LinkedIn ad creative: specs, crops and what to test

The formats worth designing for

LinkedIn lists a lot of ad formats, but paid B2B budgets concentrate in about four. Single image sponsored content is the default and the cheapest to iterate on. Carousels, document ads and video take most of the rest. Text ads, spotlight ads and conversation ads have their own rules and very little design surface, so they rarely justify a design sprint.

Start with single image. It accepts JPG, PNG and non-animated GIF up to 5 MB, and it lets you produce four versions of an idea in the time a video takes to storyboard.

• Single image sponsored content: 1200 x 627 (1.91:1), 1200 x 1200 (1:1) or 720 x 900 (4:5), max 5 MB
• Carousel: 2 to 10 cards, each exactly 1080 x 1080, JPG or PNG, max 10 MB per card
• Document ads: PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT or PPTX, up to 100 MB
• Video: separate specs and a separate production budget, which is why most teams start with static

Sizes, crops and where each one serves

The three single image ratios are not interchangeable in delivery. LinkedIn recommends 1200 x 1200 because square assets serve on both desktop and mobile. Vertical 720 x 900 assets serve on mobile only, so a vertical-only upload quietly gives up desktop entirely.

The 1.91:1 landscape crop is the weakest of the three in feed. It occupies the least vertical space, which means it passes under the thumb faster than a square does. It still earns its place when the same asset has to double as a link preview elsewhere.

Design at square and crop outward rather than inward. A landscape image stretched into 4:5 loses its sides and usually its subject with them. A square composition with margin around the focal point survives both directions without a second art direction pass.

• 1200 x 1200 is the safest single upload, because it serves everywhere
• 720 x 900 is mobile only. Pair it with a square instead of replacing one
• 1.91:1 takes the least feed height. Use it when one asset has to cover ads and link previews
• Keep the subject and any baked-in text inside a centered area so no crop cuts through it

Text limits and how the feed cuts your copy

Sponsored content allows a 70 character headline and up to 255 characters of introductory text. The limits that matter are lower. LinkedIn's own guidance is to stay under 150 characters of intro text to avoid truncation on some devices, and to keep headlines under 60.

Everything past the cut sits behind a "see more" link that almost nobody opens on a paid post. Write the first line as though it is the entire ad, because on a phone it usually is.

Text baked into the image is neither counted nor truncated, which makes it tempting to overload. Two rules keep it legible: one message per image, and check the type at about a third of full size, closer to how it renders on a phone.

• Headline: 70 characters allowed, under 60 recommended
• Intro text: 255 allowed, under 150 to avoid truncation
• Put the offer in the first 100 characters. The brand story can wait for the landing page
• Limit on-image text to a headline and one qualifier. Do not count the logo as one of them

What the creative should say

The click on LinkedIn is usually research, not purchase. LinkedIn's own creative guidance leans on concrete offers with a direct verb attached: download the report, start the trial, request the demo. Vague awareness creative burns budget faster here than on cheaper platforms, because the cost per click punishes a weak reason to click.

The common failure is a creative that shows the company instead of the offer. An office photo with a tagline is invisible in a feed. A chart with one number on it and a line explaining what the number means will beat it, even when the design is worse.

Job titles are the targeting, so the creative can be more specific than it could be on Meta. Naming the role or the tool on the image narrows the audience deliberately and improves the quality of what comes through.

• Lead with the artifact: the report, the template, the calculator, the trial
• Name the audience on the image when you are targeting narrowly. Self-selection helps here
• Use one number as the visual anchor when you have one worth showing
• Skip stock photos of meetings. They read as filler and nobody stops for them

Carousels and document ads

Carousels reward a sequence. Each card is exactly 1080 x 1080, you get between two and ten, and the first card is the only one most people see. Treat card one as the complete ad and the rest as the payoff for whoever swipes.

Document ads put a PDF directly in the feed, gated after the opening pages. They work as a soft lead magnet because people can read a little before deciding whether to hand over an email address. The design constraint is the preview: portrait pages render better in feed, and page one has to earn the swipe on its own.

• Card one has to stand alone. Assume the rest is optional
• Two to four cards usually outperform ten
• PDF is the safest document export, even though DOC, DOCX, PPT and PPTX are accepted
• Design document page one as a cover, with a title readable at feed size

How many creatives to run, and how often to swap them

LinkedIn suggests two to four variations per campaign, and that range holds up. Below three you cannot separate a good creative from a good audience. Above roughly six, the budget splits too thin for any one ad to collect enough impressions to judge inside a normal test window.

Vary one thing at a time. One offer with four visual treatments is a creative test. Four offers with four visuals is four ads and no learning. Keep rotation even while data is collecting, then switch to performance optimization once something is clearly ahead. After that, pause the weakest ad every two or three weeks and add a replacement rather than rebuilding the whole set, which keeps delivery stable.

The hard part is rarely deciding what to test. It is producing four on-brand versions of one idea before the media plan moves on. Aduarius fits at that step: you write the brief once, pick a style, and get the square, vertical and landscape versions of the same idea together, with the headline placed on the creative when you need one. That puts the constraint back on what you want to learn.

• Run two to four variants per campaign
• Change one variable per test: the visual, the headline or the offer
• Rotate evenly while collecting data, then optimize for performance
• Swap the weakest ad every two to three weeks and hold the total count steady