If your target audience is B2B, LinkedIn is the best place to promote your business. Unlike other social platforms that are geared toward the masses, businesses included, LinkedIn is strictly professional. In other words, getting caught scrolling your LinkedIn feed at your desk wouldn’t garner a look from your colleague, like checking Instagram might.
LinkedIn allows you to advertise through images, lead forms, video, and more, where only your creativity is the limit – all within LinkedIn specs and guidelines, of course.
What makes LinkedIn such a perfect place to advertise B2B lies in its network – its audience is 100% business-focused, many with purchasing power. And when it comes to target audience segmentation by company information or job role, LinkedIn is unparalleled.
So, if you have a B2B business that you’re looking to advertise, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to walk you through all the LinkedIn ads specs.
What are the Specs for a LinkedIn Ad?
Before you set up your campaign, make sure that your assets are created to LinkedIn specifications, for the best results. There are many different ad formats and types of media that you can use. While the most popular ad types are single image and video, or what LinkedIn calls “sponsored content”, you can also create sponsored message ads, text and dynamic ads, and lead gen forms.
Regardless of your choice in media, you’ll need to also create a text headline and description to go along with your LinkedIn ad. Make sure that you’re using the characters allotted to really sell your USP and hit the highlights of your amazing product to go along with your stand-out image or video!
Sponsored Content Ads
These ads display on the LinkedIn feed of your target audience. They can be used for any of LinkedIn’s ad objectives, including brand awareness, website visits, engagement, lead generation, website conversions, and job applicants. When creating a sponsored content ad, you can choose from:
- Single Image
- Video
- Carousel
- Event
- Document
Single Image Ads
Check out all the ad specs you need to know below, when uploading your single image ads.
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Do keep in mind that some images might be cropped when shared organically.
Video Ads
Another form of Sponsored Content ads are video ads.
Video is a great option for engagement on social media and can be a creative way for you to capture your audience. The key here is ensuring to make the first few seconds of your video count! When creating your video, be sure to follow the below LinkedIn video specs:
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LinkedIn also has specified dimensions for video ads. We’ve listed them out for you below.
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For your video ads, you’ll also need to choose a captivating thumbnail! Make sure the thumbnail you pick both highlights your product and is relevant to the LinkedIn ad you’re using. Once you’ve chosen your image, ensure it is less than 2MB, and in either JPG or PNG format.
Quick Tips:
- For awareness campaigns, keep your videos shorter, around 30s or less. Videos less than 20s will loop, increasing your impressions, as well.
- Keep longer-form video content for thought leadership, conversion campaigns.
Carousel Ads
Carousel Ads allow you to create an ad with multiple images, or cards. This can be helpful if you’re looking to tell a story through images, if you have too much content to fit onto one image, or even if you’re just looking to show off your product from every angle! Check out the LinkedIn carousel ad specs for this type of ad below.
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Event Ads
Do you have an upcoming webinar you want to promote? Or maybe you’re doing a Q&A about your most recent product launch. Event ads are a great way to spread awareness. Just make sure that it follows all text guidelines as your other ads, and the image ration is 4:1.
Note: the image will be pulled from the event page.
Document Ads
The last type of ad is the Document Ad. If you have a flyer, a whitepaper or a case study that you wish to advertise, you can! Simply follow LinkedIn’s specs for document ads, as below:
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You can use any of the standard PDF layouts for your document ad:
- Letter: 8.5 by 11 inches
- Tabloid: 11 by 17 inches
- Legal: 8.5 by 14 inches
- Statement: 5.5 by 8.5 inches
- Executive: 7.25 by 10.5 inches
- Folio: 8.5 by 13 inches
- A3: 11.69 by 16.54 inches
- A4: 8.27 by 11.69 inches
- B4: 9.84 by 13.90 inches
- B5: 6.93 by 9.84 inches
For all Sponsored ads, you’ll also need to abide by LinkedIn’s text guidelines when filling out the fields to create the ad.
Pro-tip: Use a UTM code when creating your URL, so that you can track exactly where your traffic is coming from, and how well your ad is performing! You can create a UTM code quickly and easily, with this UTM builder, here.
Now that we’ve run through the specs for Sponsored Content Ads, let’s get into Sponsored Messaging ads.
Sponsored Messaging Ads
Looking to slide into your target audience’s DMs? Then sponsored message ads are the way to go! Simply create text ads either through the “choose your own experience” conversation ads, or direct messages through message ads.
Conversation & Message Ads
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Lead Gen Forms
Are you looking to generate leads to nurture? Then the lead gen form ads are for you!
LinkedIn has a feature which allows its audience to fill out a form with their info, so that you can follow-up. This could be to request a demo, to sign up for your newsletter, or whatever you choose. The sky's the limit – as long as you stick to the lead gen form ad specs.
The first step is understanding the character count.
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Next, you need to choose your fields. LinkedIn recommends 3-4 fields as a best practice. You can choose from a list of the following categories:
- Contact [things like name, email, phone number]
- Work [things like job title and seniority
- Company [name and size]
- Industry [such as degree, education]
- Demographic [such as age or gender]
Please note that you can also add up to 3 custom questions, with 100 characters each.
Text and Dynamic Ads
Finally, you can also choose Text and Dynamic Ads. There are three types: text ads, spotlight ads, and follower ads.
Text Ads
These ads are typical PPC. Rather than creating a lot of content, all you need is your company logo, a headline, and a description.
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Spotlight Ads
This dynamic ad displays personalized content to each profile, driving traffic to your site. Simply follow the guidelines below.
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Follower Ads
Looking to grow your following? You can also run a follower campaign on LinkedIn with this ad format! You know the drill – just follow the specs below, and you’re set for success.
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What is the Standard LinkedIn Ad Size?
While LinkedIn allows our ads to take many different shapes and sizes, it’s always best practice to stick to the “standard” or most used LinkedIn ad sizes. In the case of single image, or sponsored content ads, most images on LinkedIn are 1080 x 1080 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 1:1, or square.
For video ads, LinkedIn recommends it be 1080 x 1920, with an aspect ratio of 9:16 for vertical videos, and 1920 x 1080 with aspect ratio of 16:9, for landscape.
Which Ad Format is the Best for LinkedIn?
Now that you’ve figured out the correct specs and guidelines for creating stellar content, it’s time to choose which ad format you’d like to use to deliver your media. As we know, there are a few options to choose from, and we’ve gone through them one by one, so that you can pick the right format that is most relevant for your business and goals. As a refresher, they are:
- Sponsored Content
- Sponsored Messaging
- Lead Forms
- Text and Dynamic Ads
All that said, which format is the best? Ultimately, it’s up to you, and what you’re looking to achieve through your LinkedIn advertising. Though, if we were to choose just one, sponsored content is the way to go! Sponsored Content ads are the default type of ad on LinkedIn, serve many different purposes, and support different types of content. Sponsored ads are also the most likely to be seen by a larger audience, as they appear on the main feed.
So, now you’re equipped to go out and create the best, targeted B2B ads on LinkedIn for whatever you’re looking to advertise. For more pro-tips in creating successful ads on social media, get started with soona today!
Make your Images Pixel Perfect
We know specs can be difficult to master with so many platforms, marketplaces, and sites to sell. That’s why we created our image resizer! Whether you’re posting to promote your products on social media channels or looking for optimized images for Amazon, the image resizer is the best tool to help you get the image sizes you need for wherever you sell.
Simply upload a file. Select your platform. Choose which sizes you need. Adjust your photo and crop. Done! Your files are ready for download.