I Have A Problem With The Term 'Thought Leadership Ads'

Forbes

2 days ago

With LinkedIn's thought leadership ads, the line between genuine insight and paid promotion is ... More blurring—raising questions about what thought leadership really means.
Recently, I saw a webinar titled 'LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads.' The name alone made my stomach churn.
For a moment, I thought I had misread it.
Surely, this wasn't real—surely, no one had decided to mash together the words 'thought leadership' and 'advertisement' into a serious marketing product.
But yes, it was true. LinkedIn now has a format called thought leadership ads, which lets companies sponsor posts from individuals—typically their own executives or employees—to promote thought leadership.
As someone who has spent the past decades studying, practicing, and teaching the art of writing, particularly for B2B companies, I can't help but feel that this development is not just a misstep. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what thought leadership is and what it's meant to do.
Let me be clear: Thought leadership is not a campaign. It's not a post. It's not a shiny new format for marketers to test. It's a philosophy and a practice rooted in generosity.
At its best, thought leadership is the long game of building trust by offering something meaningful and valuable—ideas, perspectives, frameworks—for free, in service of your audience.
When I teach writing for thought leadership, I emphasize that thought leadership emerges when an expert becomes an idea guide. This person doesn't just share information—they serve their audience by helping them solve important problems. That's the price of admission: usefulness. Not visibility. Not virality. Admission requires relevance and usefulness.
What makes the thought leadership ad format so jarring is the contradiction at its core. Sponsoring someone's post and calling it 'thought leadership' undermines the entire premise of what we're trying to build in this space. Thought leadership isn't supposed to be transactional. You don't get to buy your way in. You earn it through creativity and critical thinking.
Thought Leadership Ads: From Individual Voice to Brand Megaphone
Let's look closer at what these ads actually do.
Companies can now promote posts from their executives' personal profiles—meaning, you're scrolling through LinkedIn and see a thoughtful update from someone who seems like an expert in their field. But look again. In small letters, you may notice: 'Promoted by [Company Name].'
The brand is paying for that message to reach you. The post hasn't organically pleased the LinkedIn algorithm. It's strategically distributed paid media—and the label is subtle enough that many users may not realize what they're seeing is an ad.
This kind of stealth branding muddies the waters between genuine expertise and corporate messaging.
Companies are right to be engaging their experts for their content, but I believe we need clearer labeling which gives us the ability to tell the difference between a hard-won idea and a boosted post. I'd like to see labeling as clear as the difference between a newspaper's opinion page and it's sponsored sections.
The Real Problem: Dilution of the Term Thought Leadership
In small ways, I've been working for higher standards in thought leadership for years. LinkedIn's ad format worries me because it pulls us in the opposite direction. Just as groups like the Global Thought Leadership Institute are working to define and professionalize this practice, LinkedIn's feature invites a flood of performative, pay-to-play content.
In an environment where the term thought leadership is stretched to include individuals' posts promoted with budget, thought leadership as a practice is diluted. And when a term loses its meaning, it loses its power.
That's not just a branding issue. It's a credibility issue.
How can professionals be expected to invest in their own deep thinking, original research, or courageous opinion writing when branded soundbites dressed up as fresh thinking are the norm?
Let's Call Thought Leadership Ads What They Are—Advertising
Let's face it. Thought leadership ads are not a clever evolution of thought leadership—they're just another kind of advertising. Such posts may actually contain expertise, but make no mistake: These are ads. They are bought. They are targeted. They are tracked. And I'd venture to say that they're engineered for engagement more than insight.
Let's stop confusing the medium with the message. Just because an idea is sponsored doesn't make it unworthy—but we must label it front and center for what it is. Thought leadership is a standard we should preserve, not a term we should co-opt for clicks.
Here are some ideas about how LinkedIn could rename the labels for the actual posts.
And here are some ideas about what the product could be called:
Any of these would be better than calling them thought leadership ads. More importantly, a new product name wouldn't hijack a phrase that many professionals have worked hard to live up to.
If we allow this blurring to continue, we risk undermining everything that real thought leadership is meant to stand for: courage, clarity, curiosity, and the willingness to give without asking for anything in return.
Why The Name Of Promoted Posts Matters
This isn't about semantics. It's about values.
Thought leadership, when practiced well, is about helping others. It's about taking risks with your thinking. It's about earning trust over time—not buying it in the moment. That distinction matters, especially when we're drowning in content and starving for substance.
It matters even more for the people doing this work—professionals who are putting in the effort to frame their ideas, test their hypotheses, research deeply and write with the reader in mind. If we tell them that the only way to be seen is to pay, we're telling them that the hard work doesn't matter. That the system rewards visibility over value.
That's a message I don't want to support.
Going Deep Instead of Going Wide
The best thought leadership doesn't come from amplification. It comes from intention. It comes from doing the deep work of identifying the real problems your audience faces and offering insights that help them move forward. No ad can manufacture that.
As the autor of Write Like a Thought Leader, I want to say, clearly and unequivocally: advertising is not thought leadership. Yes, thought leadership is in service of a product or service you're selling, but advertising language should not be part of it.
In my view, you can't buy trust with thought leadership ads. You can't promote your way to authority. And you can't call something 'leadership' if it doesn't begin with service.