Platform trends

How LinkedIn Video Has Changed, and What It Means for B2B Brands

For years video on LinkedIn was an extra. Now there is a full-screen vertical feed, ads that run before other people’s videos, and a programme that pays creators. Here is what changed and when, with the numbers, and what we would tell a B2B brand to do about it.

Updated October 2026 · 7 min read

The numbers

36%more video uploaded on LinkedIn in 2024 than in 2023

36%more video watched over the same period

2×the amount of video being created, per LinkedIn

30%year-on-year growth in paid video ads, December 2025 quarter

18%the most extra leads LinkedIn says BrandLink can deliver, measured against lead forms on their own

80%+of LinkedIn creators hold another job alongside it

Sources: LinkedIn via TechCrunch (Feb 2025), Satya Nadella on Microsoft’s earnings call (28 Jan 2026), LinkedIn on BrandLink (May 2025) and LinkedIn’s newsroom (Oct 2026). These are the platform’s own figures.

LinkedIn does not publish a regular video report, so the numbers come in pieces: a product update here, a line on an earnings call there. They all point the same way. More video is being posted, more of it is being watched, and advertisers are paying for it.

How we got here

When	What changed	Why it mattered
2017	Native video for members, uploaded or recorded in the app	Video stopped being a YouTube link.
2018	Video for Company Pages and Sponsored Content	Brands could post and pay for video. LinkedIn said people spent almost three times longer with video ads than with static ones.
2019	LinkedIn Live	Live streaming for people and companies, mostly used for webinars and events.
Mar 2024	Tests of a TikTok-style full-screen player	The first sign of a dedicated video feed.
Jun 2024	The Wire Program	Pre-roll ads before videos from business publishers. Ads now ran inside someone else’s content.
Feb 2025	Full-screen vertical video on desktop, plus a video carousel in search	Swipe from one video to the next, on mobile and desktop.
May 2025	Wire renamed BrandLink and opened to creators	About 30 B2B creators, including Steven Bartlett and Guy Raz, alongside publishers such as Adweek, Condé Nast and The Washington Post. Pre-rolls run 3 to 30 seconds.
Jun 2025	Video covers for articles and newsletters	Long-form posts could open with a clip.
Jan 2026	Paid video ads up 30% year on year	Satya Nadella called it out on Microsoft’s earnings call, the same quarter LinkedIn passed US$5 billion in revenue for the first time.
Oct 2026	In-Stream Ads, a creator dashboard and new Creator Marketplace filters	Creators can opt in and earn from pre-rolls on their own videos. Brands no longer need a partnership deal to advertise there. Testing with selected US creators and advertisers.

Where video sits on LinkedIn now

A video on LinkedIn can now turn up in more places than the feed. Some of these you post to. Others you pay for.

Placement	What it is	Paid or organic
Feed	The standard post, from a person or a Company Page	Organic
Vertical video feed	Full screen. Tap a video and keep swiping. 9:16 fills it	Organic
Search	A carousel of videos in the search results	Organic
Articles and newsletters	A video as the cover image	Organic
Live	Streamed events and webinars	Organic
Video ads	Sponsored video in the feed, targeted by job title, company and industry	Paid
Thought Leader Ads	A brand pays to boost a post made by an employee or another member	Paid
BrandLink	Pre-roll before chosen publisher and creator videos	Paid
In-Stream Ads	Pre-roll before any opted-in creator’s video, with a share going to the creator	Paid (US test)

BrandLink and In-Stream Ads are still being rolled out. LinkedIn has not given dates for In-Stream Ads outside the US.

What has actually changed

The shape. Video on LinkedIn used to mean a landscape clip cut down from a brand film. The vertical feed rewards video made for a phone held upright, the same 9:16 shape as Reels and TikTok. A 16:9 video still plays, but it shows as a strip across the middle of the screen.

Who fronts it. Almost every new product puts a person in front of the brand. Thought Leader Ads boost an employee’s post. BrandLink and In-Stream Ads sell space next to creators. LinkedIn says more than 80% of its creators have another job, and many are founders and operators talking about their own work. The format that wins looks a lot more like a director talking to camera than a corporate video.

Video is now ad space. Until 2024 an ad on LinkedIn was its own post. Now ads play before other people’s videos, and the people who made those videos get paid. That gives creators a reason to post more video, so there will be more of it competing for the same attention.

Low-effort content gets less reach. In September 2026 LinkedIn said views of posts classed as AI slop fell 40% after it let members flag them. For brands that means real footage of real people is likely to travel further than generated filler.

What B2B brands should do about it

Shoot vertical first. Frame for 9:16, keep the action in the centre, and you can still cut 4:5 and 16:9 from the same footage. Our video specs guide has the sizes.
Put a person on camera. A founder, a director or a specialist the audience would recognise in the lift. People follow people, then check the company page to see it is real. Our Adam Hall breakdown shows how far that can go, even in commercial fencing.
Make a series, not a one-off. Pick a few topics you could talk about for a year and post on a rhythm. One good video rarely moves anything. Thirty usually does.
Caption every video and open strong. Most people scroll LinkedIn with the sound off. Upload a caption file, or burn captions in for the vertical cut. Our hooks library has openers that work on LinkedIn.
Put money behind the posts that already work. Thought Leader Ads let you boost a person’s post rather than a brand ad, and it is available now. BrandLink and In-Stream Ads are worth watching, but do not plan a budget around them until they reach Australia.
Judge it on watch time. Views are cheap. How long people watch, and who they work for, tells you whether the right audience is paying attention.

What it takes to keep it going

The hard part is not making one video. It is making one every week while the person in it runs a business. Someone has to plan the topics, book the time, film, edit, caption, cut each version and watch what lands.

That is the work a content department does. We plan topics with you, film in batches at your office or in our Sydney studio, and cut a steady run of vertical, captioned videos for your people and your company page, so camera time stays small and the output does not.

Questions people ask

Is video worth posting on LinkedIn in 2026?

Yes. LinkedIn said video uploads and viewing both rose 36% in 2024, and it has since built a full-screen video feed and new ad products around it. The platform is putting video first, which makes it easier to get video seen.

What size should LinkedIn video be?

LinkedIn accepts aspect ratios from 1:2.4 to 2.4:1. Vertical 9:16 at 1080 × 1920 fills the full-screen video feed, 4:5 at 1080 × 1350 takes up the most room in the main feed, and 16:9 still works for landscape. See our specs guide for every platform.

What is LinkedIn BrandLink?

An ad product that plays a 3 to 30 second pre-roll before videos from selected publishers and creators. It began as the Wire Program in June 2024 and was renamed BrandLink in May 2025, when creators were added.

What are LinkedIn In-Stream Ads?

A test announced in October 2026. Creators can opt in from their dashboard and earn a share of the revenue when a pre-roll plays before their video, and brands can advertise there without a partnership deal. It is limited to selected US creators and advertisers for now.

Should B2B video on LinkedIn come from the company or a person?

Both, with different jobs. Most of LinkedIn’s new video products are built around individuals, and Thought Leader Ads let a company pay to boost a person’s post. The company page backs it up with proof: the team, the work and the clients.