Best LinkedIn Advanced Search Guide (+ Video Tutorial 2025)

If you’ve ever found yourself endlessly scrolling through irrelevant profiles on LinkedIn, you’re not alone.

Whether you’re a salesperson, recruiter, freelancer, or jobseeker, the basic search just doesn’t cut it when you need to find specific people.

For example:

• CEOs in finance

• Marketing managers in London,

• Or tech leads at startups.

That’s where LinkedIn’s advanced search and premium filters come in handy.

They let you zero in on the exact people you want to connect with, saving time and frustration.

But there’s a catch: Most users don’t know how to use these tools properly, and if you get it wrong, you stand the chance of missing out on a whole pool of prospects.

This guide will walk you step-by-step through LinkedIn’s advanced and premium search filters, Boolean search tricks, and time-saving strategies so you can start finding the right people.

(This is how our agency uses LinkedIn advanced search to help our clients find 1 lead per day. Interested in a more tailored approach? Book a free 15-minute strategy session with the CEO of SalesBread, Jack Reamer.)

What Is LinkedIn Advanced Search?

A LinkedIn advanced search basically means going beyond simple search features and digging deeper to find the right people to reach out to.

LinkedIn mentions that you can search results based on 50+ attributes.

It’s only available through LinkedIn Premium, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or Recruiter. (Which you have to pay for.) Luckily, pricing isn’t bad at all; For $99 per month for Sales Nav Core, you will be able to use a ton of different filters to get ultra-targeted with your list building.

Some advanced search filters include:

Searches for people:

• Keywords (Search across headline, summary, experience, etc.)

• Title (Current, past, or include/exclude with Boolean logic (e.g., “NOT intern”)

• Seniority Level (Owner, Partner, CXO, VP, Director, Manager, Entry, etc.)

• Function (Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Operations, HR, IT, etc.)

• Company (Current, past, or include/exclude specific companies.)

• Company Headcount (1–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, etc.)

• Company Type (Public, Private, Non-Profit, Self-employed, etc.)

• Company Headquarters Location (Where the company is based.)

• Current Company (Target leads at specific companies).

• Past Company (For targeting alumni or job switchers.)

• Years in Current Position (Great for targeting recently promoted execs.)

• Years at Current Company

• Years of Experience

• Group Memberships (Target people in niche interests or professional groups.)

• Posted Content Keywords (Find users posting about a specific topic (e.g., “AI” or “cold email”).

• Spotlights (Filter for:) Changed jobs in the last 90 days, shared experiences with you, posted on LinkedIn in the past 30 days, mentioned in the news

• TeamLink connections

• Connection Level (1st, 2nd, 3rd+ degree)

• Geography (Filter by country, state, city, or region.)

• Industry (Note: This can be inaccurate (it’s user-selected), so use with care.)

• Profile Language (Useful for international targeting.)

• School

Job searches

• Date Posted (This will help you find the most recent listings)

• Experience levels

• Remote or on-site roles.

• Job type (This can mean full-time, part-time time or contract.)

• Easy Apply jobs

Company searches

These help you build lists of companies to target:

• Company Name

• Company Headcount

• Headquarters Location

• Company Type (Public, Private, Educational, Government, etc.)

• Industry

• Revenue (for certain plans)

• Technology Used (Sales Navigator Advanced Plus) Filter companies by tech stack (e.g., HubSpot, AWS, Salesforce).

• Department Size (e.g., Marketing team size at a company)

• Hiring Activity (See if companies are actively hiring for roles.)

• Funding Events (Target newly funded startups.)

• Recent Job Changes (Company-level changes, like hiring new execs.)

LinkedIn Basic Search vs. Advanced Search – What’s the difference?

The main difference between basic LinkedIn search and advanced search comes down to how granular you can get with your filters.

With the free, basic search, you can look up:

• People by name

• Keyword

• Company

• Or location

• School

You can also apply a few simple filters like: Current company, industry, or connections.

It’s fine for general browsing, but it quickly becomes limiting when you need to find specific types of professionals.

This is where LinkedIn’s advanced search comes in.

Advanced search unlocks filters like job seniority, years of experience, company size, function, and more.

You can also use Boolean search (AND, OR, NOT) to get hyper-targeted results.

You can also save leads and build custom lead lists, which is really valuable for salespeople and recruiters.

If you’re trying to generate leads, hire talent, or reach decision-makers, advanced search gives you the depth and accuracy that the basic version simply can’t.

Why Use Advanced Search on LinkedIn?

If you want to build rather targeted lists and deep dive into your ideal audience, use LinkedIn’s advanced search filters.

Yes, it’s not 100% perfect, (we will explain why in a bit.) But it’s still going to help you build a pretty damn refined list.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your best customers are Christian Marketers who live in Florida.

How can you use LinkedIn to expose “advanced” demographics/psychographics like religious beliefs?

(Hint: You won’t find my references on their work experience sections.)

Instead, use Sales Navigator to find Christian marketers who live in Florida.

If you’re not using the group’s filter, you’re not going to find these specific markets.

There are groups on Sales Navigator for Christian professionals.

(We chose religion for the example, as this would be the most challenging target for Sales Navigator to pull up, we imagine.)

And you can imagine the application.

We have even made lists where we wanted to go after lawyers who themselves were really interested in marketing for one of our campaigns.

There are many, many legal marketing groups, and I pulled out all the individuals there, and then they had to match another set of criteria.

So when we developed this list, we knew that we would be speaking to lawyers who care about marketing themselves.

If you can build super refined lists, you’re not going to waste time reaching out to prospects who aren’t interested in what you have to offer.

This will also ensure that you have higher conversions because you’re chatting to people who need what you’re selling, who have the budget, and who are the right decision makers.

How to Use a LinkedIn Advanced Search

This video will explain how we use LinkedIn’s advanced search at SalesBread for list building. It includes tips and tricks for refining your list for better results.

Advanced Search for People (Leads) in linkedin sales navigator

Step 1:
Go to LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

Step 2:
Click on “Lead Filters” in the top menu bar.

Step 3:
Apply the following filters to narrow down your search:

• Keywords (e.g., “cold email” or “demand generation”)

• Title (e.g., “Marketing Director”)

• Seniority Level (e.g., C-level, Director)

• Function (e.g., Marketing, Sales)

• Geography (e.g., United States, UK)

• Industry (e.g., SaaS, Health Tech)

• Company Headcount (e.g., 51–200 employees)

• Years in Current Role or Company

• Past/Current Company (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce)

Step 4:
Click “Search” to view results.

Advanced Search for Companies (Accounts) in Sales Navigator

Step 1:
In Sales Navigator, click on “Account Filters.”

Step 2:
Use these filters:

• Company headcount (e.g., 11–50)

• Location (e.g., Europe)

• Industry (e.g., Internet, Information Technology)

• Annual revenue (if available)

• Department headcount (e.g., 1–5 in marketing)

• Technologies used (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce)
  (Note: Technology filter depends on your plan and integrations.)

Step 3:
Click “Search” to generate a list of target companies.

Advanced Search for Jobs

Sales Navigator doesn’t have a dedicated “Jobs” tab like free LinkedIn, but you can still find hiring signals.

Step 1:
Use Lead Filters to search for people with new roles:

• Spotlight > Changed jobs in the past 90 days

• Combine with Title (e.g., “VP of Marketing”)

• And Industry/Company Headcount/Location

Step 2:
Use this to identify fast-growing companies that are hiring, a strong sales signal.

Search for People on LinkedIn (Free Version)

Here’s a simple way to use LinkedIn filters to search for people on LinkedIn if you don’t have Sales Navigator.

Remember, this is a very basic search, and if you would like to get more granular results, we suggest using LinkedIn Premium.

Step 1:

Go to the LinkedIn homepage and click on the search bar at the top.

Step 2:

Type in a keyword related to the person you want to find.

Example: “email marketing”

Step 3:

Press Enter to bring up the results.

Step 4: (Further down in the article, we will show you an awesome hack for this.)

Click on the “People” tab to filter the results to individuals.

Step 5:

Now click “All Filters” (top right of the results page).

Step 6:

Apply more advanced filters, including:

• Connections (1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree)

• Current Company (e.g., HubSpot)

• Past Company

• Location (e.g., New York)

• Industry (e.g., Marketing & Advertising)

• Profile Language

• School (e.g., Stanford)

Step 7:

Click “Show results” to view your filtered list.

How to Use LinkedIn Search Filters The SalesBread Way (+ Mistakes People Make)

Our findings have found that LinkedIn Sales Navigator is only 33% accurate.

So we actually go off Sales Navigator and use third-party data to help us build ultra-refined lists.

But there are some hacks that you can use to get the best results from Sales Nav.

Tips for using the keyword tool

At first glance, the keyword search tool on LinkedIn Sales Navigator seems like it should be incredibly useful, but in reality, it often falls short.

You might think that typing in a keyword like “cold emailing” would give you a list of profiles that specifically mention “cold emailing”.

Seems logical, right?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

Often, profiles are going to pop up that don’t mention the keyword at all.

For example, in the screenshot below, we entered “cold emailing” into the keyword search bar.

It produced a ton of profiles, but when we clicked on the very first result, Neville Oyiti, we found no mention of “cold emailing” on his profile, despite it being the exact keyword used.

Use an X Ray / Boolean search in Google

This is how you do it…

In your Google search bar, type:  site:linkedin.com/in “cold email” OR “cold emailing”

When you run an X-ray search like this, Google will actually show you profiles that include the keyword, with near 100% accuracy.

That’s because Google can crawl and index all public LinkedIn profiles, and its search technology is significantly more advanced than LinkedIn’s own.

We first discovered the power of Boolean search through a great resource called Boolean Black Belt, definitely worth checking out if you want to dive deeper (you can read more [here]).

Take a look at the screenshot above: every single result includes the term “cold emailing” in the profile. That’s the power of X-ray search.

It’s a simple but super effective workaround to the often unreliable keyword filter inside Sales Navigator. If you’re looking for better, more relevant results, skip the internal search and let Google do the heavy lifting.

You could even add more keywords for role, location, and even jobs:

Here are some more examples:

Location filter:

• site:linkedin.com/in “cold email” “New York” -jobs -careers

Role-based search (sales or growth):

• site:linkedin.com/in (“cold email” AND (“sales” OR “outreach” OR “growth”)) -jobs -careers

Company-specific:

site:linkedin.com/in “cold email” “Apollo.io” -jobs -careers

Use a Boolean search for negative keywords in LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If you’re building a list of people in B2B marketing but want to avoid irrelevant roles like interns, entry-level candidates, or those in customer support, you can use the “NOT” keyword to clean up your results.

Just type “NOT” (in all caps) before any term you want to exclude, and LinkedIn will remove those profiles from your search, keeping your list focused on the people who matter to your outreach.

Here’s how to do it, step by step:

Step 1:
In the job title field, type something you want to exclude, like “customer support.”

Step 2:
Press Enter to add the keyword.

Step 3:
Hover your mouse over the small “no entry” icon next to the keyword, and it’ll turn red. This marks the term as a negative keyword.

Step 4:
Click to activate it. You can add up to 50 negative keywords, such as “intern,” “junior,” “assistant,” “student,” or “customer service.”

This technique is incredibly useful when you’re targeting mid- to senior-level professionals and want to avoid cluttering your list with people outside your ideal buyer profile.

Be careful of the industry filter

While Sales Navigator does let you filter by criteria like “technology” and company size, the industry tag is often unreliable. We have even noticed that in some cases, 50% of the industry tag data is incorrect.

Why? Because the industry field on LinkedIn is user-selected.

That means businesses can categorize themselves however they see fit.

For instance, a fitness app company could choose from “Health, Wellness and Fitness,” “Tech,” or “Computer Software.” If they select “Tech,” but you’re filtering for “Health and Wellness,” you’ll miss them entirely.

This can cause you to overlook huge chunks of your target market, just because companies have chosen different categories.

Here’s another example:

Suppose your company wants to target computer software businesses.

You set “Computer Software” as your industry filter in Sales Navigator.

Sounds logical, but you’re immediately missing dozens (if not hundreds) of relevant SaaS companies that may be categorized under “Internet” or “Information Technology & Services” instead.

The reality is: Sales Navigator doesn’t offer enough granularity for detailed industry segmentation. That’s why we always recommend pairing it with third-party tools.

One tool we rely on is Crunchbase, which allows you to search using advanced account filters tailored for B2B companies like SaaS.

It helps uncover many businesses that would otherwise be missed on LinkedIn. This is why it helps to use third-party data providers to build refined lists first.

Once we have created the perfect list, we then feed each account into LinkedIn Sales Navigator to start grabbing the correct people to go after.

This is BY FAR the best way to go about the industry filter, as it ensures the right target audience. 

How to use the seniority filters correctly

One filter that often causes confusion is the seniority level filter.

Here’s the issue:

LinkedIn’s algorithm ranks “manager” as a higher seniority level than “senior,” which is counterintuitive for many users.

Most people naturally assume that “senior” implies more experience or a higher position than “manager,” but that’s not how Sales Navigator classifies it.

What many don’t realize is that LinkedIn does not allow users to manually select their seniority level. Instead, LinkedIn uses an internal algorithm that interprets job titles and assigns a seniority rank based on that logic.

So, even if someone’s title is “Senior Marketing Specialist,” Sales Navigator may place them lower in the hierarchy than someone simply titled “Marketing Manager.”

This mismatch can skew your LinkedIn advanced search targeting if you’re relying heavily on seniority filters.

Focus on using exact-match keywords to target the right decision-makers.

Seniority filters alone won’t always help you reach the right people, so it’s more effective to manually enter specific job titles into the search bar.

Think in terms of the exact roles you’re after: type in titles like “Director,” “Chief Financial Officer,” “Head of Marketing,” or any C-level titles that match your ideal prospect profile.

By using a wide variety of relevant keywords, you’ll have much greater control over who shows up in your results.

Other LinkedIn Premium search filters for Targeted Results

LinkedIn Groups Filter

If you want to build a super-targeted list of high-intent leads, try using LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s Groups filter.

Why does it work so well?

Because it lets you go beyond standard firmographics (like industry or job title) and instead tap into psychographic targeting. This means shared interests, values, and behaviors.

Here’s an example:

Suppose your ideal clients are startup founders who are obsessed with productivity and run remote teams.

You won’t find that level of detail by filtering for job titles alone.

You need insight into what they care about.

That’s where the Groups filter comes in.

Here’s what you do:

Search for groups like:

• “Remote Founders Network”
• “Notion Power Users”
• “Productivity for Entrepreneurs”
• “Async First Founders”

These kinds of groups signal something deeper than a job title; they reveal a mindset, an interest, a pain point.

Once you identify a group that fits your niche, use Sales Navigator to:

• Filter by group name
• Add extra layers like location, company size, or industry
• Filter by seniority level (e.g., Founder, CEO, Co-Founder)

You now have a precise list of people who:

• Run startups
• Work remotely
• Care about productivity
• Are actively engaging with like-minded peers

Why this works:

This is the type of intel you can’t find on someone’s work history. You’re identifying people based on shared behavior or intent.

Past Company Filter

Let’s say you want to target former HubSpot employees, maybe because you’re selling to marketers familiar with CRM software.

Step 1: Open Sales Navigator

Open LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Step 2: Click on “Lead Filters”

Choose “Leads” (people), not “Accounts” (companies).

Step 3: Find the “Past Company” Filter

Scroll down in the left-hand sidebar and click into the “Past company” field.

Step 4: Type in the Company Name

Type and select “HubSpot” (or whatever company you want). You can select multiple companies if needed.

Step 5: Add Supporting Filters

You can narrow your search further with other filters, like:

• Title: e.g., “Marketing Manager” or “Revenue Operations”
• Location: e.g., “United States” or “Europe”
• Seniority level: e.g., Manager, Director, VP
• Industry: e.g., “Computer Software” or “Marketing & Advertising”
• Current Company: e.g., NOT your competitors

Step 6: Run the Search

Click “Search” to see your results. You’ll now get a list of people who used to work at HubSpot but currently work elsewhere.

Step 7: Save or Export Your Leads

You can save leads to a custom list in Sales Navigator or send them to your CRM.

Frequently asked questions

Is LinkedIn’s advanced search free?

Basic advanced search filters like location, current company, and industry are available for free on LinkedIn’s standard platform.

However, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the paid premium version, offers far more advanced search filters, including seniority level, company size, years of experience, and more.

So while some advanced search features are free, the most powerful tools require a paid subscription.

What are the benefits of using LinkedIn Advanced Search for outreach?

Using LinkedIn Advanced Search allows you to find highly targeted leads or companies based on specific criteria like job title, industry, location, and company size.

This can help you to:

• Save time by focusing only on relevant prospects.
• Increase response rates with personalized outreach.
• Find the right decision-makers
• Build better prospect lists for sales, recruiting, or networking.

Can I save my search criteria in LinkedIn Advanced Search for future use?

On the free LinkedIn plan, you cannot save search criteria directly, but you can save individual profiles and use filters repeatedly.

On LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can save search alerts. This feature lets you save your search criteria and receive notifications when new profiles or companies match your filters.

How to use LinkedIn AI-assisted search?

I have tried AI-assisted search, but it’s still in its infancy stages; it’s not ready, in my opinion. But if you would like to learn more, you can go here.

Want 1 Lead Per Day?

If you’re looking for 1 qualified lead per day, why not hop on a free 15-minute strategy session with the founder of SalesBread, Jack Reamer?

SalesBread is known for building ultra-refined prospecting lists and personalization for getting our clients 1 lead per day.