How to Use the LinkedIn Message Sender

*Performance may slow down when profile scraping is activated (Step 3).

Before you start

• This Phantom can send messages to:
  • Your 1st-degree connections.
  • Open LinkedIn profiles, even if they are 2nd- or 3rd-degree connections.
  • If a profile is not open and not a 1st-degree connection, you won’t be able to message it with this Phantom. In that case, use the Sales Navigator Message Sender.
• Awareness of LinkedIn’s safety limits:
  • To automate messages safely, keep activity moderate across the week: up to 80 messages per week for standard LinkedIn accounts.
  • If you enable email discovery, cut this number in half, since the Phantom will perform additional page visits.

Step 1: Choose which LinkedIn profiles to message

You can provide your profiles in three ways:

1. My Lists:
   Choose a saved LinkedIn Leads list you’ve already created in PhantomBuster.
2. A URL:
   • Paste a single LinkedIn profile URL.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with LinkedIn profile URLs (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).

   • Upload a CSV file with LinkedIn profile URLs (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

     → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing profile URLs.”

3. My Phantoms:
   Use results from another Phantom as input (e.g. LinkedIn Search Export or LinkedIn Profile Scraper results).

Step 2: Connect your LinkedIn account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your LinkedIn session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account. 
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 3: Write and customize your message

1. Extract all available profile data (optional):
   • Check the box “Scrape all available profile data.”
   • Required if you want to:
     • Use placeholder tags beyond #firstName# (e.g. #company#, #jobTitle#), which rely on details extracted directly from the LinkedIn profile.
     • Enable email discovery later in the setup.

2. Choose your condition for sending messages (optional):

   Select how the Phantom should behave if there’s an existing message thread:

   • Send to all - Send the message to all provided profiles.
   • Send only if the last message was from the recipient (Reply) - Send only if they messaged you last.
   • Send only if the last message was from me (Follow up) - Send only if you were the last to message them.
   • Send only if the last message was from the recipient or if there’s no message at all - Reply or start new threads.
   • Send only if the last message was from me or if there’s no message at all - Follow up or start new threads.
   • Send only if there’s no message at all - send only to contacts you’ve never messaged before.

   • Send only if there’s never been a message from the recipient - Send if they’ve never messaged you.

     This setting only applies for profiles that have a /messaging/thread/ link available.

3. Enter and customize your message:

   • Write your message in the “Your message” field (up to 8,000 characters).
   • Use placeholder tags to personalize messages. Tags appear below the box, click the + icon to see all available tags (both standard and custom tags). 
     → If you enabled Scrape all available profile data, you’ll see more placeholder options.
   • Custom placeholders: If you’ve added your own columns in your input file, you can still type those manually (e.g. #customIntro#).
     • Placeholders that don’t have a value (empty cell, missing profile detail) will appear blank in your message.
     • Do not use #message# as a placeholder tag. This conflicts with the Phantom’s own message output column and may cause your text to be replaced or duplicated.
     • Likewise, avoid naming a spreadsheet column message unless absolutely necessary.

   Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off.

4. Attach files (optional)

   Add documents or images to your message:

   • Maximum combined file size = 20 MB.
   • Emojis are not supported.
   • Hyperlinks are not supported → if you paste a link, it will appear as plain text.

This Phantom sends only one message per run

The LinkedIn Message Sender is designed to send a single message to your chosen profiles.

If you want to send a follow-up sequence (for example, 3 different messages with delays):

• Duplicate the Phantom for each message you want to send.
• Write a different message in each copy.
• Use launch scheduling to space them out safely.
  • Example: first Phantom on Monday, second on Wednesday, third on Friday.

This way, you can build a safe, spaced-out messaging sequence while staying within LinkedIn’s limits.

Step 4: Enrich your leads with professional emails (optional)

You can choose to add verified professional email addresses to each LinkedIn profile.

Not every profile will return an email address. The match rate depends on the data available, so the number of verified emails may be lower than your credits used.

1. Click on the “Select your email discovery service” dropdown.
2. Choose one of the following options:
   • PhantomBuster credits (default option)
     • Each plan includes monthly email discovery credits.
     • 1 credit = 1 attempt to find and verify an email for one profile.
     • Credits reset monthly.
   • Third-party services
     • Connect your own account by entering your API key for:
       • Dropcontact.io
       • Hunter.io
       • Snov.io

Enabling email discovery means the Phantom will spend more time on each profile, since it needs to process both the message and the email lookup. This increases execution time per launch.

Tip for safe use
When using email discovery, process about half of the default daily recommendation for your Phantom. This reduces the risk of hitting LinkedIn’s rate limits.

Step 5: Configure Phantom behavior

1. Set how many profiles to message per launch:
   • Enter the number of profiles in the “Profiles to message per launch” field.
   • Maximum is 10 per launch.
2. Follow LinkedIn’s safety limits:
   • Spread messages across the week and avoid large bursts. We recommend up to 80 messages per week for standard LinkedIn accounts.
   • If you’re also using email discovery, cut these numbers in half, since the Phantom performs extra page visits.
   • Note on Sales Navigator: If your goal is to message 2nd-degree or beyond, or send higher daily volumes (up to 150 messages/week), use the Sales Navigator Message Sender instead of this one.

Step 6: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

To keep your LinkedIn account safe:

• Schedule runs during weekday business hours to mimic normal usage patterns.
• Stay within safe limits: keep launches moderate and spaced throughout the day. If you enable email discovery, reduce the volume further.
• If you’re chaining Phantoms, space them so one finishes cleanly before the next starts. Learn more in our guide on chaining Phantoms.

Step 7 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see the data collected.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file, or view them as a dynamic list on the LinkedIn Leads page.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Assuming all 2nd- or 3rd-degree profiles can be messaged → only Open profiles can be messaged without a connection.
• Using this Phantom when you actually need LinkedIn Outreach to first connect and then message.
• Trying to send messages to company pages → this Phantom can only send to individual profiles.
• Browser not updated → outdated user agents cause cookies to expire quickly.
• Using the wrong input type → it only accepts LinkedIn profile URLs, not searches or company pages.
• Exceeding safe weekly messaging volumes → sending too many messages in a short period can result in LinkedIn warnings or temporary restrictions.
• Expecting all placeholder tags to work without enabling “Scrape all available profile data” in Step 3.
• Before launching at scale, test your setup by sending a message to a colleague (or yourself) first. This ensures your placeholders work and your message looks the way you expect.
• What happens if I stop the Phantom and rerun it? The behavior depends on how the Phantom is relaunched:
  • Scheduled automatic launches: The Phantom continues from where it left off and skips profiles that encountered errors in the previous run.
  • Manual stop and restart: The Phantom starts from the beginning of your input list. Depending on your "Condition for sending messages" setting, it may either skip already-messaged profiles (showing an "Input Already processed" warning) or send duplicate messages. To avoid duplicates when restarting manually after an error, clean your input list to include only profiles that haven't been messaged yet.

If you run into issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

Before sending your message:

• AI LinkedIn Message Writer → draft personalized copy at scale. You can even generate a different tailored message for each profile.
• LinkedIn Auto Liker or LinkedIn Activity Extractor → warm up your leads by engaging with their posts, or extract their recent activity to craft a more relevant first message (e.g., referencing something they published).

After sending your message:

• LinkedIn Outreach → continue the sequence with follow-up messages, or use it to combine connection + messaging if you’re reaching new leads.