LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Automotive (2026)

Key Takeaways

In automotive, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 26.4%. Replies to the connection note average 2.9%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 11.0%. Those numbers come from 40,896 connection requests sent by 60 automotive accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. Against the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%, automotive is above on message replies and below on acceptance and note replies.

Automotive vs. the platform average

Metric	Automotive	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	26.4%	28.5%	-2.1 pts	28th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.9%	3.0%	-0.1 pts	12th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	11.0%	10.4%	+0.6 pts	15th of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about automotive outreach

In automotive, acceptance is the whole gap. Note replies of 2.9% sit a tenth of a point under the platform and message replies of 11.0% sit 0.6 points above it, so on both reply measures the sector is essentially average. Acceptance of 26.4% is the exception, 28th of 38 and 2.1 points under the cross-industry 28.5%.

End to end that produces about 2.9 replies per 100 recipients, 22nd of 38 and just under the cross-industry 3.0. The arithmetic is clean: an automotive account that reached the 28.5% platform acceptance rate, with message replies left at the sector’s 11.0%, would finish above the platform end to end. Nothing after the connection request needs to improve for that to happen.

Its closest matches are higher education, construction and consumer goods, and higher education’s acceptance is exactly the same 26.4%. All four pair below-platform acceptance with above-platform message replies. Automotive gets more note replies than any of the three and slightly fewer message replies. Across 60 accounts and 40,896 requests the sample is small, so the ranks are approximate, but the shape is plain: ordinary replies behind a below-average first step.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Acceptance under 26.4%. This is the sector’s one real handicap, 28th of 38, and the only step standing between automotive and an above-platform result. A number below the sector line widens it. From what we see in campaigns, that usually traces back to a list built from company attributes rather than from people with a current reason to accept.

Message replies under 11.0%. Messages from the sector are answered slightly above the platform rate, 15th of 38, so a shortfall here has no sector explanation. It usually means the first message after acceptance asks for a call before it has said anything specific to the recipient’s role.

Note replies under 2.9%. At 12th of 38 the note works about as well in automotive as it does in most sectors, so a weak rate is more likely the copy than the industry. It is still the measure to fix last: platform-wide, note replies fell from 3.5% in May 2025 to 2.2% in April 2026, and acceptance is where automotive’s real gap sits.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in automotive?

26.4% is the sector average, 2.1 points below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 28th of 38 reported industries. Above 26.4% beats the sector, and an automotive account at the 28.5% platform figure, with the sector’s message replies, would convert above the cross-industry average end to end.

Where does automotive LinkedIn outreach fall short?

At acceptance. Automotive averages 26.4%, 28th of 38 and 2.1 points under the platform, while note replies (2.9%) and message replies (11.0%) sit close to or above the cross-industry averages of 3.0% and 10.4%. At the platform acceptance rate, with nothing else changed, the sector would convert above average end to end.

How does automotive compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 28th of 38, note replies 12th and message replies 15th. End to end about 2.9 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 22nd of 38 and just under the roughly 3.0 across all industries.

How this data was collected

Automotive is reported from 60 accounts and 40,896 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Construction, 26.9% acceptance and 11.4% message replies
• Hospital & Health Care, 27.7% acceptance and 10.6% message replies
• Health, Wellness & Fitness, 25.1% acceptance and 9.9% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the automotive benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.