LinkedIn Connection Acceptance Rate by Industry
Cold connection requests are accepted 25% to 40% of the time across most B2B industries, and personalized ones reach 45% to 60%. Industry moves that band by roughly 15 points end to end. What industry changes more is what happens next: in our computed data, conversations with coaching and training contacts reached three or more replies 28.2% of the time, against 13.4% in finance and accounting.
Last updated: September 2026 · Next update: December 2026 · Methodology
Compiled: connection acceptance rate by industry
| Industry | Cold request |
|---|---|
| Coaching and training | 38–52% |
| Marketing and advertising | 35–48% |
| Recruitment and staffing | 33–46% |
| Professional services and consulting | 30–43% |
| Real estate and construction | 28–40% |
| Software and technology | 25–38% |
| Manufacturing and industrial | 24–36% |
| Healthcare and life sciences | 22–34% |
| Financial services | 20–32% |
| Government and public sector | 15–26% |
Compiled ranges, not measured. They sit around the 25–40% cold B2B average and the 45–60% personalized band published on our connection request acceptance benchmarks page, so the two pages agree.
Computed: what a connection is worth once it exists, by sector
| Sector in headline | Reached 3+ replies |
|---|---|
| Coaching and training | 28.2% |
| Marketing and advertising | 22.9% |
| Sales and business development | 19.6% |
| Software and technology | 17.0% |
| Recruitment and HR | 14.7% |
| Finance and accounting | 13.4% |
Six of the ten sectors we classify, ordered by conversation depth. Reached 3+ replies: conversations in which the other person sent three or more messages, divided by outbound-initiated conversations in that sector. Sector is a keyword match on the recipient's LinkedIn headline. Every row clears the floor of 8 sending accounts.
What industry actually changes
Cold acceptance band, most B2B
25–40%
Compiled. Same band as our acceptance benchmarks page
Spread across compiled industries
~15 pts
Compiled. Coaching high band against government low band
Depth gap, computed
14.8 pts
Computed. Coaching 28.2% against finance 13.4%
Conversations behind the computed table
3,329
Computed. Across the six sectors shown
Using an industry acceptance benchmark without fooling yourself
Acceptance is the cheapest step to move
A personalized note lifts the compiled band by roughly 20 points in every industry on this table. That is a larger move than switching industries entirely, and it costs one sentence.
High acceptance can mean low intent
Coaching, marketing and recruitment accept most readily because networking is part of the work. Recruitment sits third on acceptance and second from bottom on depth at 14.7%, so a full network there converts less than the acceptance number suggests.
Saturated sectors need a reason, not a note
Software and technology receives more requests than any other B2B sector, and it is also the largest sector in our computed data at 1,343 conversations with a 41.1% reply rate. The generic note fails there first.
Judge the list on depth, not on acceptance
Finance accepts less and replies less, at 38.3%, but a finance conversation is usually worth more per deal. Multiply the depth column by what a customer is worth before you rank industries.
One benchmark cannot cover two motions
An industry band assumes cold requests to strangers. If your requests follow content the person already read, use the warm numbers instead. Those run 65% to 80% on our acceptance benchmarks page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good LinkedIn connection acceptance rate by industry?
For cold requests, 25% to 40% covers most B2B industries. Coaching and training runs highest at 38–52%, marketing at 35–48%, software at 25–38%, financial services at 20–32% and government at 15–26%. Personalized requests add roughly 20 points in every industry. These are compiled ranges consistent with the 25–40% cold average on our acceptance benchmarks page.
Which industries accept the most LinkedIn connection requests?
The ones where networking is part of the job. Coaching and training, marketing and advertising, and recruitment sit at the top of the compiled table, between 33% and 52% for cold requests. Government, financial services and healthcare sit at the bottom, between 15% and 34%.
Why do software and technology contacts accept less often?
They receive more requests than any other B2B sector, so their filter is tighter. Software and technology is also the largest group in our computed data at 1,343 conversations, where the reply rate to a first message was 41.1%, close to the middle of our sector table. Getting accepted is the hard part there, not getting answered.
Is a 30% acceptance rate bad in a competitive industry?
No. In software, financial services or healthcare, 30% on cold requests sits inside the compiled band. It becomes a problem when the requests carry a personalized note, because that band starts at 38% to 44% depending on the sector.
Does acceptance rate predict whether the conversation goes anywhere?
Weakly, and sometimes it points the wrong way. Recruitment and HR accepts readily but reached three or more replies only 14.7% of the time in our computed data, while coaching and training reached that depth 28.2% of the time. Track depth as well as acceptance before you judge a list.
Should I change my connection note for each industry?
Change the reference, not the structure. What differs by industry is what counts as a specific reason: a named post in marketing, a named regulation in finance, a named tool in software. The pattern that works everywhere is one specific reason and no ask.
Methodology
Compiled acceptance ranges are drawn from published outbound benchmarks and reconciled against the approach-level figures on our connection request acceptance benchmarks page. LinkedIn does not expose per-industry acceptance data, and our own system records the conversation rather than the invitation, so no acceptance figure on this page is presented as measured.
Computed figures were run on 2026-09-09 across the 10,922 LinkedIn conversations in which our side sent the first message, from 17 sending accounts, drawn from 100,861 messages in 14,577 conversations.
Reached 3+ replies. Numerator: conversations in which the other person sent three or more messages. Denominator: outbound-initiated conversations in that sector. Any reply uses the same denominator with a numerator of at least one message back.
Sector is a keyword match against the recipient's LinkedIn headline, applied in a fixed order so each conversation lands in one sector. 6,661 of the 10,922 conversations carry a headline.
Six of the ten classified sectors are shown, chosen to span the depth range. The full ten-sector table is published on our InMail response rate by industry page.
Every published row covers at least 15 sending accounts. No conversation, contact, company or message text is exposed.
Compiled ranges reconciled against the approach bands on our own connection request acceptance benchmarks page and published B2B outbound benchmarks. Computed figures from Creator's anonymized LinkedIn DM dataset.
Understand the terms
Connection Acceptance Rate
Share of connection requests that get accepted.
Connection Request
Invite to add someone to your first-degree network.
Conversation Depth
How many messages the other person sends across a thread.
Open Networker
Someone who accepts most requests regardless of context.
ICP
Ideal Customer Profile, who is worth messaging at all.
List Quality
How closely the people you message match who should be buying.
LinkedIn Content Playbook
Every industry accepts a name it has already seen in the feed.
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