Video ads advertising specifications

Last updated: 2 months ago

Video ads are a Sponsored Content ad format that appear in the LinkedIn feed. Review the specifications below to help you create your video ad.

Here's a tip

If you're creating a Connected TV (CTV) ad, you can use any video asset, which is any video you’ve uploaded to Campaign Manager, to create a CTV ad. Keep in mind, if you’re using your video for a CTV campaign, it must meet CTV ad specifications. You can use a LinkedIn Marketing Partner to help you meet those specifications.


Learn more about LinkedIn Connected TV.

Pixel and aspect ratio requirements

Videos must meet height and width specifications, as well as aspect ratio specifications. You can calculate an aspect ratio by dividing the video width by height. 

Technical requirements

  Minimum Maximum
Height 360 pixels  1920 pixels
Width 360 pixels 1920 pixels
Aspect ratio 9:16 (0.563) 16:9 (1.778)

Understanding aspect ratio

Aspect ratio refers to the relationship between the width and the height of a video or image. Although the maximum width allowed is 1920 pixels and the minimum height allowed is 360 pixels, a 1920 x 360 video or image is not tall enough for an ad, as demonstrated in this example.

1920 x 360 pixels

The aspect ratio in this example is 16:3 which can be calculated by dividing the width by the height: 1920 / 360 = 5.333. This is above our maximum allowed ratio, which is 16:9 or 1.777.

Recommended Specifications

Aspect ratio Minimum Maximum
 Horizontal/landscape: 16:9 (1.78) 640 x 360 pixels  1920 x 1080 pixels
 Square: 1:1 360 x 360 pixels 1920 x 1920 pixels
 Vertical: 4:5 (.80)
(Recommended ratio)		 360 x 450 pixels 1080 x 1350 pixels
Vertical: 9:16 (0.56) 360 x 640 pixels 1080 x 1920 pixels

Example video sizes include:

  • Horizontal : 1920 x 1080 pixels

  • Horizontal: 1200 x 675 pixels

  • Vertical: 720 x 1280 pixels

  • Vertical: 720 x 900 pixels

Additional technical video specifications

The following are additional technical video specifications:

Specification Requirement
Length

Three seconds to 30 minutes

  • We recommend uploading videos that are 15-30 seconds long, so they can qualify for all possible placements across the LinkedIn Feed and the Audience Network, including in-stream.
File size Between 75 KB and 500 MB
File format MP4
Codec format H.264 or VP8
Frame rate Less than 30 FPS (frames per second)
Audio format AAC or MPEG4
Audio size Less than 64KHz
Video captions Must be in SRT format. Keep in mind, only include text in your SRT file. Custom formatting (for example, font colors) isn't supported.
Video thumbnail (optional)

File format: JPG or PNG 

Maximum file size: 2 MB

  • The aspect ratio and resolution of the video thumbnail and video should match.

Ad text and destination URL specifications

The following are ad text and destination URL specifications:

Important to know

Your ad might be rejected if it contains non-standard text, which includes more than four emojis, symbols, or repeated characters.

Specification Requirement
Name this ad (optional) Use up to 255 characters to name your video ad.
Introductory text (optional) Use up to 600 characters for your intro text.
Video headline Use up to 70 characters to avoid truncation on most devices (200 max characters). 
Destination URL

All URLs must have the http:// or https:// prefix. Use up to 2,000 characters for the destination link.

  • If you add URL parameters for third-party tracking, don't use quotation mark characters within the parameter settings to avoid technical errors with reaching your destination URL. 
  • Some special characters (for example: < > ; # % { } [ ] and others) cause errors when they're included in the query string at the end of the URL. Even if unsafe characters are accepted, they might not be supported in all browsers. If your URL generates an error, copy everything after the question mark into the URL and paste it into a URL encoder like this one: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/.Then, copy your results and replace the original query string in the URL. This should resolve the issue. 
Call-to-action (CTA)

Choose from available CTAs.

  • For in-stream video placements, ads might not always include a CTA. However, you can still click the video ad and be taken to a landing page. 

Important guidelines

Important guidelines to keep in mind for your video ads:

  • If a member unmutes the video in their desktop feed and scrolls down immediately (in less than two seconds), the video will continue playing even if less than 50% of the video is visible on screen.
  • On mobile, when using the video ad format with the objectives Website Visits, Website Conversions, or Engagement, the landing page will display below the video when you click the destination of the ad. 
  • Videos under 30 seconds will loop until there are at least 30 seconds of playback. For example, a video that is 10 seconds long will loop three times and a video that is 20 seconds long will loop twice. Videos over 30 seconds will only play once. 
  • Video ads must contain a video file uploaded directly to LinkedIn, not a link to a third-party site like YouTube or Vimeo.
  • You can upload a maximum of 25 videos within 24 hours in Campaign Manager.
  • You can only upload videos from a desktop device, not from your mobile device.
    • Apple ProRes not supported.
  • Ads can be rejected if they don't meet our advertising guidelines.
  • The domain used in the destination URL will not be visible in the video headline. This is only visible for single image ads. 


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