LinkedIn Job Ads: 4 Real Examples, Formats and Specs (2026)
Four recruitment ads rendered inside the LinkedIn feed card, each with the hook, why it works, and what we would change. Two of them ran on LinkedIn. Every format figure carries the LinkedIn page it came from and the day that page was read.
A LinkedIn job ad is paid creative that promotes one open role, or an employer, to people in the LinkedIn feed who were not looking for a job. It is bought in Campaign Manager. It is not the same thing as posting a vacancy on LinkedIn, and that confusion is the first thing this page clears up.
Below are four recruitment ads rendered inside the LinkedIn feed card, taken apart the same way each time. Two ran on LinkedIn. The other two ran elsewhere and say so on the frame.
Where a result number exists and has a source, we name it. On these four there is none, and all four say so.
LinkedIn job ads and LinkedIn job posts are not the same thing
Search for LinkedIn job ads and half of what comes back is about posting a vacancy rather than advertising one. The phrase covers two products, LinkedIn sells both, and they behave nothing alike. One waits to be found. The other interrupts.
Here is the line. The left column is what this page is about.
Advertising: bought in Campaign Manager
Single job ads
What it is: Promotes one role in the feed. That role must be posted on LinkedIn first, and job applicants is the only objective available for it.
Who sees it Members scrolling the feed, desktop and mobile.
The right column is out of scope here, deliberately: LinkedIn documents its own posting products better than anyone else will. What it documents nowhere is what a good recruitment ad looks like in its own feed. That is the rest of this page.
Whether LinkedIn is the right feed to buy at all depends on where your candidates actually are, which is the question our social media recruiting guide answers across five platforms before any of this matters. Read the social media recruiting guide →
How do LinkedIn job ads work?
You build the creative, choose who sees it, and buy the placement in an auction. What you are charged for depends on the campaign objective you choose. LinkedIn's own single job ad format is narrower: it promotes one role that is already posted on LinkedIn, and job applicants is the only objective available for it.
The auction is the part most people underestimate: recruitment audiences are narrow, so what it costs to reach a licensed nurse in one metro area tells you nothing about reaching an engineer nationally.
The placement is the part most people get wrong. A feed ad is read at speed, sound off, by somebody who came to LinkedIn to read about their industry rather than to change jobs. Your intro text sits above the creative and truncates. Your headline sits below it in a bar you do not style. The only thing entirely yours is the image or video, which is why every example below is judged on its first two seconds.
Four LinkedIn job ads examples, and what we would change
Four ads in the LinkedIn feed card, playable rather than screenshotted. Two ran on LinkedIn. The other two ran elsewhere in ratios LinkedIn takes and are shown as placement previews, because a real ad in the wrong placement beats an invented one in the right placement. Each frame says which it is.
Same four blocks every time: the hook, why it works, what we would change, and the LinkedIn specification the file sits on. We built these, so we are the right people to say what is wrong with them.
01
Dunhill: 1:1 square hiring ad for a cleared Release Engineer role, LinkedIn
Placement: Ran on LinkedIn
Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Shown in the LinkedIn feed card.
The hook
A woman in an office with a city skyline behind her is mid-sentence at half a second, with "Release Engineer SME, TS/SCI Clearance" stacked beside her and the Dunhill mark in the corner. By two seconds three facts have stacked underneath: three days a week onsite in Arlington, VA, a band of $130k to $200k, and a note about the regulated government setting.
Why it works
Dunhill recruits for cleared federal IT roles where neither the staff nor the sites can be filmed, so the professional on screen is a generated stand-in and their customer story says so plainly. Putting the clearance level in the headline disqualifies most of the feed on purpose, which is what you want when the eligible pool is that small. A salary band arriving at two seconds is rare on LinkedIn, and it is why this gets read rather than scrolled past.
What we would change
The fourth bullet, two lines on CI/CD pipelines, is the one we would trim next time. A shorter card there gives the Apply now button more room to land.
The spec it sits on
Square 1:1, rendered at 1080 x 1080, running 14.04 seconds. LinkedIn takes square video from 360 x 360 px to 1920 x 1920 px and publishes no recommended size for it, the only one of its four video ratios with nothing to aim at (Help Centre, video ads, 16 Aug 2026).
Result: No result data.
02
Kremer: 1:1 square ad for a recruitment open evening, LinkedIn
Placement: Ran on LinkedIn
Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Shown in the LinkedIn feed card.
The hook
Two people talk across a workbench in a Kremer workshop, one holding a clipboard, with a red INLOOPAVOND tag already pinned top right at half a second. By two seconds "INLOOPAVOND BIJ KREMER" is set across the middle and the date and time, 21 mei, 16.30 to 18.30, has arrived in the first green pill.
Why it works
This is an event ad, not a vacancy ad, and it is the version almost nobody makes. There is no role to be rejected from, so the ask is only to turn up, which is a far lower bar than an application form. The two lower pills still filter, listing the disciplines Kremer wants: electrical engineering and industrial automation, then energy, security, ICT and technical management. The ad narrows its audience without naming a single job title.
What we would change
The date is the entire point, and it shares its styling with the two pills below it. We would give it its own visual weight and add the address.
The spec it sits on
Square 1:1, rendered at 1080 x 1080, running 13.08 seconds. Same range, same silence where a recommendation should be. For a static square ad LinkedIn does commit to a number, 1200 x 1200 px (Help Centre, single image ads, 16 Aug 2026).
Result: No result data.
03
Grant Thornton: 4:5 feed ad for an Economic Consulting Analyst role, Facebook
Placement: LinkedIn placement preview. This ad ran on Facebook.
Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Shown in the LinkedIn feed card.
The hook
A purple panel wipes down over a yellow band and the line "Join Grant Thornton as Economic Consulting Analyst" is already set at half a second. By two seconds a consultant has appeared in the curved cutout below it, smiling at the lens, with the Grant Thornton mark parked bottom left.
Why it works
Naming the firm and the job in one sentence means the first frame still works for everyone who watches nothing else. The curved cutout is a real brand asset rather than a stock motion template, so this reads as Grant Thornton before you find the logo. Later frames swap the person and move the copy to the role plus two facts, collaborating across audit, tax and advisory, and London hybrid. Sell first, qualify second, in that order.
What we would change
Twelve seconds is generous for a feed placement. We would test an eight second cut with the London line earlier, because location filters candidates faster than a responsibility bullet does.
The spec it sits on
Vertical 4:5, rendered at 1080 x 1350, exactly the maximum LinkedIn publishes for 4:5 video. It recommends 720 x 900 px and accepts from 360 x 450 px (Help Centre, video ads, 16 Aug 2026). One restriction travels with it, stated once: paid vertical serves on mobile only.
Result: No result data.
04
Haldu Groep: 16:9 landscape hiring ad in Polish for metal stud fitters, YouTube
Placement: LinkedIn placement preview. This ad ran on YouTube.
Made with RecruitmentAds.com. Shown in the LinkedIn feed card.
The hook
Three fitters install metal stud framing on an unfinished floor, under a blue bar carrying a phone number and [email protected], and nothing else for the first second. By two seconds the Polish headline "Oferta pracy: Monterzy Metal Stud w Rijswijk, Holandia" has landed with a Dutch flag beside it and the orange Haldu Groep badge in the corner.
Why it works
The ad is written in Polish for Polish tradespeople and advertises work in the Netherlands, which is a cross-border employment advertising problem most templates cannot handle at all. Landscape has room to breathe, so holding unedited site footage for a full second before any text is a fair trade here. All four bullets are logistics: weekly pay, free accommodation with a private room, an immediate start, and a category B licence. That is what this audience decides on.
What we would change
The top bar carries a phone number, which is a hard action to take from a video placement. We would test that space on the pay figure and keep the number for the landing page.
The spec it sits on
Horizontal 16:9, rendered at 1920 x 1080, both the size LinkedIn recommends and the largest it accepts. The range starts at 640 x 360 px, with 1200 x 675 px given as a second recommendation (Help Centre, video ads, 16 Aug 2026).
Result: No result data.
One thing all four have in common
All four were exported at 30 frames per second, measured off the files. LinkedIn's help centre states the video requirement as less than 30 FPS. Marketing Solutions, on the page beside it, recommends 30 (both read 16 August 2026).
Read literally, following the recommendation breaks the requirement, and 30 is the most common export setting there is. Two of the ads above ran on LinkedIn at exactly that number. We record it rather than resolve it, because only LinkedIn can. To satisfy the page that calls it a requirement, export below 30.
No page ranking for LinkedIn job ads states a single LinkedIn ad dimension, aspect ratio or video duration, checked across the thirteen pages holding those positions on 1 September 2026. So here are the figures the four ads above sit on, each with its LinkedIn page and the date it was read.
This is the working subset. The full set, plus a browser mockup that draws the feed card around your own file, is on our LinkedIn ad specs page.
Square is the odd one out, and the ratio both ads here that ran on LinkedIn were built in. The other three get a recommended size. Square gets a range.
The 150 is the length LinkedIn says avoids truncation. Where truncation happens is a different claim, and one it has never published.
Running a static image instead? Different sheet: 1200 x 1200 px square, 720 x 900 px at 4:5, 1200 x 628 px landscape, vertical stops at 4:5, and paid vertical serves on mobile only (Help Centre, single image ads, read 16 Aug 2026). The full single image spec sheet
LinkedIn publishes no safe zone, for any ad format, in any unit
The most useful figure here is one that does not exist. LinkedIn gives no safe zone, no safe area and no text-overlay reserve for any ad format, in any unit. Checked across eleven LinkedIn-owned pages on 16 August 2026, including the Connected TV specification, which goes down to loudness targets and chroma subsampling and still names no safe area.
It matters less than it sounds, and that is the useful half. A LinkedIn feed ad is framed rather than covered: company name, Promoted label and intro text above it, headline bar, link and button below it, nothing on top. You get the whole frame, the opposite of TikTok and Stories, so the apply line can sit wherever it reads best. What it will not tell you is height: LinkedIn publishes no pixel dimension for that chrome either.
Two figures LinkedIn does not publish
Both get quoted confidently elsewhere. Neither ever came from LinkedIn.
Two figures LinkedIn does not publish
Not published
Pages checked
Accessed
Any safe zone, safe area or text-overlay reserve for any LinkedIn ad format, in pixels, percentages or prose
The eleven LinkedIn-owned pages listed in the safe-zone section
16 Aug 2026
A recommended dimension for square (1:1) video. The minimum and maximum are published; the other three ratios all have a recommendation
Video ads specifications, both Help Centre hosts
16 Aug 2026
Three LinkedIn figures that depend on which LinkedIn page you read
LinkedIn documents its ads on four properties and they disagree. These three change a recruitment ad, and each carries the number to build to.
LinkedIn recommends the frame rate its own requirement excludes.
Export below 30 fps if you want to satisfy the page stated as a requirement.
None of it is a gotcha. It is the ordinary condition of platform documentation, and the reason every figure here names its page and its date.
The ratio we cannot show you
Three of LinkedIn's four video ratios have an example above. The fourth is 9:16 vertical, taken at 720 x 1280 px recommended, from 360 x 640 px to 1080 x 1920 px (Help Centre, video ads, read 16 Aug 2026). Our vertical ads ran on Instagram and TikTok, so they stay on the main examples page rather than get dressed up as something they were not.
What the best LinkedIn recruitment ads have in common
Read across the four above and the same habits keep turning up. These are the six that separate a LinkedIn recruitment ad somebody reads from one that merely runs:
1.The role is in the creative, not the caption.
Dunhill sets the job title and clearance level beside the speaker at half a second. Kremer pins its event tag before anything else moves. Intro text truncates at a point LinkedIn has never published, so anything the reader must see belongs in the frame you control.
2.The most disqualifying fact goes early, on purpose.
Dunhill leads with a clearance that rules out most of the feed. Haldu Groep opens in Polish and names the Dutch town. When the pool is small, narrowing inside two seconds is the job: everyone you lose was never going to apply.
3.Everything reads with the sound off.
All four carry the argument in on-screen type over footage, not a voiceover. Pay bands, locations and dates are set, not spoken. An ad that needs audio makes sense to almost nobody.
4.Square is the workhorse, and the shape LinkedIn documents worst.
Both ads here that ran on LinkedIn are 1:1. Two ads is not a study. But square takes more feed height on mobile than 16:9, and it is the one video ratio LinkedIn publishes no recommended size for: the most useful shape and the least guided.
5.Not every recruitment ad has to be a vacancy.
Kremer advertises an open evening. No role to be rejected from, no form, so the ask is only to turn up. It still filters, by naming the disciplines it wants and no job title. Almost nobody makes this ad.
6.The fix is nearly always the same: move the deciding fact earlier.
Four honest change notes, three of them a version of this. Grant Thornton's location line should land sooner, because location filters faster than a responsibility bullet. Haldu Groep spends its top bar on a phone number where the pay would work harder. Kremer's date is the whole point and gets no more weight than two lesser pills.
Questions about LinkedIn job ads
How do LinkedIn job ads work?
You build the creative, choose the audience, and buy the placement in an auction where what you are charged for depends on the campaign objective you picked. LinkedIn's own single job ad is a narrower thing: a Sponsored Content format promoting one role, which has to be posted on LinkedIn first, and job applicants is the only objective available for it (LinkedIn Help Centre, Jobs Ads Overview, read 2 September 2026).
How much does a job ad cost on LinkedIn?
It depends which of the two products you mean, and LinkedIn publishes a list price for neither. Advertising is sold in an auction, and LinkedIn describes its pricing as objective-based: what you are billed for follows the objective you chose. Job posting is priced separately, and LinkedIn's own page says pricing for its posting tools varies with your hiring needs. We publish no figure for either, because any number we gave you would be somebody else's campaign in somebody else's market. Both of LinkedIn's pages are linked above.
What is the 3/2/1 rule on LinkedIn?
Nothing LinkedIn defines. It is a posting cadence rule of thumb that circulates among people publishing organically, a ratio of personal to industry to promotional posts, and the versions people quote do not agree with each other about which number belongs to which. It has nothing to do with paid advertising, where the mix is decided by your objective, your audience size and your budget rather than by a posting ratio.
What is the best way to advertise a job on LinkedIn?
It depends on whether anyone is already looking. If the role attracts applications on its own, a job post does most of the work, and LinkedIn's own posting documentation covers that half properly. If the eligible pool is small, specific, or employed and content, a paid feed ad is the only one of the two that reaches somebody who was not searching. The two are not alternatives: the listing catches the people already looking, and the ad is what you add when nobody is.
What is a Work With Us ad on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn's ad format that shows your open roles alongside LinkedIn profiles, so somebody reading one of your employees' profiles sees what you are hiring for (LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Work With Us Ads, read 2 September 2026). It is sold through LinkedIn rather than bought self-serve, and that page publishes no price. It is a different product from the feed ads on this page, which is why none of the four examples above is one.
What is the difference between a promoted job and a sponsored job on LinkedIn?
A promoted job is a job post with budget behind it, so LinkedIn shows the same listing to more people. A sponsored job ad is advertising: your own creative in the feed, bought in Campaign Manager, aimed at an audience you defined. The first is a louder megaphone on a listing you have already written. The second is a different piece of content entirely, and it is the only one of the two where the first two seconds belong to you.
Does LinkedIn publish a safe zone for LinkedIn job ads?
No, and not for any other ad format either: not single image, not video, not carousel, not its Connected TV format. The concept appears nowhere in LinkedIn's advertising documentation in any unit, checked across eleven LinkedIn-owned pages on 16 August 2026. It matters less than the absence suggests, because a feed card frames your creative rather than covering it. Nothing is drawn on top of your image or video, so you can use the full frame. Any LinkedIn safe-zone figure quoted elsewhere came from somebody other than LinkedIn.
Every source on this page
Each figure above carries its source where it sits. The full list, every one of them LinkedIn's own documentation, with the day each was read:
The video ads specification is in both lists. Its figures date from 16 August 2026 and the page was re-read on 2 September 2026 to confirm they still stand. They did, and nothing on this page changed as a result.
No page by another company is quoted, linked or shown here, and no third-party ad creative is re-hosted. Character limits, file caps and aspect ratios are re-checked quarterly; the absence of a safe zone annually.
The same treatment for the Meta feed, where the safe-zone story is the opposite.
Create an ad like this
All four ads above started as an ordinary vacancy. A job post went in and a finished ad set came back out, in the employer's own brand template and cut to the placement. Paste a job post into RecruitmentAds.com and see what yours looks like. Or start smaller: drop your creative into the free LinkedIn mockup and see what the feed card does to it.
