It’s 2022 and the “Ad Tech Pros” group on LinkedIn has just welcomed its 22,000th member.
Well, we’re 22,022 at the moment I’m writing this—and counting!

I couldn’t be happier and more proud of this community’s growth. Created shortly after I launched Ad Tech Daily back in 2008, this group’s membership has grown steadily, driven by interest in the ad tech space and a need for belonging in an industry that’s often seen as niche, opaque, at times divisive. We counted 16,000 member in 2016 and 18,000 members at the beginning of 2019, currently growing at a rate of 200 new members per month.

What’s new?

In addition to our many milestones of growth, “Ad Tech Pros” has just been recognized as one of the most engaging group on LinkedIn, with a high potential for future development. It’s not me, it’s LinkedIn to state this, and they’ve given the community a neat certificate that says so!

As a result, the group is now part of a LinkedIn inner circle pilot program that provides more tools and resources to help it flourish. We’re now able to:

• access beta features that are otherwise unavailable on the platform, features aimed to help group members discover and actively contribute to conversations;
• receive more support in engaging the community and in increasing the group’s visibility and reach;
• benefit from a heightened group discoverability by its intended audience on the LinkedIn platform.

Group analytics is now a thing! It’s something I’ve been hoping to see from LinkedIn for a long, long time; I’m very excited that both growth and engagement (views, comments, reactions) data is finally available as of October 2021.

Get to know the group

You’re now aware the group is large—especially when considering it’s really a niche interest—and fast growing, but what else? I’ve spent more time than I care to admit manually digging through membership data; at last, I was finally able to put together some real stats as to the markup of the group (see charts below):

• nearly a third come from the sell-side (28%), while nearly a quarter work for an ad tech vendor;
• agencies are also well-represented, with nearly a fifth of our members drawing from the agency space;
• in terms of seniority, over 10% of the group’s members are currently in an executive role (C-level, EVP, SVP, VP), while nearly half are at director and mid-senior level.

Why am I telling you all this?

Firstly, because it’s really quite a feat to grow exclusively through organic means: word-of-mouth and LinkedIn members stopping by and deciding to join. I’ve not run a single paid campaign to drive audience growth; that isn’t to say I don’t believe in paid media (how hypocritical would that be?) but there aren’t straightforward ways to promote a group on the LinkedIn platform and performance advertising has long stopped being a strong skill of mine.

Secondly, because I believe we can do so much more together, within and around this professional community. I’ve long considered opening up the group and welcome more group managers to help drive growth and engagement; now’s the right time given the group size and its obvious potential. If you, or someone you know, are interested in helping me manage this group, please get in touch.

I’d also like to hear from you if you have partnership ideas relevant to an audience of ad tech professionals: drop me a line here or on LinkedIn and we’ll take it from there.