LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for ISPs (2026)

Key Takeaways

For internet companies & ISPs, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 28.2%. Replies to the connection note average 2.6%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 10.0%. Those numbers come from 248,164 connection requests sent by 330 internet accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three sit below the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Internet vs. the platform average

Metric	Internet	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	28.2%	28.5%	-0.3 pts	18th of 38
Connection-note reply	2.6%	3.0%	-0.4 pts	22nd of 38
Message reply after acceptance	10.0%	10.4%	-0.4 pts	25th 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 internet company outreach

Internet companies sit within a fraction of a point of IT and services on every measure. Acceptance of 28.2% against 28.4%, note replies of 2.6% against 2.6%, message replies of 10.0% against 10.5%. Two industries with different labels, 330 and 1,825 sending accounts, and no meaningful difference between them.

That is the most useful thing this page has to say. Together these two categories cover 2,155 accounts, and they behave as one. Inside technology, the industry label on a company predicts almost nothing about how its outreach performs, which is worth knowing before building a target list around industry as the primary filter.

Relative to the platform, internet companies are slightly below average on all three: 18th of 38 on acceptance, 22nd on note replies, 25th on message replies. The gap between best and worst ranking is 7 places, one of the smallest in the set, so there is no particular strength or weakness to work with. End to end it converts at about 2.8 per 100 recipients against a cross-industry 3.0.

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 28.2%. The sector sits marginally below the platform average, so there is very little allowance to claim. A number well under this is about the list rather than the sector.

Note replies under 2.6%. Already below the 3.0% platform figure. Since the sector has no structural advantage anywhere, this is one of the two places a real gain is available, and the cheapest one to test.

Message replies under 10.0%. The other place a gain is available. This sector has no measure where it outperforms, which means improvements here come from execution rather than from finding the audience’s soft spot.

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 for an internet company?

28.2% is the sector average, marginally below the 28.5% cross-industry figure, ranking 18th of 38. Above 30% is doing better than both the sector and the platform.

Are internet companies different from IT and services on LinkedIn?

Not measurably. Internet companies average 28.2% acceptance, 2.6% note replies and 10.0% message replies. IT and services averages 28.4%, 2.6% and 10.5%. Across 2,155 combined accounts the two behave as one industry.

How does the internet sector compare with other industries?

It ranks 18th of 38 on acceptance, 22nd on note replies and 25th on message replies, with only 7 places between its best and worst ranking. It has no measure on which it outperforms and none on which it badly underperforms.

How this data was collected

Internet is reported from 330 accounts and 248,164 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

• Information Technology & Services, 28.4% acceptance and 10.5% message replies
• Marketing & Advertising, 29.4% acceptance and 10.6% message replies
• Management Consulting, 28.0% acceptance and 9.2% 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 internet 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.