The Complete Guide To LinkedIn Ad Specifications And Best Practices

LinkedIn is the world‘s largest professional networking platform with over 810 million members. With so many professionals on the platform, LinkedIn ads present a major opportunity for B2B marketers to reach their target audience.

However, to create effective LinkedIn ads, you need to understand the various ad formats and their specifications. In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about optimizing LinkedIn ads.

Overview of LinkedIn Ad Types

LinkedIn offers eight primary ad formats:

Message ads
Sponsored content
Text ads
Dynamic ads
Follower ads
Spotlight ads
Conversation ads
Carousel ads

We will explore the key specs and best practices for each ad type in more detail throughout this guide. First, let’s overview the different formats:

Message Ads: Allow you to send personalized messages directly to LinkedIn members matching your target audience.

Sponsored Content: Appear in the LinkedIn feed similar to native posts. Allow gated content to generate leads.

Text Ads: Display text-based ads on the LinkedIn sidebar. Low cost per click but limited ad real estate.

Dynamic Ads: Automatically show personalized content based on member’s profile data. Great for retargeting.

Follower Ads: Help you grow your Company Page followers based on your target audience.

Spotlight Ads: Highlight your brands, products or services to relevant members on desktop.

Conversation Ads: Enable two-way messaging threads between your brand and members.

Carousel Ads: Showcase multiple products/services and optimize performance with A/B headline testing.

Now let’s dive into the nitty gritty specs and best practices for optimizing each ad type…

Message Ad Specifications

Message ads enable sending personalized messages directly to your ideal audience on LinkedIn. They have highly relevant targeting options beyond job title, including member skills, groups, interests and more.

However, message ads have frequency limits to prevent over-messaging. Each member can only receive 1 message ad per advertiser per 30 days.

Here are the key message ad specs:

Subject Line: 60 character limit

Keep it short and compelling

Hyperlink In-Text: 70 character limit for anchor text

Sender: Select from available company pages or customized “From” name

Banner Image: 300 x 250px image displayed on desktop

Provide relevant visual content

Body Text: Up to 1,500 characters

CTA Button: Up to 20 characters

Clear call-to-action

When creating message ads, focus on concise, personalized messaging to stand out in members‘ inboxes. Avoid vague claims and emphasize relevance.

Text Ad Specifications

Text ads on LinkedIn allow displaying pay-per-click ads on the sidebar. They are an affordable way to increase visibility and clicks to your site. But they offer limited ad real estate and design flexibility compared to other formats.

Here are the key LinkedIn text ad specs:

Ad unit dimensions:

17×700
160×600
300×250
496×807
728×90

Headlines: 25 character limit

Descriptions: 75 character limit

Ad image: 100 x 100px

When creating text ads, ensure succinct, compelling copy tailored to sidebar format. Test different combinations of headlines and descriptions along with targeting.

Dynamic Ad Specifications

LinkedIn dynamic (or spotlight) ads automatically showcase relevant content to members based on the data in their LinkedIn profile. This allows serving personalized ads at scale across your target audience.

For example, if a member works at a tech company and has skills like Java Programming and machine learning, they may see dynamic ads for related software products or training.

Here are the key LinkedIn dynamic ad specs:

Available formats: Message, followers, content ads

Custom background image: 300 x 250px

Ad headline: 50 character limit

Ad text: 70 character limit

Ad image: 100 x 100px

Call-to-action: 18 character limit

Dynamic ads currently only deliver on desktop. Focus on detailed targeting that allows showing relevant messaging to niche professional audiences on LinkedIn.

Follower Ad Specifications

Follower ads, as the name suggests, aim to grow your LinkedIn Company Page followers. They appear in the feeds of your target audience, inviting them to follow your page to receive updates.

Here are the key follower ad specs:

Photo: 100 x 100px

Headlines: 50 character limit

Body text: 70 character text limit

Follower ads utilize the name, image and messaging from your Company Page. Ensure your page is optimized to align with how you want to position your brand on LinkedIn before running follower ads.

Focus these ads on high-value audience segments that will engage with and share your content.

Spotlight Ad Specifications

Spotlight ads highlight brands, products or services through customized units targeted to professionals on desktop feeds. Like dynamic ads, they showcase relevant visuals and messaging personalized to the viewer.

Here are the key spotlight ad specs:

Company name: 25 character limit

Background image: 300 x 250px

Ad image: 100 x 100px

Body text: 70 character limit

Headline: 50 character limit

Call-to-action: 18 character limit

Spotlight ads automatically incorporate elements from your Company Page including name, logo and images. Have a robust, eye-catching page presence before running spotlight ads.

Prioritize spotlight ads to promote specific content offerings, events and more to desktop visitors.

Conversation Ad Specifications

LinkedIn conversation ads facilitate customized two-way messaging between brands and members. This allows you to provide personalized guidance and content to prospects.

Here are the key conversation ads specs:

Banner image: 300 x 250px

Body text: 500 character limit

CTA buttons: 25 max characters each

CTAs per ad: Up to 5

Messages per campaign: Over 40

When designing conversation ads, focus on concise, helpful responses crafted for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Drive users further down the funnel with each message.

Prioritize concise calls-to-action as well for desired prospect actions and conversions.

Carousel Ad Specifications

LinkedIn carousel ads enable showcasing multiple products, assets or content in a swipeable carousel format. You can also A/B test headlines to optimize performance.

Here are the primary carousel ad specs:

Cards per carousel: 2 minimum, up to 10

Card image size: 1080 x 1080px

Card Aspect ratios: 1:1

Headlines (non-lead gen): 45 characters

Headlines (lead-gen): 30 characters

Call-to-action options: Subscribe, Download etc.

When designing carousel ads, highlight your best-performing and most visually compelling products or content. Keep card headlines succinct with clear calls-to-action.

Continually iterate on creative and tailor messaging to your most valuable audiences.

Ad Image Sizes for Company and Personal Pages

To complement your LinkedIn ad campaigns, ensure your Company and personal profile pages are optimized with eye-catching imagery and complete information.

Here are the recommended image sizes:

Company Pages

Cover Image: 1536×768 pixels
Logo: 300×300 pixels
Life tab modules: 502×282 pixels
Life tab main image: 1128×376
Life tab photos: 900 x 600

Personal Profiles

Profile picture: 400×400
Cover photo: 1584×396

Conclusion

With so many LinkedIn members and limited ad real estate, understanding specifications and best practices is key to succeed with your ad campaigns. Follow this guide to optimize your creative assets, messaging and targeting.

Conduct regular A/B testing and iterate on elements like images, headlines and calls-to-action. Build an audience-first approach focused on providing value.

By mastering LinkedIn’s advertising capabilities, you can position your brand as an industry leader and dramatically accelerate pipeline.