Demographic metrics in Funnel look missing, lower than expected or inconsistent when you compare date ranges, reporting levels or LinkedIn exports.
Error message or symptoms
You may see:
Fewer than expected demographic breakdown rows for a Creative
Zeros where LinkedIn Campaign Manager or an export shows small non-zero values
Different totals when you change the date range slightly, sum daily rows or compare campaign level data to account level data
When does this occur
You use demographic reports in Funnel or Data Explorer
A Creative has many demographic values on a single day (more than the API returns)
Metric values per day are very small
You compare Funnel data to LinkedIn UI exports or to a different aggregation level
Root cause
This is a known limitation of the LinkedIn API for demographic reporting:
LinkedIn returns only the top 100 demographic values per Creative per day. Remaining values are omitted.
Demographic metrics are approximate. Small values are often rounded down to 0 in the API. LinkedIn states values are typically adjusted to within three units.
Low daily values can sum to zero over longer periods in the API even when activity occurred each day.
Solution
Use the highest reporting level you need. For example, use account level data instead of summing campaign level rows when you compare totals.
Treat very small demographic values as approximate when you audit data.
Read LinkedIn's guidance on demographics for your ads and troubleshooting demographic reporting for campaigns.
Workaround
If you need exact small-value breakdowns, export the date range from LinkedIn Campaign Manager and compare at the same level of detail. Expect differences when values are near LinkedIn's reporting thresholds.