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Targeting audiences on LinkedIn without using Sales Navigator

If you use LinkedIn for acquisition or network building, selecting the right target audience is crucial. Even without the Sales Navigator, you can already find and filter many suitable contacts through the regular LinkedIn search.

This article explains how to use LinkedIn’s people search and how to narrow down your target audience as precisely as possible.

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Starting the Right Search

The first step is to use the LinkedIn search function.

  1. Open the search bar at the top of LinkedIn.

  2. Then select “People” as your search category.

This ensures that LinkedIn only shows you profiles of people, not posts, groups, or companies.

 

Selecting the Right Network Level

When you want to expand your network or send invitations, the degree of connection is important.

The recommended options are:

• 2nd degree

• 3rd degree

These people are connected to you through mutual contacts and can be directly invited.

1st degree means you are already connected, so these contacts are not relevant for new invitations.

 

Important Filters for Your Target Audience

After the initial search, you can further narrow down your target audience through “All Filters.”

Typical filters include.

 

Location

Here you can select countries or regions, such as:

• Germany

• Austria

• Switzerland

Depending on your target audience, a combination of several countries may also make sense.

 

Industry

The industry helps you target specific professional groups.

Examples of typical office or knowledge work include:

• IT Services and IT Consulting

• Computer Software

• Marketing and Advertising

• Internet

• Financial Services

You can also type a letter into the industry field and scroll through LinkedIn’s suggestions.

 

Language

If your content or messages are in German, it may be helpful to consider the profile language.

Many people work in German-speaking countries but have profiles in other languages.

Typical selection:

• German

• English

 

Searching for Specific Positions

Using the Position/Title field, you can target specific roles.

Example:

• Manager

• Project Manager

You can combine multiple terms here.

 

Combining Multiple Positions (OR)

If you want to target multiple positions at once, you can connect them with OR.

Example:

Manager OR Project Manager

Important:

• OR must be capitalized

• LinkedIn will then search for profiles that contain at least one of these terms.

 

Excluding Specific Positions (AND NOT)

Sometimes you want to specifically exclude certain roles.

To do this, use AND NOT.

Example:

Manager AND NOT “Innovation Manager”

Notes:

• AND NOT must also be capitalized.

• If multiple words are used, quotation marks should be used.

This will remove profiles with that title from the results.

 

Always Review the Results Briefly

After setting the filters:

  1. Click on “Show results.”

  2. Open several profiles from the search results.

  3. Check if these people really fit your target audience.

If the results are not optimal, you can always further adjust the filters.

 

Limitations of the Regular LinkedIn Search

The standard LinkedIn search is functional but has some limitations:

• Fewer filtering options

• Limited combination possibilities

• Lower precision in audience targeting

For more extensive prospecting, the Sales Navigator is often used, offering significantly more search and filter options.

 

Conclusion

Even without Sales Navigator, you can already search for suitable contacts on LinkedIn. What’s crucial:

• Use the people search

• Focus on 2nd and 3rd-degree contacts

• Targeted filters by location, industry, and position

• Combining search terms with OR and AND NOT

With these settings, you can already narrow down your target audience and make network building more structured.