LinkedIn B2B outreach statistics: Belkins’ 2025 study
Author
Sophie Kompaniiets
Sophie is a content writer and strategist at Belkins and Folderly with years of experience in the B2B space.
Reviewed by
Yuriy Boyko
Head of AM at Belkins. Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
Published:2025-07-11
Reading time:13 min
We’ve teamed up with Expandi to gain valuable insights into LinkedIn outreach performance. Expandi’s proprietary data, derived from over 20 million outreach attempts run through their LinkedIn automation platform from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, offers a comprehensive view of current trends and benchmarks for cold outreach on LinkedIn.
In this article, we’ll explore how factors such as personalization, timing, seasonal trends, audience, campaign types, and nurturing actions influence LinkedIn engagement rates.
Key takeaways on average LinkedIn outreach rates:
Including a personalized message in a connection request significantly boosts the reply rate (9.36%) compared to no message (5.44%).
AI-driven first messages result in a higher response rate (4.19%) compared to non-AI messages (2.60%), but follow-up messages perform slightly better without AI.
Tuesday has the highest LinkedIn reply rates (6.90%), followed closely by Monday (6.85%), while weekend replies drop significantly to 6.40% on Saturdays.
The legal and professional services sectors show the highest response rate at 10.42%, while software and SaaS industries have the lowest at 4.77%.
Southern Europe leads with the highest reply rate (11.81%), followed by South America (9.71%) and Northern Europe (9.41%).
Campaigns that combine a direct message with additional actions, such as profile visits, achieve significantly higher reply rates (up to 11.87%) compared to single-action campaigns.
How personalization and AI influence LinkedIn response rates
How adding a message to your LinkedIn connection request influences connection acceptance rate
There is little difference in connection acceptance rates of requests that include messages and those that do not (26.42% vs. 26.37%, respectively).
However, adding even a brief message leads to a significantly higher response rate of 9.36%, suggesting that personalized outreach drives greater engagement and makes recipients more likely to respond. Without a message, the average response rate drops to 5.44%.
“If your primary goal is to expand your network, connection requests without a message perform just as well. However, if you aim to initiate conversations or generate leads, always include a short, relevant, and personalized message to significantly boost your chances of receiving a reply. Even 2 well-crafted sentences can make a significant difference.”
Yuriy Boyko, Head of account management at Belkins
Performance of LinkedIn messages with vs. without AI assistance
AI appears to positively impact first-message engagement, resulting in a higher overall reply rate. While follow-up messages perform slightly better without AI, the overall effectiveness remains higher when AI is used.
With AI, the initial engagement rate is significantly better, with a 4.19% reply rate compared to 2.60% without AI. However, later follow-up messages see a slight edge without AI, with a 3.91% reply rate versus 3.48% with AI. Still, the total reply rate is higher with AI at 7.66%, compared to 6.50% without.
This indicates that AI-assisted messages are more effective at engaging recipients during the initial outreach.
“In LinkedIn outreach, personalizing questions and making them open to opinion increases the likelihood of a response, and AI is a valuable tool for achieving this personalization. While AI is not perfect and requires human oversight, it can significantly optimize outreach efforts, and its role will likely expand in automated communication over the next few years.”
Gerda Vaidotaitė, Customer support and onboarding/strategies specialist at Expandi
The best time to send LinkedIn messages
How LinkedIn response rate changes throughout the week
The overall range in reply rates is narrow (6.40%–6.90%), but consistent patterns reveal an early-week advantage and a weekend decline. While the difference may seem small numerically, even a 0.05% increase in large-scale outreach can translate into dozens of additional replies — particularly important for demand generation and prospecting teams.
Tuesday stands out as the best-performing day for LinkedIn replies, with an average reply rate of 6.90%, closely followed by Monday at 6.85%.
Wednesday (6.62%) and Thursday (6.63%) represent a midweek plateau, indicating stable but slightly lower engagement. This suggests that as the week progresses, users shift their focus from external messages to internal tasks.
By Friday, the reply rate drops to 6.58%. The flat response from Wednesday to Friday shows that once the early-week peak passes, user engagement levels out before tapering off into the weekend.
Saturday sees the lowest reply rate (6.40%), followed by Sunday at 6.47%, indicating a reduction in professional activity and less attention given to LinkedIn interactions over the weekend.
“Professionals are most likely to review and respond to messages early in the workweek, when their schedules are more structured and motivation is higher. As the week goes on, mental fatigue and shifting priorities (e.g., deadlines, meetings) reduce responsiveness. The weekend dip reflects a typical disengagement from professional platforms.”
Yuriy Boyko, Head of account management at Belkins
How LinkedIn replies change throughout the year
The variation in reply rates from January to December is minimal, with only about a 1.15% difference between the best and worst months. The reply rates consistently ranged from 6.5% to 7.5%, indicating steady performance throughout the year. Given this stability, a year-round LinkedIn outreach strategy remains effective, with only minor adjustments needed each month.
Best months for outreach
January leads with the highest reply rate of 7.51%. This marks a strong start to the year, as professionals return refreshed after the holidays and are open to networking and new opportunities.
April also sees a notable peak (7.26%), likely driven by post-Q1 review momentum.
July surprisingly ranks third, with a 7% reply rate, despite the summer holiday season.
Lowest-performing months for outreach
The lowest reply rates occur in Q4, with October (6.36%), November (6.43%), and December (6.44%) seeing the weakest performance. These months are often filled with holidays, end-of-year workloads, and strategic wrap-ups. It’s advisable to reduce heavy outreach during this period unless focusing on nurturing warm leads.
“January's dip in reply rates is due to the holiday season and the slow return to work, with people focused on personal matters. Filter your target audience and send short, strategic messages that don't feel like direct selling. Focus on sending messages in the second half of January. Also, send a message offering an option to revisit the discussion in a week or two when the recipient’s schedule is less busy. And don’t forget to automate follow-up messages to keep the conversation alive without being pushy.”
Gerda Avaidotaite, Customer support and onboarding/strategies specialist at Expandi
How different industries engage with LinkedIn messages
How we analyzed the data: To enhance clarity and reduce noise, we’ve grouped over 100 industries from Expandi’s LinkedIn performance data into 8 high-level verticals. Each vertical reflects the average reply rate across all related subindustries, calculated by averaging their individual reply rates. These averages are not weighted by campaign volume, meaning that smaller sectors may have a slight impact on the overall figures.
Legal & professional services lead with the highest reply rate at 10.42%, likely due to the consultative, relationship-driven nature of the work. Healthcare (9.25%) and retail & consumer goods (9.17%) also show strong responsiveness.
The software & SaaS industry, on the other hand, is the least responsive, with a reply rate of just 4.77%. This tech-heavy sector may be experiencing message fatigue, particularly from automation-heavy approaches.
Other sectors, such as education, marketing, and construction, fall into the solid midrange, with reply rates typically between 7% and 9%.
How users in different countries engage with LinkedIn messages
This overview reflects LinkedIn outreach performance across 9 global regions based on data from over 80 countries in the Expandi dataset. The data reveals significant variation in LinkedIn reply rates by region.
Southern Europe leads globally, with a reply rate of 11.81%. Countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal are particularly responsive to LinkedIn messages, surpassing all other regions.
South America (9.71%) and Northern Europe (9.41%) also show strong engagement in professional networking. Australia & Oceania (8.83%) and Eastern Europe (8.68%) follow closely, offering solid potential for outreach campaigns.
At 7.24%, the Middle East ranks lowest in responsiveness and may require culturally tailored messaging and a relationship-first approach to improve engagement.
How LinkedIn replies differ based on recipient job title
Certain job functions show significantly different LinkedIn reply rates. This chart highlights the top performers, mid-tier roles, and those that may require a more tailored approach to capture attention.
HR and talent acquisition roles lead with the highest reply rate at 12.08%, likely due to their active use of LinkedIn for recruitment and potential partnerships.
Product (10.24%) and operations (10.02%) follow closely as strong performers. These roles often seek innovative tools or partnerships to optimize workflows and meet KPIs.
C-level executives (6.98%) and VPs/directors (6.98%) see a decline in replies, while marketing (6.40%), sales (6.32%), and customer success (6%) show the lowest engagement. Though still viable, these roles require more personalized messaging, clearer ROI, or attention-grabbing subject lines to boost response rates.
Correlation between LinkedIn campaign types and average engagement rates
Within Expandi, there are various LinkedIn campaign types available for automated outreach, each tailored to different lead engagement strategies. The data below presents statistics based on these campaign types, highlighting trends in reply rates across each.
Expandi campaign results: The low performers
The Mobile Connector Campaign shows the lowest total response rate (3.81%), with most replies coming later (3.53% later reply and 0.28% first). It means that, while some leads are willing to engage at first, they are more responsive to follow-up messages.
The Builder Campaign performs somewhat better (5.16% a total reply rate) than the Mobile Connector Campaign. However, the first reply rate is very low (0.11%), indicating that first messages aren't generating much engagement.
The LinkedIn InMail Campaign stands out with the highest overall response rate (6.38%), and importantly, all responses come from the first reply, with no later replies. The lack of later replies may suggest that the campaign is highly effective at sparking initial interest but lacks the follow-up or ongoing engagement needed to maintain the conversation.
The Connector Campaign has the highest total reply rate (7.85%), with a balanced mix of first (3.95%) and later replies (3.91%). This campaign appears to have a more evenly distributed response pattern, with a strong proportion of replies coming after the initial outreach.
Expandi campaign results: The top performers
Campaigns that offer warmer intent or context — like Messenger, Inbound Visitor, and EventCampaigns — consistently deliver great results, reaching total reply rates above 10%.
Messenger Campaigns lead with 11.72% total reply rate, showing strong results across both first and follow-up messages.
Group Campaigns perform especially well on the first message (9.39%) — ideal for engaging warm leads or retargeted traffic.
Event and Group Campaigns also punch above their weight, tapping into shared interests and peer connection dynamics.
“Messenger Campaigns are so effective because they target 1st-degree connections, which fosters higher trust and visibility, as messages land directly in the inbox with less competition. To improve, it’s essential to keep messaging contextual, segment the audience precisely, and space follow-ups to maintain engagement.”
How nurturing actions impact reply rates in builder campaigns
The original dataset includes 475 unique action combinations, ranging from single-touch interactions to campaigns utilizing 5 or more actions in sequence, such as profile visits, post likes, or follows. To provide actionable insights without overwhelming the reader, we’ve focused this analysis on:
Single-action campaigns — using just 1 touchpoint
2-action campaigns — the most common and scalable multitouch sequences
Single-action campaign results
By isolating these patterns, we can better understand what drives replies and how to balance visibility actions with message-based outreach.
Sending a direct message yields the highest reply rate (4.88%), outperforming all other single actions. Connection requests follow with a reply rate of 3.53%, showing moderate effectiveness when used alone.
Passive actions like profile visits, post likes, and emails (without follow-up or a message) generate virtually no replies. This confirms that passive touches alone are seldom sufficient. Genuine engagement begins with a direct message.
2-action campaigns results
When we isolated builder campaigns using exactly 2 actions, 1 pattern stood out — campaigns combining a message with a visit achieved an impressive 11.87% reply rate, far outperforming all other 2-action sequences.
Pairing a connection request with a visit (4.65%) or a message (4.41%) also showed effectiveness, indicating that soft warm-ups can support outreach when followed by a message.
Other common combinations, such as visit + follow, visit + like, or visit + email, saw near-zero reply rates, reinforcing the idea that passive touches alone don’t drive engagement.
In short, genuine engagement starts with a message, but a light warm-up can enhance results.
The number of nurture actions and reply rates
How we analyzed the data: We analyzed campaigns based on the number of nurturing actions, ranging from 1 to 5. The table presents the average reply rate for each category without focusing on the specific types of follow-up messages or other details.
The data shows a steady increase in reply rates as the number of nurturing actions rises. More nurturing actions generally lead to higher reply rates. For instance, 1 nurturing action results in a 1.07% reply rate, while 5 nurturing actions yield a 5.26% reply rate.
This suggests a near-linear increase, with the correlation between the number of nurturing actions and the reply rate being very close to +1, confirming a strong and consistent relationship between the 2 variables.
The insights provided in this analysis are based on internal Expandi’s platform data extracted from their database. These datasets track LinkedIn outreach campaigns and contact-level engagement activity.
Focused on understanding performance variations by job title/seniority, industry, and geography, a total of ± 13,000 unique LinkedIn accounts were included in this segment-based study.
The study showed reply performance by month, day of the week, and campaign type structure, and over 20 million outreach attempts were included across all analyses.
The datasets cover activity from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024.
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Content writer and strategist at Belkins and Folderly
Sophie is a content writer and strategist with years of experience in the B2B space. She collaborates with industry experts to collect expert information and turn it into actionable insights.
Expert
Yuriy Boyko
Head of Account Management at Belkins
Yuriy has been working in the B2B sales sector for more than a decade. His approach is the integration of scientific methods combined with thinking out of the box, allowing to achieve the highest results in any industry.
