Prospecting on LinkedIn while limiting the risk of account restriction

This article gives the limits that Maya Reach applies to each LinkedIn account: invitations, messages, profile reads. It also explains the ramp-up of a newly connected account, the send window and the spacing of actions. You will learn where to see these limits and how to set them.

Why the platform limits sends

LinkedIn can restrict an account that sends too many invitations or messages, or that acts at too regular a pace. LinkedIn does not publish official thresholds. The platform's limits are therefore deliberately cautious.

These limits apply per LinkedIn account, not per workspace. If several campaigns use the same account, they share these limits. A campaign's "Settings" screen then shows "Contested account budget".

When a limit is reached, nothing is lost. The action is postponed to the next day or to the next open slot.

The platform cannot decide in LinkedIn's place. It limits volume and spaces out actions. It does not remove the risk of restriction.

Invitations and the ramp-up

An account sends at most:

After an account is connected, the limit rises in steps:

The limit applied is always the lower of the two: the ramp-up limit and the account type limit.

Pause after a refusal. If LinkedIn refuses an invitation because of a limit, the platform suspends invitations of that kind (with a note or without a note) for 12 hours.

Invitation note. A note is at most 300 characters on a Premium or Sales Navigator account, 200 otherwise. A note that is too long is refused, never cut. On a classic account, invitations with a note are turned off by default, because LinkedIn allows very few of them.

Pointless invitations. The platform does not invite a person who is already connected, a person out of the account's reach (3rd degree on a classic account) or a person who already has a pending invitation. These steps are skipped.

Messages and profile reads

An account sends at most 80 messages and follow-ups per day. Above that, campaigns and the assistant stop. A reply that you type yourself in the Inbox still goes through, up to a safety limit of 160 messages per day. At 160, nothing more goes out, even by hand.

Profile reads are also limited. Campaigns, Autopilot and the Inbox crawl read at most 100 profiles per day. Your manual actions go up to 100 reads on a classic account and 200 on a Sales Navigator account. Post reads are limited to 100 per day.

If LinkedIn refuses a profile read, no more reads go out with this account until the time shown on screen. The platform also applies an overall budget of 200 LinkedIn calls per day and per account.

The send window and the pace of actions

Volume is not enough: a pace that is too regular is also a reason for restriction. The platform therefore sets the timing and spacing of actions:

• Send window. A campaign acts only during its send window: Monday to Friday, 9 am to 6 pm, Paris time, by default. You set it per campaign. An action planned outside the window is postponed to the next open slot.
• Random delay. Each action gets a random offset of 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
• Spreading at opening. The actions waiting when the window opens are spread over one hour at most.
• Gap between two actions of the same account. Two successive actions are spaced 30 seconds to 5 minutes apart, irregularly.
• Delay between two steps. You set it in the sequence with a "Wait". The assistant never puts less than one hour between two steps for the same person.

The pace of a campaign also depends on its intake. When it is created, a campaign admits 10 contacts per day, or fewer if the account's LinkedIn limit is lower. The maximum is the invitation limit for an Acquisition campaign and the message limit for a Network messaging or Follow-up campaign.

In practice

To see and set your account's limits:

1. Open "My account", "Social networks" tab, "Daily budgets" section.
2. Read the account's invitation and message limits, and whether invitations with a note are allowed.
3. Click "Adjust" to change them, or "Auto" to go back to the default values.

Lowering the invitation limit is always applied. Raising it above 25 per day has no effect. The message limit can be lowered or raised: raise it with care.

To follow a campaign's day, open the "Tracking" tab, "Today" sub-tab. It shows the invitations, messages and profile reads remaining, the ramp-up and the pauses in progress.

You can also ask the assistant, "Command" tab:

How many people can I reach today?

The assistant reads your account's capacity for the day before proposing a pace. It never announces a volume it has not read.

Take a hypothetical example: a consulting firm connects a Sales Navigator account and wants to invite 100 people. In the first week, it will send at most 5 invitations per day and 25 over the week. The limit of 25 per day only applies from the 4th week.