LinkedIn Ads MCP

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for LinkedIn Ads. Connect Claude (or any MCP-compatible AI client) directly to your LinkedIn ad accounts to query performance, manage campaigns, analyse audiences, and search the public Ad Library — all in natural language.

The server speaks the MCP authorization spec (2025-06-18), so it works as a remote connector anywhere Claude supports custom MCP servers — claude.ai (personal), Claude Desktop, and Claude Teams. Add one URL, click "Connect", sign in with LinkedIn, done. For a Teams plan, the org owner adds the URL once and each member individually authenticates on first use.

What you can do

Account & Campaign Management

• List and inspect ad accounts

• Create, update, and delete campaign groups and campaigns

• Manage creatives and update their status

• Upload images and create inline ads

Performance & Analytics

• Get campaign and creative performance metrics

• Compare performance across date ranges

• View daily trends

• Analyse audience demographics and reach

Conversions & Lead Gen

• Track conversion performance

• View lead gen form submissions and performance

Ad Library (Public)

• Search any advertiser's public LinkedIn ads

• Filter by country, date range, targeting categories, impression volume

• Useful for competitive research and creative inspiration

Related MCP server: ads-mcp

How auth works

There are two modes. Pick one.

Mode A — Local STDIO (one user, no server)

Use this if you only want it on your own machine. npm run auth runs the LinkedIn OAuth flow once and stores your token in ~/.linkedin-ads-mcp/tokens.json. Claude Desktop launches the server as a subprocess. No Firestore, no Cloud Run, no public URL.

Mode B — Remote HTTP server (Claude Teams, claude.ai, multi-user)

The MCP server is also an OAuth 2.1 authorization server. When Claude connects:

1. Claude discovers our metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource and /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server.

2. Claude registers itself via Dynamic Client Registration (POST /oauth/register).

3. Claude redirects the user to /oauth/authorize. We delegate identification to LinkedIn OAuth.

4. After LinkedIn login, we issue our own opaque bearer token to Claude — LinkedIn credentials never leave the server.

5. On each /mcp request Claude sends our bearer; we map it server-side to the right user's stored LinkedIn credentials and call the LinkedIn Marketing APIs.

A note on access control. LinkedIn returns whatever email the account was registered with — usually personal (gmail, hotmail, etc.) rather than work email. Domain-based restriction therefore isn't reliable. By default this MCP allows any LinkedIn user to connect; the security comes from LinkedIn's own permission model (each user only sees ad accounts their LinkedIn profile has access to). For tighter control, set ALLOWED_EMAILS to a comma-separated allow-list of LinkedIn-account emails.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+

• A LinkedIn Marketing Developer Platform-approved app

• A Google Cloud project (Mode B only)

Step 1 — Create a LinkedIn Developer App

1. Go to LinkedIn Developer Portal and create an app (or use an existing one).

2. Under Products, request:

   • Sign In with LinkedIn using OpenID Connect (gives openid email for user identification)

   • Marketing Developer Platform (gives r_ads, r_ads_reporting, rw_ads, r_organization_social, w_organization_social — required for the ads tools; access requires LinkedIn approval)

3. Under Auth → OAuth 2.0 settings → Authorized redirect URLs, add:

   • http://localhost:8080/oauth/callback (local dev)

   • https://YOUR-CLOUD-RUN-URL/oauth/callback (Mode B — add after deploy)

4. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret — you'll need them in the env config below.

Step 2 — Install

git clone https://github.com/dhawalshah/linkedin-ads-mcp
cd linkedin-ads-mcp
npm install
cp .env.example .env       # fill in values

Step 3 — Mode A: Local STDIO

npm run auth     # one-shot browser sign-in; saves token to ~/.linkedin-ads-mcp/tokens.json
npm run build

Then add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin-ads": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/linkedin-ads-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You're done — skip the rest.

Step 3 — Mode B: Remote HTTP server (Claude Teams / claude.ai)

Enable Firestore

The server stores OAuth bearer tokens and per-user LinkedIn credentials in Firestore.

1. In Cloud Console, Firestore → Create database → Native mode, pick a region.

2. Grant the Cloud Run service account Cloud Datastore User role under IAM & Admin → IAM.

Deploy to Cloud Run

gcloud run deploy linkedin-ads-mcp \
  --source . \
  --region YOUR_REGION \
  --project YOUR_PROJECT_ID \
  --platform managed \
  --port 8080 \
  --allow-unauthenticated \
  --set-env-vars "GCP_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id,BASE_URL=https://YOUR-SERVICE-URL.run.app,LINKEDIN_CLIENT_ID=...,LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET=..."

Recommended: store LINKEDIN_CLIENT_SECRET in Secret Manager and inject via --set-secrets rather than as a plain env var.

After it's up, go back to the LinkedIn Developer Portal and add the live callback URL:

https://YOUR-SERVICE-URL.run.app/oauth/callback

Connect from Claude

Claude Teams (org owner adds it once for everyone):

• Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector

• URL: https://YOUR-SERVICE-URL.run.app/mcp

• Each member clicks Connect, signs in with LinkedIn, done.

claude.ai personal:

• Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector

• URL: https://YOUR-SERVICE-URL.run.app/mcp

Claude Desktop with a remote server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "linkedin-ads": {
      "url": "https://YOUR-SERVICE-URL.run.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop will run the OAuth dance the first time you use it.

Environment Variables

Available Tools

Account & Campaign Management

Performance & Analytics

Audience & Demographics

Conversions & Lead Gen

Ad Library (Public)

Example Prompts

List my LinkedIn ad accounts

Show campaign performance for the last 30 days

Compare last week vs the week before for account 12345

Which industries are clicking most on campaign X?

What did my top creative drive in conversions last month?

Search the LinkedIn Ad Library for ads from Stripe in the US in 2026

OAuth endpoint reference (Mode B)

For developers who want to verify the implementation or write their own MCP client.

A GET /mcp without a valid bearer returns 401 with a WWW-Authenticate: Bearer resource_metadata="…" header pointing at the protected-resource metadata document, which is how a standards-compliant MCP client discovers the rest.

PKCE caveat: LinkedIn's OAuth implementation does not support PKCE on the upstream side, so PKCE is only enforced on the Claude → us channel. The us → LinkedIn channel uses a state parameter for CSRF protection.

Tech Stack

• TypeScript + Node 18+

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk — MCP server framework

• Express — HTTP server

• @google-cloud/firestore — per-user token storage and OAuth-server state (Mode B)

• Google Cloud Run — Serverless hosting

About Dhawal Shah

I run a 40-plus person digital marketing agency out of Singapore, and I build the automation my own teams use. This server is one of those tools rather than a weekend project: it runs against live LinkedIn Ads accounts every week, which is why the read-only surface is wide and the write surface is deliberately narrow.

Fourteen years building companies across Asia behind it. 5,000+ campaigns, 400+ brands, 30+ startups advised, and 300+ training sessions for teams including Sony, Toyota, DHL and Interpol. I am also an Accredited Director with the Singapore Institute of Directors, which in practice means I get asked what breaks, who is accountable and what it costs before anyone asks what it can do.

I write up the routines and agents I actually run at dhawalshah.net.

Worth reading alongside this repo: Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn & TikTok MCPs for Claude: Agency Setup Guide.

License

MIT