LinkedIn video ads: specs, captions and reporting

This guide is built from LinkedIn's Marketing Solutions help pages: video ads advertising specifications, video ads, create video ads in Campaign Manager, troubleshoot creating video ads and video metrics in Campaign Manager. Sponsoring a video that an employee or creator posted is a thought leader ad, which has its own approval flow; that is covered in our LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads guide and not repeated here.

What a LinkedIn video ad is

Video ads are a Sponsored Content format. LinkedIn says they "appear directly in the LinkedIn feed and on the LinkedIn Audience Network." You can get one in two ways: sponsor a video that is already posted on your LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page, or upload a new video in Campaign Manager that never appears as an organic post. LinkedIn also lets you browse existing content to reuse earlier ads or Page posts.

The video must be uploaded to LinkedIn itself. In LinkedIn's words, video ads "must contain a video file uploaded directly to LinkedIn, not a link to a third-party site like YouTube or Vimeo."

Objectives and what you pay for

LinkedIn lists six ad set objectives that accept video ads: brand awareness, video views, website visits, engagement, lead generation and website conversions. Lead generation video ads are "Not eligible for LinkedIn Audience Network video placements," so they run on LinkedIn only.

The video views objective is the one built around video: "video is the only ad format available for this objective," and video views is the default optimization goal. LinkedIn defines a view as "two or more continuous seconds of playback while the video is at least 50 percent on screen." What you are charged for depends on the optimization goal and bidding strategy:

Source: LinkedIn's chargeability for video views and objective-based pricing pages. With the video views objective "there are no chargeable clicks"; the clicks column then shows engagement, not charges. With video on other objectives, LinkedIn says chargeable clicks "might include clicks anywhere on the media (headline, CTA, or video)." How the three bidding strategies behave is explained in our LinkedIn ads bidding guide.

Video specs

LinkedIn accepts four aspect ratios. It marks 4:5 vertical as the recommended ratio:

The pixel limits alone are not enough: the ratio must also fit. LinkedIn's example is a 1920 x 360 video, which is within the width and height limits but has a 5.33 ratio, above the 1.78 maximum (16:9).

The technical requirements:

• Length: three seconds to 30 minutes. LinkedIn recommends 15 to 30 seconds "so they can qualify for all possible placements across the LinkedIn Feed and the Audience Network." In-stream video ads can be up to 90 seconds.
• File: MP4, between 75 KB and 500 MB.
• Codec: H.264 or VP8, frame rate under 30 FPS.
• Audio: AAC or MPEG4, under 64 kHz.
• Not supported: Apple ProRes.

Captions

Captions are uploaded as a separate .SRT file when you create the ad (the Upload file button under the video). Three limits from LinkedIn's pages: the file should contain text only, because "Custom formatting (for example, font colors) isn't supported"; "Only English video captions are currently supported"; and the file has to follow SRT formatting exactly. LinkedIn's troubleshooting page lists what to check if the upload fails:

• Each subtitle is numbered in order, starting with 1, separated by a single line break.
• Each time line reads start time, "-->", end time, for example 00:00:01,870 --> 00:00:03,800.
• Timestamps use hours:minutes:seconds,milliseconds (a comma before the milliseconds).
• Timestamps are in chronological order.

LinkedIn's own video tips include "Consider adding subtitles to your video." Captions in an SRT file can also be read by assistive technology, which burned-in text cannot; see our website accessibility basics for the same idea on your own site.

Thumbnail, text and URL

• Thumbnail (optional): JPG or PNG, up to 2 MB. "The aspect ratio and resolution of the video thumbnail and video should match."
• Ad name (optional): up to 255 characters; it only shows in Campaign Manager.
• Introductory text (optional): up to 150 characters to avoid truncation, 3,000 maximum, up to 10 emojis. URLs longer than 23 characters become a short link.
• Headline: up to 70 characters to avoid truncation on most devices, 200 maximum. The destination domain is not shown under a video headline.
• Destination URL: must start with http:// or https://, up to 2,000 characters. Don't use quotation marks in tracking parameters, and watch for characters such as < > # % { } [ ] in the query string.
• CTA button: chosen from LinkedIn's list. In in-stream placements the ad may show no CTA, but clicking the video still opens the landing page.

LinkedIn adds a rejection risk: an ad "might be rejected if it contains non-standard text, which includes more than four emojis, symbols, or repeated characters."

Playback and upload rules

• Looping: "Videos under 30 seconds will loop until there are at least 30 seconds of playback." A 10-second video plays three times, a 20-second video twice; videos over 30 seconds play once.
• Mobile landing page: with website visits, website conversions or engagement, the landing page opens below the video on mobile.
• Upload limit: 25 videos per member in 24 hours, counted across LinkedIn Pages and Campaign Manager. Another admin can upload more if you hit it.
• Desktop only: videos can be uploaded from a desktop device, not from mobile.
• Length reminder: over 15 seconds, Campaign Manager shows a note suggesting a shorter cut. LinkedIn says it "is not an error"; shorter videos "tend to receive more completions."

Creating the ad and permissions

You need two kinds of access: super admin, content admin or Sponsored Content poster on the LinkedIn Page the ad runs as, plus campaign manager access or higher on the ad account (the specs page says creative manager or higher). The steps in Campaign Manager are: create an ad set with one of the six objectives, click Create new ad(s), add the name and introductory text, upload or select the video, upload the SRT file, add headline, destination URL and CTA (and a Lead Gen Form for lead generation), then save and launch. Ads are reviewed before they run.

Sponsoring an existing Page video has a catch, per LinkedIn's video ad permissions page: for website visits, engagement and website conversions you may need to edit the post to add a CTA, headline and URL, and that requires super or content admin rights. A Sponsored Content poster can sponsor Page videos only for brand awareness, video views and lead generation. Account roles are explained in our Campaign Manager roles guide.

Video on the LinkedIn Audience Network

If you switch on the LinkedIn Audience Network for a video ad set, your video can also run on third-party apps and sites in two forms, per LinkedIn's types of video ads page:

• Outstream: a standalone video inside a page's content. Video ads on LinkedIn itself are outstream too.
• In-stream: pre-, mid- or post-roll inside a publisher's own video. LinkedIn notes in-stream ads are still "in testing and being gradually released."

You don't choose between them; Campaign Manager places the video across both. The publisher decides where the ad sits, whether it is skippable and whether a CTA shows, and may modify the video to fit its player. For in-stream LinkedIn recommends videos with sound and advises not to crop the video. The technical specs are the same for every placement.

Video metrics and reporting

Choose Video as the column view in the reporting dashboard, or when exporting, to see these metrics:

Three changes affect comparisons with older data. Since August 2024, for ads on LinkedIn.com and the app, video impressions and clicks "are reported only if they were generated from video ads that began to play." From March 2025, completion rate is completions divided by impressions (before: divided by plays), applied to historical data too. Watch time metrics have no data before 6 January 2026.

Other points from the same page: shares of your ad produce viral video metrics (plays, views, quartiles, completions), available in exported ad set or ad performance reports. With the Audience Network on, a Placements breakdown splits results into LinkedIn feed, Audience Network outstream and Audience Network in-stream. In-stream can show more completions than views, because views need JavaScript that some sites can't run. Skips and skip rate for in-stream are added through Columns, Customize Columns, Video.

Retargeting people who watched

A video audience in Matched Audiences collects members who watched your video ads. You pick the depth (at least 25%, 50%, 75% or 97% viewed), a lookback of 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days, and which ad sets to include. The audience must match at least 300 member accounts before you can target it, and LinkedIn notes view counts "will not correspond directly to matched LinkedIn member accounts." Our LinkedIn Matched Audiences guide covers the other audience types.

How we make LinkedIn video ads

This is our own practice, not LinkedIn's guidance:

• We cut one 4:5 master of 15 to 30 seconds with the main point in the first seconds, then export 16:9 and 1:1 versions only where a placement needs them.
• We assume most people watch muted, so every video gets an SRT file (checked against LinkedIn's formatting rules before upload) and key words on screen.
• We set a custom thumbnail with the same ratio as the video, and keep the headline under 70 characters.
• We report views, quartiles and completions next to clicks and leads, and build a 50% viewer audience for a follow-up ad, often a document ad or a conversation ad.
• The same video usually goes on the client's site too; our video on websites guide covers hosting and embedding it without slowing the page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best size for a LinkedIn video ad?

LinkedIn marks 4:5 vertical as the recommended ratio, at 720 x 900 pixels. It also accepts 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 within set pixel ranges.

How long can a LinkedIn video ad be?

Three seconds to 30 minutes, in an MP4 file of 75 KB to 500 MB. LinkedIn recommends 15 to 30 seconds so the video qualifies for every feed and Audience Network placement.

How do I add captions to a LinkedIn video ad?

Upload an .SRT file when creating the ad. It must contain plain text only, follow SRT numbering and timestamp format, and LinkedIn currently supports English captions only.

What counts as a view on LinkedIn?

Two or more continuous seconds of playback while at least 50% of the video is on screen. A completion is 97-100% of the video watched.

Can I use a YouTube link as a LinkedIn video ad?

No. The video file must be uploaded directly to LinkedIn, not linked from YouTube, Vimeo or another site.

For more on LinkedIn advertising, see our guides to LinkedIn ads basics, LinkedIn ads bidding, LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and YouTube video ads.