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LINE Ads Platform: Starter Guide
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LINE is Japan’s most popular messaging app. It was founded in 2011 and now it boasts over 97 million monthly active users in Japan. This equates to approximately 76% of the entire population.
LINE Ads allows advertisers to reach Japan’s largest user demographic. This guide will help you learn how to use it to your advantage and start advertising on LINE today!
Table of Contents
LINE is more than just a messaging app. The platform includes a news stream, digital payment system, blogging platform, social media feed, and more.
It also has a programmatic advertising platform called LINE Ads. Brands can use LINE Ads to increase brand awareness, drive sales, and find new customers in Japan.
Read our most popular article on why LINE is Japan’s most popular social media platform.
LINE has over 97 million users in Japan. These users are spread evenly throughout the country. This makes it convenient for advertisers to reach a broad and varied audience.
LINE stands out not only for its high usage rate. A significant number of users use LINE as their primary social media platform.
Source: Digital 2025: Japan
Advertising on LINE allows you to reach a large audience of engaged users. See the diagram below for more details.
LINE Ads allow advertisers to deliver ads to LINE’s 97 million users.
The platform offers a diverse range of high-visibility placement options. Those include the Talk Head View (top of the chat list), LINE VOOM, LINE NEWS, and more.
This enables advertisers to reach their target audience seamlessly across various touchpoints within the LINE ecosystem. They also provide the flexibility to tailor ad campaigns to specific objectives and user behaviours.
In addition to LINE, ads can be displayed on other services and partner apps through the LINE Ad Network.
Download our free LINE Ads Media Guide for more insights.
LINE Ads differs from other social ad platforms in Japan through its massive 99 million user reach (77% of Japan’s population), super-app ecosystem combining messaging, payments, news, and e-commerce, and unique ad formats like Talk Head View and Smart Channel. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, LINE reaches users across daily touchpoints with 60%+ message open rates. This makes LINE an irreplaceable channel for advertisers targeting the Japanese market, especially when combined with Yahoo! JAPAN for comprehensive reach.
LINE’s dominance stems from being more than a messaging app—it’s the central hub of Japanese digital life. While Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and TikTok focus on specific use cases, LINE integrates everything: messaging, social feeds, news, shopping, payments, and even food delivery services.
Why This Matters for Advertisers:
Japanese consumers check LINE 10-15 times daily as their default communication tool, often during transit, meals, and downtime. This frequency creates more impression opportunities than traditional social platforms. Compare this to Facebook or Instagram, which people check 2-3 times daily in Japan, or TikTok, primarily for entertainment.
The integration with Yahoo! JAPAN (Japan’s largest internet portal, unified under Line Yahoo Corporation since 2023) amplifies reach further. Combined, these platforms reach 94% of Japan’s active smartphone users—unmatched by any other single advertising network in the market.
What This Reveals:
Meta is good at reaching younger urban demographics for entertainment and lifestyle products, while Google dominates high-intent search moments. LINE, however, dominates daily engagement across all age groups, making it ideal for building brand awareness and customer lifetime value. Yahoo! JAPAN’s search strength complements LINE’s social reach perfectly.
LINE offers placement options and formats unavailable on other social platforms:
✅ Talk Head View – Premium placement at the top of users’ chat lists. This is the highest-visibility real estate on LINE, shown to 65+ million daily users. Estimated impression rate exceeds 85% among active users.
✅ LINE News – Sponsored articles in Japan’s largest news feed (60+ million daily users)
✅ Custom Stickers – Branded stickers users send to friends, driving organic reach
✅ Official Accounts – Organic official channels users can follow for brand updates & exclusive discounts.
LINE’s formats serve relationship-building functions. Users save and reuse stickers, follow Official Accounts, and read LINE News – leading to deeper engagement and repeat impressions.
💡Less International Competition
Global brands haven’t saturated LINE like they have Google and Meta, keeping CPCs lower.
💡Ptform Preference Among Japanese Users
Locals prefer LINE over international platforms, meaning less competition for ad space.
💡Higher Engagement = Lower CPA
Message open rates of 60%+ lead to better conversion efficiency despite lower CPCs.
💡Lookalike Modelling Efficiency
LINE’s user base is nearly the entire Japanese population (97M), allowing highly effective lookalike audiences.
Choose LINE Ads When:
✅ Building brand awareness across all demographics (not just 20-35)
✅ Running omnichannel campaigns (online + offline store visits)
✅ Budget is limited (lowest CPC in market)
✅ Targeting repeat customers (60%+ message open rate)
✅ Running long-term customer relationship campaigns
✅ Launching seasonal or holiday campaigns (LINE users highly responsive to seasonal content)
✅ Operating in retail, e-commerce, or services (location targeting critical)
The Strategic Approach
Use LINE as your foundation (broad reach, low cost), add Yahoo Japan for search coverage, and use Meta for specific demographic segments. This combination reaches 94%+ of smartphone users across all intent levels and age groups.
You can choose between manual and automatic bidding to achieve your campaign goals. LINE strongly recommends using automatic bidding.
Source: LY for Business
LINE Ads targeting and distribution functions utilize data to increase the ads’ effectiveness.
LINE shows users ads based on age, gender, location, and browsing history. The ads target users who are likely to respond, like when they visit a store or buy something. This increases the cost-effectiveness and ROI.
Source: LINE Ads Media Guide
Advertisers can use their own data to deliver advertisements to targeted users.
If you know the ID of a user who made their first purchase, you can show them ads to encourage them to buy again. You can use this information to target specific users with personalized ads. By displaying ads that appeal to their interests, you can increase the likelihood of repeat purchases. This targeted advertising strategy can help boost sales and customer retention.
By segmenting users based on their attributes and interests, ads that target such segments prove to be highly effective.
LINE finds users similar to a certain group by using look-alike audience targeting to show ads to more people.
Advertisers can select the level of similarity from 1 to 15%. The size of the audience decreases as the level of similarity increases.
💡 Key Differences: LINE’s strength lies in behavioral and location-based targeting. The platform knows exactly when users are near your store, visiting competitors’ locations, or engaging with related content. This gives LINE a unique advantage for local/retail businesses and omnichannel campaigns.
Google excels at capturing high-intent moments (keywords), while Meta provides granular demographic and interest data for audience segmentation. LINE bridges both approaches through daily engagement patterns.
Before running ads on LINE, you must open a LINE Official Account and create a LINE Business ID.
Our team can support you with this process – don’t hesitate to contact us to receive a free LINE Ads Set Up Guide.
Please note that some steps require a connection to the Japanese internet – you will need a trusted partner to help with the account set-up process.
As mentioned, you must open an official account on LINE to advertise.
An Official Account is a special profile brands use to connect with users, send promotional information, and run advertising campaigns. Every business can open an Official Account for free.
Download our free LINE Official Account Media Guide.
Yes, and you should. Running LINE and Meta creates full-funnel coverage in Japan. Use LINE for broad reach and daily touchpoints (99 million users, all ages), and Meta for specific demographic targeting (younger audiences, lifestyle content). Typical budget split: 60-70% to LINE, 20-30% to Meta, 10% to Google for Japanese campaigns.
LINE’s daily minimum budget is ¥1,000 (~$7), but effective campaigns start at ¥50,000-100,000 monthly (~$350-700). This budget allows testing across 2-3 audience segments and multiple ad formats. We recommend starting with ¥200,000/month for meaningful statistical data and optimization opportunities.
Both. For B2C: Unmatched consumer reach. For B2B: B2B decision-makers don’t use LinkedIn in Japan but check LINE daily for personal communication. Target by company size, industry interest, and business publication readership (LinkedIn alternative). Many B2B companies see better ROI on LINE than any other social platform in Japan.
LINE Ads provides: impressions, clicks, conversions, cost metrics, and audience insights. Meta offers more detailed engagement metrics (likes, comments, video completion %). Google Ads excels at conversion tracking. For most brands, LINE’s analytics are sufficient. For advanced attribution, implement unique tracking codes per platform and use GA4 for cross-platform analysis.
Yes. Japanese audiences respond differently:
Test platform-specific creative before scaling budgets.
Yes. In fact, LINE’s iPhone reach is higher than Android in Japan, making it ideal for reaching premium iOS audiences.
LINE Ads isn’t just another social platform. It’s the foundational channel for the Japanese market. With 99 million users (77% penetration), 60%+ message open rates, lower CPCs than international platforms, and unique placements like Talk Head View, LINE reaches more people more frequently at lower cost than any alternative.
The strategic question isn’t “Should I use LINE?” but “How do I combine LINE with Yahoo! JAPAN and other platforms to create comprehensive coverage?”
For most brands in Japan: Start with LINE (foundation), add Yahoo! JAPAN (search coverage), layer Meta (demographic targeting). This combination reaches 94% of users, captures all intent levels, and typically delivers 30-50% better ROI than international-platform-only strategies.
We are official overseas media reps for LINE Yahoo! advertising products. We provide clients with 100% free support, a dedicated account manager, and the latest market insights.
Click here to contact our team and discuss how we can support your brand in Japan.
