Linkedin Ad Specs & Banner Sizes in 2023 – Always Up-To-Date Guide

Looking for the latest LinkedIn ad specs and banner sizes for 2023? 

We’ve spent hours compiling every single Linkedin ad spec so you don’t have to. This article will feature the ad specs from the latest ad formats such as: 

• Single Image
• Message Ad
• Conversation Ad
• Carousel Ad
• Video Ad
• Text Ads
• Spotlight ads (Dynamic ads)

Before you dive in, this bog is purely about Ad specifications. We’ve written about Best Practices and Ad Examples separately. 

Related: How to run a Linkedin Ads in 2022 – A Definitive Guide to Advertising on Linkedin

December 2020 Update: Linkedin Single Image Ad Specifications

The bread and butter of Linkedin ad. These ads appear in the main newsfeed and is the most commonly used ad format. 

• Introduction text: Although you can go up to 600 characters. We recommend using less than 150 characters for mobile-friendliness to avoid your text becoming truncated. If you are running ads in an unapproved ad language, you’ll need to declare it in your intro text as well.
• Headline: 200 characters max. However, we recommend keeping this short. Less than 60-70 characters.
• Description: You may leave this blank, it’s optional
• Call-To-Action: This is a new feature. You may select from pre-made CTAs like Apply, Download, View Quote, Learn more, Subscribe, Register, Join, Attend, Request Demo. 
• Horizontal Image Ratio: Shorter than 1:1. These are displayed on both mobile and desktop
• Square Image Ratio: They are 1:1 and are displayed on both mobile and desktop
• Vertical Image Ratio: Aspect ratio taller than 1:1 (9:16, 2:3, 4:5). Ads with vertical images only appear on Mobile.

Linkedin Message Ad Specifications: 

Message ads give advertisers the ability to message their target audience directly at scale. 

But that’s not what makes Message ads special. It’s their frequency cap that makes this ad format unique. 

A Linkedin member can only receive 1 message ad from any advertiser within 45 days. 

Update 21st May 2020: Members can only recieve 1 message ad from any advertiser within 30 days. This creates more inventory for you.

What does this mean for you as an advertiser? This means if you succeed in sending a message ad to a member, you block out other competitors. No other advertiser will be able to send a message ad to that particular member. 

Your brand and offer will sit in your member’s Linkedin inbox for 45 days. That is a pretty good deal if you ask me. 

Here’s the dark side of this…. Your competitors can do the same to you. 

They can outbid your ad, get in a member’s inbox and keep you out of it for 45 days. 

I know, it’s a cruel world. But if you have a decent audience size, this shouldn’t be a problem. 

Other specifications you should know about: 

• Sender: Select from available advertisers. If you’d like the sender to be from a Company page, you’ll need to reach out to Linkedin directly to set it up.
• Subject line: Max 60 characters. So keep this short.
• Body Text: Max 1,500 characters. 
• Outbound links: These are links within your messages that lead to your landing page. Use up to 3. 
• Hyperlinked text in the message: Max 70 characters. 
• CTA button (call-to-action): Max 20 characters
• Banner Creative: 300×250. In case you’re wondering, this banner does not appear within the message ad. It appears only on the desktop version on the top right of your member’s inbox. Although this is optional, I always recommend putting something in. If there’s no input, that space will show your competitors’ ads. It’ll be awkward to allow your competitor’s ads to show within your message ad. Even if you don’t have a banner creative, just use a simple white background creatively. At least put something in there. 

Conversation Ads: Ad Specification 

Enter: One of the newest ad formats from Linkedin.

Linkedin is late to the game in this. But you know what they say, better late than never. 

This product is Linkedin’s reply to Facebook’s Messenger ads,  Twitter’s Direct Message Cards and Google’s “Send businesses a text message”. 

The capabilities that Linkedin has built into Conversation Ads is very B2B focused. Features provided are to support white-paper downloads, webinars and driving traffic to websites. 

I see Conversation ads great for brand awareness or engagement type of objectives. If you’re aiming for Lead generation, this is probably not the format for you. 

For lead generation, you’ll want a format that drives/focuses on one single action (lead gen). I.e Single Image Ad or a message ad with only one option.

As the name implies, Conversation ads allow users to choose from many options. Not great for lead generation. 

Anyway, here are the specifications you need to know. 

• CTA Buttons: Max 25 characters 
• Body Text: Max 500 characters 
• Number of CTA Buttons allowed per message flow: 5 Buttons
• Banner image (Desktop only): 300x250px. 

You must have at least 2 CTA buttons that lead to a web page or to a Lead gen form. You’ll be able to build more than 40 segments of messages. In most cases, you’ll only need 3-6 segments. 

The 30 day frequency cap applies to conversation ads too. Exactly the same as Message ads. 

Carousel Ad Specifications

Want to showcase multiple offers or products at the same time? Looking to tell your brand’s story through multiple images? 

Then the Carousel ad is your solution. 

Here are the specifications you need to know for this format: 

• The number of cards: 2-10 cards. You’ll need at least 2 image cards
• Introduction text: 130-150 for mobile-friendliness. Although Max is 255. 
• Image spec: 1080×1080 pixels for each card. 
• Non-lead gen form headline text: Less than 45 Characters 
• Lead Gen Form headline text: Less than 30 characters
• CTA option: Only available for Lead Gen Form Carousel. 7 pre-filled options: Sign up, Apply now, Download, Get quote, Learn more, Subscribe, Register

While Linkedin mentions that Carousel ads can be used in all objectives, we find that it’s best used in the consideration stage.

If you’re looking to drive people to your website, then this would be suitable.

If you’re aiming for Lead Generation, then Single image ads seem better in our experience. 

The best thing you can do is keep testing. The strength of your offer and targeting accuracy is crucial too. 

December 2020 Update: Video Ad Specifications

How to bring your brand and products to life? What’s the best way to showcase customer stories? You got it, videos. 

Here’s how to get started:

• Introductory text: Up to 600 characters
• Video duration: 3 seconds to 30 mins (General rule of thumb: Aim for less than 15 secs)
• File format: MP4
• Video aspect ratio requirements: 
  • Horizontal 16:9, 1920×1080, 1200×675
  • Square 1:1, 360x360px, 1920x1920px
  • Vertical 9:16, 720×920 – This will only be served to mobile.
• Video captions: SRT format
• Video thumbnail: JPG or PNG (Aspect ratio must match the video)
• Video headline: Up to 70 characters for mobile-friendliness. Max 200 characters. 
• Call-to-action (CTA): Select from Linkedin’s options

You can’t use youtube or other third-party video site links. Videos have to be directly uploaded into Linkedin to run video ads. If you have a third-party link, you’ll need to use Single image ad format instead. The final URL will be the youtube link. 

Text Ad Specifications

Have you ever noticed the Headline at the top of your newsfeed? Or perhaps the ads in the right-hand rail. Those are text ads. 

Yes, rarely anyone clicks on them. Most advertisers do not use the ad unit. But this can be useful if executed well. It is after all the most cost-effective ad unit too. 

Check out the ad specifications: 

• Ad image: 100×100 pixels. 
• Ad headline: Up to 25 characters
• Ad Description: Up to 75 characters
• Text ads appear in these sizes
  • 728×90
  • 496×80
  • 160×600
  • 17×700
  • 300×250
• Text ads will only show on desktop pages. 

Let me be straight, this shouldn’t be your first ad unit you go after. You’re probably not going to see enough clicks to move the needle.

Text ads would make a great complimentary ad unit to your main ads like sponsored content. Imagine, if you’re running ads to people in the newsfeed and then constantly showing up on their desktop too, what happens? 

That’s right, you surround your audience with your message everywhere they go on Linkedin! 

Prospects need at least 8-11 touch points with a company before they convert. So text ads is great to help your company remain top of mind with prospects. 

Spotlight (Dynamic) Ad Specifications

This is the only ad format that personalizes automatically based on each individual’s profile data. 

This lets advertisers get more personal with their prospects. Dynamic ads are only for desktop view. There are 3 possible CTAs that prospects can respond to.

• Follow your company page: Follower ad

• Drive people to you website: Spotlight ad

• Generate leads automatically when members click: Content ads 

Content ads are only available if you work with a Linkedin representative. So we’re going to leave that out of this blog. Approach Linkedin directly for the ad specs. 

Here are the ad specifications of Follower and Spotlight ads: 

Follower ad specs:

• Ad Description: Choose one of the templates or write your own text. Max of 70 characters if you opt to write your own text. 
• Ad Headline: Choose one of the templates or write your own text. Max of 50 characters if you opt to write your own text. 
• Company name: Max of 25 characters
• Company image: 100×100 px
• Call to action (CTA): Choose from template CTAs for current followers. For non-followers, they will see a default “Follow” CTA. 

Spotlight ad specs:

• Ad Description: Choose one of the templates or write your own text. Max of 70 characters if you opt to write your own text. 
• Ad Headline: Choose one of the templates or write your own text. Max of 50 characters if you opt to write your own text. 
• Company name: Max of 25 characters
• Company image: 100×100 px
• Call to action (CTA): Up to 18 characters. 
• Custom background image: 300x250px. 

Company Page Image Sizes

With all the ad dimensions down, you’re ready to launch your ads right? Are we forgetting one more important piece? 

That’s right, you’ll need a company page to launch all your creative ads and campaigns from. 

Here’s are the creative dimensions you need: 

Company Page Logo Image

• 300x300px

Linkedin Cover Image

• 1536x768px

Life Tab Main Image (Optional)

• 1128x376px

Life Tab Custom Modules (Optional)

• 502x282px

Life Tab Company Photos (Optional)

• 900x600px

Linkedin Personal Profile Image Sizes

To round it all up, here are the sizes you need for your personal profile. 

Linkedin profile image

• 400x400px

Linkedin profile cover image

• 1584x396px

Linkedin provides in-platform photo adjustments for profiles. So even if your images are slightly off, you might still be able to adjust nicely. Of course, if your dimensions are totally out, then there’s no saving it. 

What’s the next step? 

To be blunt, knowing all the banner sizes of any social media platform is not enough. It only arms you at an executional level. 

But Linkedin ads are a lot more than that. We’d argue that it takes even more strategic planning in Linkedin ads than any other social media platform.

To make things worst, Linkedin is probably the most expensive social media platform to advertise on. 

Here are some questions you need to ask before executing on the ads. 

• Are you familiar with Linkedin’s objective-based advertising? This will affect which ad format is available. Don’t jump straight in and waste resources on creating ads just to find out it’s wrong. 
• Have you reviewed the Best practices of creating Linkedin ads? Learning from peers is always a smarter thing to do. Don’t need to recreate. Model against success
• What are Linkedin’s advertising costs based on each objective? How are you being charged? 
• How to create a Linkedin ad campaign