LinkedIn Video Ads

A LinkedIn Video ad is a Sponsored Content post built around a video that plays in the feed. LinkedIn's ad guide lists the file as MP4, under 500 MB, with multiple aspect ratios supported and a length of up to 30 minutes. You upload the video in Campaign Manager, write intro text and a headline, and add a call-to-action. The ad is published from your Company Page and appears among organic posts on desktop and mobile. Video suits explanations that a static image cannot carry: a product demo, a customer story, a short talk, or a walk-through of how a process works. A phone recording with clear audio and captions often works better than an expensive production.

Length is allowed up to 30 minutes, but short videos make more sense in a feed, where people scroll quickly. The first seconds decide whether anyone keeps watching, so the opening needs a specific claim or a visual that makes sense without sound. Many people watch with sound off, so captions are close to mandatory; add them or burn them into the video. LinkedIn lets you build audiences from people who watched a share of your video, which gives you a retargeting pool of warm viewers. That makes video useful as the first step in a sequence, followed by an offer to the people who watched. Put the company name or product on screen early, so a viewer who stops after five seconds still knows who made it.

Video ads work with LinkedIn's full targeting and with video-oriented objectives such as video views as well as others. Compared with a Single Image ad, video costs more to produce and often delivers more impressions of the message. Compared with a Document ad, it is passive viewing rather than self-paced reading. Compared with Thought Leader ads, a brand video lacks the personal byline unless the speaker is a person. The objective you choose affects what the system optimizes for: a video view objective finds people likely to watch, not necessarily people likely to inquire, so match the objective to the stage of the funnel. Choose the video view objective only when views are the actual goal, and a conversion objective when you want leads.

The common mistake is reusing a broadcast-style brand film. LinkedIn viewers scroll fast, so a 90-second film with a slow logo opening loses most people before the point. Lead with the specific claim, show the product or the person early, and caption everything. Another mistake is measuring views alone; a view can mean a few seconds, so look at the share who watched most of it and the actions that followed. A third is aiming a high-cost video at a very broad audience, which wastes budget on people who will never buy. A fourth is skipping the follow-up offer. Do not run the same video to the same audience for months, because viewers tire of it quickly.

Make one 30 to 60 second video that answers a single question your buyers ask, such as how the product handles a specific task. Open with the answer, show the product within the first five seconds, add captions, and end with one clear next step. Run it to a defined audience for two weeks and note the view rate and cost per view. Build a retargeting audience of people who watched most of it, then show them an offer such as a demo or a guide. Compare cost per lead for that group against cold traffic, and keep investing if the warm group converts. Track the percent of viewers who reach the halfway point, which is a better signal of interest than raw views.