The first thing you need to know about LinkedIn Video specs is this: they’re different for videos you share in posts or messages and for video adverts.
We’re going to look at both sets of specifications and dig into how to make the most of what LinkedIn lets you do with your video content.
When you’re sharing a video on LinkedIn, you have a lot of options. LinkedIn supports these video formats:
LinkedIn video ads, however, must be in MP4 format (with AAC or MPEG4 audio).
The following file types and codecs are not supported:
You’ll get an error message if you try to upload any of these to LinkedIn. There are loads of tools to convert video from one format to another - CloudConvert has a good free option for converting incompatible formats to MP4.
Of course, it’s not always necessary or even preferable to upload your video to LinkedIn. You can always share a link to a video hosted elsewhere.
The minimum requirements for LinkedIn video are:
If you need to upload video that’s shorter than 3 seconds, you can do this by uploading an animated GIF instead. OK, there won’t be any sound, but how much use can less than 3 seconds of sound be anyway??!!! 🤣🤣🤣
The maximums are as follows:
In terms of how long your videos should be:
LinkedIn video adverts have to be in one of the three following aspect ratios:
The tolerance is fairly generous: videos can vary from these ratios by up to 5% and still be squeezed into an approved scale.
Shared videos are not subject to such tight restrictions. They can be in any ratio between 2.4:1 horizontally and 1:2.4 vertically.
16:9 is the standard “widescreen” ratio, which is also ideal for landscape viewing on most mobile devices. 9:16 is the same, but rotated 90 degrees!
2.4:1 is anamorphic widescreen (sometimes called “cinemascope”). Although you can share videos in this scale on LinkedIn, it’s important to bear in mind that they will rarely look good!
So, while you can share anamorphic widescreen video on LinkedIn, bear in mind the words of Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park!
LinkedIn can handle a wide range of video resolution levels, all the way from 240x144 low-res to 4096x2160 full 4K.
It can also handle Frame Rates between 10 and 60 Frames Per Second (FPS) - although it recommends 30 FPS as the best rate for adverts.
As a general rule, it’s best to use video of the highest resolution you can, within the file size limits detailed above. If a viewer’s screen doesn’t support the full resolution, it will downgrade it to the highest level it can playback.
If you need to compress a file to a smaller size without losing quality, Veed.io is a great web-based tool and VLC is a good desktop app.
If your profile qualifies for LinkedIn Live, you can stream video as well as share it. You’ll be eligible if:
This will let you stream video from an Event you have created. See more about LinkedIn streaming here.
Bit rate is the speed at which streamed data is processed. The higher the bit rate, the better the image and audio quality of the video will be:
LinkedIn can stream video well within these parameters: from an agonizing 192 kilobits per second (KBPS) to lightning-fast 30 MBPS.
Video ads on LinkedIn offer a lot of other functionality that is not available for shared or streamed videos. No big surprise - you’re paying for them! 😂 💰💰
Here are the extra specs for LinkedIn video ads:
A URL for the ad’s destination landing page also has to be provided, which must be no more than 200 characters long.
OK, so that’s what you need to do to use video on LinkedIn. But perhaps you’re still wondering why you should be…
Well, wonder no longer. Brace yourself - here come some mind-boggling stats!
Convinced? You should be!
There you have it! 👏
Everything you need to know about LinkedIn video specs and best practice tips for a whole load of use cases.
If you want to find out more about LinkedIn video, we’ve written a few blogs about it recently:
And if you’re looking for a video creation and sharing app that has a native LinkedIn integration that connects automatically with your account when you download our Chrome extension, you’ve definitely come to the right place! 👏👏👏
Sendspark makes it easy to create or import videos and distribute them across LinkedIn, email, and the web. Sign up now and start recording and sharing videos for free.