual level it refers to has. If your downstream attribution logic assumes utm_campaign always maps to the campaign-equivalent level across all platforms, that mapping just shifted on LinkedIn-sourced traffic.
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For most reporting setups, this is a labels issue, not a data issue: GA4, Looker Studio, or BigQuery still receive the same query parameters with the same values. But if you have custom logic that joins LinkedIn ID values to campaign hierarchy expectations, audit it.

Action plan: what to do now

Five steps to reconcile your existing reporting with the new LinkedIn naming. None of them is urgent, but a one-week sprint avoids client confusion.
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1. Audit your dashboards for "Campaign Group" labels. Open every Looker Studio dashboard, Sheet template, and Power BI report you maintain for LinkedIn data. Search for "Campaign Group" in chart titles, column headers, and filter labels. Update them to "Campaign". Search for "Campaign" used at the tactical level (the level above Ad) and decide whether to relabel it as "Ad Set". If you are revisiting dashboards anyway, our dashboard design best practices post is a useful checklist for catching other label and hierarchy issues at the same time.
2. Communicate the change internally. Send your team a one-line summary: "LinkedIn renamed Campaign Group to Campaign and Campaign to Ad Set in the UI. The API still uses old names. When in doubt, default to the new naming when talking with clients." A 30-second slack message saves a week of cross-team confusion.
3. Update client-facing report templates. Whatever you send to clients (PDF exports, shared Looker dashboards, weekly email summaries) needs the new vocabulary. Clients open Campaign Manager and see "Campaign" and "Ad Set"; your reports should match.
4. Leave Apps Script and direct API code alone. Your scripts call adCampaignGroups, parse campaignGroup objects, and reference campaign fields. Do not rename those. The API has not changed. Renaming code variables to match the new UI just creates a different mismatch.
5. Document the UI-API map for your team. A short cheat sheet helps junior analysts navigate. Example: "When the client asks about a 'Campaign', they mean what the API returns as campaignGroup. When they ask about an 'Ad Set', that is what the API returns as campaign." Pin it in your team docs.

For the longer-term, if you also need to set up reporting from scratch, our LinkedIn Ads to Google Sheets guide walks through three methods that all handle the UI-API mismatch.

Timeline

The rename is a phased UI rollout, not a one-day cutover. Expect a few weeks of mixed states across accounts before everyone sees the new labels.
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• October 2025. LinkedIn announces the rename via Campaign Manager updates and help-center documentation.
• Throughout 2025-2026. Gradual rollout reaches accounts. Some advertisers see the new labels immediately; others see the rename apply over the following weeks. LinkedIn's official documentation confirms: "We're gradually changing the campaign hierarchy in Campaign Manager, and you might not currently see the new terms."
• API timeline. LinkedIn has not announced a corresponding API rename. Based on the documentation, the Marketing API endpoints and field names continue to use adCampaignGroups, campaignGroup, and campaign. Watch the LinkedIn Marketing API recent changes log for any future API alignment.
• Going forward. Train new team members on the new UI vocabulary as the default, and treat the old terminology as legacy that surfaces only in API responses and historical reports.

FAQ

Did the LinkedIn Marketing API also rename campaignGroup to campaign?
‍No. The API still uses adCampaignGroups, campaignGroup, and campaign in endpoint paths, request payloads, and response fields. Only the UI in Campaign Manager was renamed. Any code referencing API field names continues to work without changes.

Will my existing LinkedIn reports break?
‍No. The data flow is unchanged: numbers, field names, and breakdowns all stay the same. The only thing that needs an update is the labels in your dashboards and templates that say "Campaign Group" or "Campaign" at the wrong level.

Are LinkedIn Ad Sets the same as Meta Ad Sets?Conceptually yes. In both platforms, an Ad Set (or formerly LinkedIn Campaign) is the level where you set targeting, budget, and bidding. The structures are now visibly aligned, which makes cross-channel mental models easier. The technical implementations remain platform-specific.

When did the rename happen?
‍LinkedIn announced the change in October 2025 and is rolling it out gradually through Campaign Manager during 2025 and 2026. Some advertisers saw the new labels earlier than others depending on the rollout phase. Check Campaign Manager today; if you see "Campaign Group" anywhere, your account is still on the old labels.

Should I rename my actual LinkedIn campaigns to match the new structure?
‍You do not need to rename anything. LinkedIn's rename is a label change, not a structural change. Your existing campaigns continue to live at their original level (what was a Campaign Group is now displayed as a Campaign with the same campaign IDs and history). The only renaming you might want to do is the descriptive name field for your own clarity.

What about historical reports built before the rename?
‍Historical reports still use the old labels in their column headers and dashboards. The data behind them remains accurate and queryable. You can either leave historical reports as-is (with a note that the labels are pre-rename), or update the labels for consistency with current dashboards. Both approaches work.

Does this affect Marketing API access or app review?
‍No. The rename does not affect API access requirements, OAuth scopes, app review processes, or rate limits. Standard r_ads, r_ads_reporting, and r_ads_leadgen_automation scopes continue to work as before.

Did the dynamic URL tracking parameters also change?
‍Yes. CAMPAIGN_GROUP_ID/NAME became CAMPAIGN_ID/NAME, CAMPAIGN_ID/NAME became AD_SET_ID/NAME, and CREATIVE_ID/NAME became AD_ID/NAME. Existing ad sets are automatically updated. New or edited ad sets must use the new parameter names. The query keys in landing-page URLs remain the same; only the parameter values shift in level.

Conclusion

The LinkedIn Campaign Manager rename is not a structural change; it is a label change that aligns LinkedIn vocabulary with Meta and Google Ads. The data behind the labels is unchanged, the API is unchanged, and existing scripts keep working. The only friction is for advertisers, agencies, and analysts whose dashboards and client communications still use the old vocabulary. A one-week sprint to update labels in templates, refresh client-facing materials, and document the UI-API mapping resolves the confusion before it reaches end-users.

If you maintain LinkedIn reports across multiple clients or want a connector that bridges the UI-API naming gap automatically, start a Dataslayer free trial. The connector handles the new labels in your dashboards while keeping API field names consistent in code, so your team stops having two different vocabularies for the same data.