Linkedin carousel ads

LinkedIn carousel ads accept 2-10 cards per ad. Each card is a 1080x1080 square image (the legacy 1200x628 ratio is deprecated for carousels). Headline copy per card maxes at 45 characters; introductory text above the carousel maxes at 255 characters before truncation. Each card can route to its own destination URL.

File requirements: JPG or PNG, max 10MB per card. The same file specs apply across all cards in the unit. Video cards inside carousels are not supported - if you need video, ship a video ad instead.

Recommended card count: 4-6 for most use cases. 2-3 card carousels often outperform 8-10 card carousels because LinkedIn audiences won't earn the swipe patience for longer units unless the hook is exceptional. Pre-test card count by shipping a 4-card and 8-card version of the same creative and watching swipe-through depth.

Setup happens in Campaign Manager. Pick Sponsored Content as the ad type, then Carousel image ad as the format. You can upload cards individually or use the bulk-upload CSV template for catalog-driven carousels (10-card product showcases benefit from CSV).

Choose carousel when your content has discrete, sequential beats. Numbered frameworks, step-by-step setups, multi-feature product walks, before-after-bridge sequences - any content where the natural structure is 'one beat per panel'. If your content flows continuously, carousel is the wrong format; ship video or thought leader ad instead.

Choose carousel for mid-funnel, not top-of-funnel. Cold audiences won't earn the swipe patience for a 6-card carousel. They'll swipe past after card 1. Thought leader ads and document ads pull better cold engagement. Carousels work when the audience already knows the brand and is evaluating - retargeting, lookalike of past converters, warm intent.

Choose carousel over document for shorter content. Carousels render inline at the same size as single image ads and can fit 4-10 quick beats. Document ads support up to 300+ pages of content but require more swipe commitment. If your content fits in 6 sentences, carousel; if it's a 12-page framework, document.

Don't choose carousel for narrative content. First-person founder stories, customer-quoted narratives, and contrarian observations all perform better as thought leader ads. The carousel format breaks narrative flow because each card is its own visual unit - you lose the continuous-prose quality that makes narrative LinkedIn content land.

Internal: linkedin-thought-leader-ads, linkedin-video-ads, linkedin-document-ads.

Front-load value on card 1. Card 1 carries 100% of impressions; card 6 carries maybe 40%. If your most compelling beat is card 6, swipe-through is lost. Lead with the strongest specific (a number, a counterintuitive claim, a named customer) on card 1.

Number the cards visually. '1 of 6', '2 of 6' indicators in the corner of each card lift swipe-through 15-25% because they set explicit expectations. The brain commits to finishing a numbered sequence in a way it doesn't commit to an unnumbered one.

Use a consistent visual system across cards. Same color palette, same typography, same layout grid. Inconsistent cards read as multiple ads stitched together; consistent cards read as a single intentional unit. The consistency signal compounds the credibility of the content.

Make the final card a soft CTA, not a hard one. 'Get the full framework' or 'See more case studies' outperforms 'Book a demo' as the last-card CTA. Hard CTAs work for hot retargeting; soft CTAs work for the mid-funnel audiences carousel ads typically address.

Test 2-card vs 6-card on identical content. The shorter version often wins on click-through-to-landing rate even when the longer version wins on swipe depth. Swipe depth is a vanity metric; landing-page conversion is the real one.