How To Boost Engagement with LinkedIn Carousel Posts & Ads

As per research, it has been found that carousel posts are the favorite type of content of most social media users. These posts are even more engaging than Instagram reels. When it comes to boosting user engagement on professional social media platforms like LinkedIn, carousel posts and ads play an essential role. If you are creative enough to build excitement among the users with the content on your first slide, you can make them read the entire carousel post and even follow your page to see future posts.

However, you should be well aware of what LinkedIn carousel posts are, how are these different from carousel ads, what are the benefits of posting them, and how these help you boost engagement. Let us help you get answers to all these questions one by one:

What is LinkedIn Carousel?

LinkedIn Carousel is a type of content under which users can swipe left/right to see multiple images or videos within the same post. This type of content has become popular not just on LinkedIn, but on other social media platforms like Instagram as well. It is just like a flipbook that is created to explain a single concept in a more interesting manner. 

LinkedIn Carousel ads are also similar to the carousel posts. The only difference is that these are sponsored posts through which brands can showcase multiple images or videos within a single ad. You might have seen ads running on your LinkedIn or Instagram feed, where you can wipe and see more offers or products by a brand. 

LinkedIn Carousel posts as well as ads can help you boost engagement if used wisely. You can create these posts easily as they have a simple structure. You just need to write a brief post relevant to your target audience's interest and you are all good to go. 

Though LinkedIn has ended its Carousel post feature, you can still do it using the PDF post or PowerPoint slide deck feature available on the platform. Whatever text you write on your post, the first slide of your post shows up under this text. To see other slides, your audience sees clickable arrows over the image. They can click on it to check out the next slides. 

Benefits of Using LinkedIn Carousel Posts

Before you proceed further to LinkedIn Carousel posts 

1. Increase User Engagement through carousel posts without spending money on ads and other expensive marketing tactics.

2. Make People Read Your Post. Many users don’t like to spend time reading ads, but they find it interesting to check out carousel posts that are just for information.

3. Carousel Posts are easy to create. You can use the PPTs of PDFs you have already made for other purposes and post them as carousels on LinkedIn. 

4. These posts show up in the news feed because they occupy more space than other general posts on LinkedIn.

Do LinkedIn Carousel Ads & Posts Really Drive Higher Engagement?

As per a study, over 77% of social media users say that carousel posts are their favorite type of content. Not just on LinkedIn, but these types of posts outperform other content types on almost every social media platform, including Instagram and LinkedIn. On Instagram, carousel posts drive around 3% more engagement than reels. This shows the power of carousel posts, provided that they are created wisely. 

Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that carousel posts are a great way to boost engagement on your social media. Though carousel posts have been ended by LinkedIn, the document feature comes as a good alternative to them. Document posts (which look similar to the carousel posts) perform far better than the image or text posts on LinkedIn. 

However, if you want to post carousel ads, that feature is still on LinkedIn. You don’t need to upload a document in that case, but you can simply proceed further by adding images to the carousel. 

Steps To Create Carousel Posts on LinkedIn

Here is how you can create a carousel post on LinkedIn to drive higher user engagement:

Step 1: Log in to your LinkedIn account. On the home page where you see your feed, you will find an option to ‘start a post.’ Click on this and start by writing a copy or caption for your post. Below the copy, you can also add relevant hashtags.

Step 2: Just below the space where you have written the copy, you will be able to see different icons for adding images, videos, documents, polls, etc. Click on the ‘document’ icon. Select the PDF or PowerPoint you want to share.

You can have a look at this LinkedIn post by MadHawks and understand how you can use a PPT or PDF as a carousel post. 

Step 3: Give a catchy title to your document so that users are encouraged to read the entire document. The title or first few lines of a copy play a vital role in influencing the users’ decision about reading the entire post or skipping it. So, make sure you write something exciting here.

Step 4: Once you are done with the above three steps, recheck the title, copy, hashtags, etc, carefully and make sure that the copy goes well with your document. It should give a brief about the document but don’t just write everything here. The caption must be used to build excitement among users so that they swipe through all the slides in your carousel post.

Steps to Create Carousel Ads on LinkedIn

LinkedIn deleted the carousel feature for posts, but it is still there for advertisements. You should first have a business page on LinkedIn. Here is how you can create LinkedIn carousel ads:

Step 1: Log in to your company page on LinkedIn and go to ‘Campaign Manager.’ Click on ‘Create’ and then select ‘Campaign.’

Step 2: To create carousel ads, you need to turn on the advanced mode on LinkedIn. At the top of the Campaign page, click on Advanced in order to switch from quick mode to advanced mode. You will be asked to create a new ad group after this.

Step 3: Create the group, give it a good name, and proceed further to choose your objective. You can choose any objective out of the available options, which include brand awareness, engagement, website visits, job applicants, video views, etc. 

Step 4: The next step is to set a budget for your ad campaign. You can either select a daily budget or a lifetime budget as per your requirements. It is a good idea to let the system optimize your ad spend rather than doing it manually unless you are an expert. If you don’t have much idea about this, it is advised to partner with SMM companies like MadHawks to run successful ad campaigns on LinkedIn.

Step 5: The advanced mode allows you to be super specific while selecting your target audience. After deciding on a budget, you can choose your target audience or even upload your custom audience. 

Step 6: After this, you will be asked to select a format for your post. Select the ‘Carousel Image’ option and proceed. 

Step 7: Click on ‘Create a new ad.’ You will need to add a name for your carousel ad, write ad copy, and enter the URL of the destination page. You can add up to 10 images to a carousel ad, each with a different destination URL. Add all the image cards with the required information and proceed further to publish the ad.

Requirements for LinkedIn Carousel Posts & Ads

As the original carousel post feature is no more there on LinkedIn, you will require the following things to create document carousel posts on LinkedIn:

• A document file in the form of PowerPoint, PDF, DOC/DOCX.

• The file size shouldn’t exceed 100 MB.

• The file should not have more than 300 pages.

Here are the requirements for LinkedIn carousel ads:

• The image cards should be in a static format, i.e. JPG, PNG, or GIF.

• The images should be in square format, i.e. 1:1 aspect ratio.

• The size of a single image shouldn’t exceed 10 MB.

• You can upload a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 10 images under LinkedIn carousel ads.

• The minimum required size of images is 1080*1080 pixels.

Additional Tips To Create Engaging LinkedIn Carousel Posts

Here are a few additional tips to consider when creating carousel posts for your LinkedIn account:

• No matter what is the format of your original document, PDF is generally the best format for creating carousel posts on LinkedIn.

• Maintaining consistency with your visual branding helps you improve brand awareness.

• The document you upload for carousel posts should be visually appealing. It is essential to pay attention to the color combinations, fonts, graphics, etc.

• You can not edit a carousel post once it is published. So, make sure that you review every single thing before posting.

You can create informative carousel posts that talk about your brand, industry, or products. Users might not be very much interested in reading carousel ads, but they are most likely to read unsponsored carousel posts that seem to be informative. You can boost user engagement while making people aware of your brand through carousel posts. Just use them wisely and try to be as interactive as you can. 

FAQs

1. What are the benefits of carousel posts on LinkedIn?

Ans. Some significant benefits of LinkedIn carousel posts include higher user engagement, increased brand awareness, and a visually appealing LinkedIn profile.

2. Can you do carousel ads on LinkedIn?

Ans. Yes, the carousel ads feature is still there on LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn has removed carousel posts. To create carousel posts, you need to upload documents like PDF, PPT, etc.

3. What are carousel ads on LinkedIn?

Ans. Carousel ads are a form of sponsored content on LinkedIn that has multiple images within a single post.

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