In your quest to create the perfect ad, you might stop and wonder, “What type of imagery performs best on LinkedIn Ads?” Though imagery isn’t the most important aspect of your LinkedIn Ads, it’s still something you want to get right.

So we’re outlining some best practices (plus examples) to help you put together top-performing imagery, suited to the platform.

Before we get too far, it’s worth noting that imagery is only one piece of the entire LinkedIn Ads puzzle. If you want more LinkedIn Ads best practices, check out this post.

Let’s hit it! 📷

IMAGE SIZE

LinkedIn has different image size requirements, based on the ad format you’ve selected. For example, dimensions for Sponsored Message Ads are 300×250 pixels, Text Ads are 100×100 pixels, and Carousel Ads are 1080×1080 pixels.

However, Sponsored Content Ads offer three different options for image size: 1200×628 pixels (Horizontal/Landscape), 1200×1200 pixels (Square), and 628×1200 pixels (Vertical; Mobile only).

Out of the three, we recommend running square imagery for Sponsored Content Ads, which resulted in a 15% higher clickthrough rate (CTR), according to our own tests. So many others have also attested to better ad performance with square imagery, and vertical imagery, as well.

BILLBOARD RULE

Too much text in your imagery could be a huge turnoff. People are already reading your ad copy, they don’t want to have to read what’s in your image, too.

As a best practice, you can use text in your imagery, but keep it to a minimum. The billboard rule is a good one to follow, which is to limit yourself to seven or fewer words. This will make your ad much more easy to digest.

Take this ad, for example. It generated an average 0.96% CTR over the course of its run. The wording is simple (no jargon or college-level words), minimal, and piques curiosity/thought.

It’s worth noting that, for ad formats other than Sponsored Content, there’s usually not enough real estate to include a lot of text. Text Ads imagery, for example, is so small you wouldn’t be able to read text in the image anyway. For these other ad formats, consider using a logo or the offer you’re promoting as the subject of your image.

IMAGE COLOR

We’ve said it a million times and we’ll say it a million times more: Your image is not the piece that converts on LinkedIn Ads. The purpose of your image is to be a “thumb stopper”—to catch your audience’s attention enough that they stop scrolling to view your message. This can often be accomplished through color.

Use color in your imagery that “pops” against LinkedIn’s color scheme. Avoid colors like blues and whites, and use more colors like oranges, greens, yellows, purples, and reds.

For example, this ad stands out because it uses a mix of pink and purple, which contrasts well with the rest of the platform. Over the course of its run, this ad generated thousands of clicks at an average CTR of 0.52%. It also generated a total of 2500 leads.

Though we can’t attribute this ad’s success entirely to its imagery, the image played a pivotal role in capturing our audience’s attention through contrasting colors.

IMAGE TYPE

You might be wondering which image type performs best or, in other words, what needs to be the content of your image. The answer might surprise you: Whether your image is a graphic, photo, text against a colored background, etc., it doesn’t matter.

These two ads were run by the same client, had the same ad copy, but had two different images. Both were listed among LinkedIn’s “Top 25 Ads” list.

The first ad generated an average 0.76% CTR and 1,503 leads over the course of its run. It’s a graphic and text image that addresses the target audience’s pain in a quick and concise way.

The second ad generated an average 1.22% CTR and 5,313 leads over the course of its run. It’s a photo that depicts someone in the same position as the target audience.

Both ads performed extremely well and CPL was essentially an apples-to-apples comparison. Instead of asking, “What image type performs best on LinkedIn Ads?”, the question you should be asking is “What image type will capture my audience’s attention/resonate with my audience more?”

Both images were tailored to the client’s target audience and captured their attention quickly, despite being different image types.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

All of this said, there will always be exceptions to the rule. You might have a blue landscape image with a heavy amount of text that performs extremely well on LinkedIn Ads.

In this next example ad, the client was promoting their software to Amazon sellers. Their software uses AI to automatically respond to FBA reimbursement cases in order to more easily win back their customers’ money for them.

The image of the ad is a screenshot of an FBA reimbursement case, with the client’s software in action. This image breaks the billboard and color rules we outlined earlier, being flooded with text (some of it too small to even read), and the white blends in with the rest of the LinkedIn platform.

On the other hand, an FBA reimbursement case is something that is easily recognizable to the target audience and presses on a major pain point. This ad generated an average 0.43% CTR over the course of its run, which is just barely above the average, but it also drove new customers at an extremely low cost per acquisition.

At the end of the day, like we mentioned when discussing image types, what truly matters is that your imagery is tailored to your target audience and captures their attention enough for them to stop to read your full LinkedIn Ads message.

CONCLUSION

Though your LinkedIn Ads imagery isn’t as important as your messaging, your imagery still plays a pivotal role in driving an ROI from your ads. We hope these best practices help guide you as you craft future LinkedIn Ads imagery.

Got questions about LinkedIn Ads? We’d love to be a resource for you! Comment below.

And if you want to jump into the channel but don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, consider booking a discovery call with us.

We’ll build, execute, and manage a holistic, custom-tailored LinkedIn Ads strategy for you to help you get more sales opportunities with your ideal prospects.

Written by Eric Jones

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