LinkedIn’s New Ad Innovations [Mastering Video in a Competitive Feed]

When 66% of marketers fear falling behind without video, these tools deliver control, creativity, and measurable results.

In B2B marketing, grabbing attention isn’t just an uphill battle; it’s the very definition of success.

According to LinkedIn’s 2025 B2B Marketer Sentiment Research, 91% of B2B marketers agree that capturing audience attention keeps them up at night, and 66% fear falling behind competitors if they don’t invest in video this year.

Recognizing these pressures, LinkedIn has unveiled a powerful suite of video ad solutions, First Impression Ads, Reserved Ads placement, expanded Connected TV (CTV) capabilities, and streamlined creative workflows with Adobe Express integration to help marketers secure premium real estate, tell richer stories, and measure impact with unprecedented precision.

First Impression Ads: Commanding Day-One Visibility

The Challenge: Research shows that 70% of a campaign’s impact occurs on its first day, yet most B2B marketers struggle to make a splash amid feed clutter.

The Solution: First Impression Ads reserve the very first ad impression a member sees each day in a full-screen vertical format—akin to owning the front-row seat at a major event. By locking in that prime real estate, brands can:

• Maximize Initial Reach: Guarantee visibility among target segments—whether small business owners, tech decision-makers, or C-suite executives.
• Drive Immediate Engagement: Break through scroll fatigue with immersive, mobile-optimized storytelling that demands attention from moment one.
• Plan with Predictability: Reservation buying gives control over impressions and budget pacing, ensuring your most important messages hit at peak times.

Expert Tip: Use First Impression Ads to announce product launches, event registrations, or quarterly results—any high-stakes moment where missing early engagement risks dampening ROI.

Reserved Ads: Premium Placement Across Formats

The Challenge: Beyond video, Thought Leader Articles, Single Image Ads, and Document Ads often struggle to secure top-tier placement in feeds.

The Solution: LinkedIn’s Reserved Ads feature lets marketers lock in the first ad slot for any Sponsored Content format. Benefits include:

• Brand Visibility: Studies show premium ad positions can boost click-through rates by up to 57% compared to standard auction placements (IWC Schaffhausen case study).
• Share of Voice: Control over placement translates into share-of-voice leadership—critical when competing against larger budgets.
• Strategic Consistency: Align creative rollouts across formats, ensuring your lead message dominates multiple touchpoints.

Expert Tip: Combine Reserved Ads with A/B tested headlines or creative variations to refine messaging for different personas, while retaining the top-slot advantage.

Connected TV Ads: Scaling Beyond the Feed

The Challenge: Reaching B2B buyers off-site—on living room TVs and premium streaming services—often requires separate vendors and fragmented measurement.

The Solution: LinkedIn’s CTV Ads bridge this gap, integrating professional audience targeting with premium streaming inventory:

• 4× Higher B2B Effectiveness: iSpot data shows LinkedIn CTV Ads outperform linear TV by 4× in reaching defined B2B segments.
• CTV Select Partnerships: The new “CTV Select” tier adds Paramount to NBCUniversal, offering exclusive, fixed-price access to blockbuster content.
• Seamless Activation: VAST tag support via Innovid simplifies asset deployment across screens, while Sprinklr’s CTV API lets you manage campaigns alongside social ads.

Expert Tip: Pilot CTV campaigns around industry events (e.g., major conferences or earnings periods) to reinforce feed messaging and drive cross-channel frequency.

Accelerated Creative: Adobe Express Integration

The Challenge: High-quality video production is resource-intensive, especially for SMBs and lean teams.

The Solution: LinkedIn’s Adobe Express integration embeds optimized video templates directly into Campaign Manager workflows:

1. Design in Adobe Express: Choose from LinkedIn-optimized templates tailored for vertical and horizontal formats.
2. One-Click Export: Use the LinkedIn Ads add-on to push final assets into Campaign Manager within minutes.
3. Immediate Promotion: Assign budgets and targeting on the spot—no downloads or manual uploads required.

Expert Tip: Leverage Adobe’s dynamic text and animation tools to create bespoke, data-driven overlays (e.g., “Join 5,000+ professionals at our webinar”) that personalize video at scale.

Measurement & Optimization: From iSpot to Campaign Analytics

The Challenge: Video performance measurement often lives in silos—view counts here, click-through there, CTV metrics elsewhere.

The Solution: LinkedIn’s expanded partnerships and native dashboards deliver end-to-end visibility:

• LinkedIn Analytics: Track First Impression, Reserved, and CTV metrics alongside standard KPls (views, clicks, conversions).
• Third-Party Insights: iSpot integration surfaces on-target reach and adjacency analysis; Sprinklr unifies CTV campaign management with social dashboards.
• Full-Funnel Attribution: Combine brand recall lift studies with lead generation outcomes to quantify video impact on pipeline velocity and revenue.

Expert Tip: Establish a weekly “video performance huddle” bringing together media, creative, and analytics teams to iterate rapidly on underperforming assets.

Elevate Your B2B Video Strategy Today

LinkedIn’s new video ad innovations address the core anxieties of B2B marketers: grabbing attention, standing out, and proving impact.

By harnessing First Impression and Reserved Ads for guaranteed feed dominance, extending reach via CTV with professional targeting, and slashing creative turnaround through Adobe Express, you gain both the control and flexibility required for modern campaigns.

Couple these tools with rigorous measurement across LinkedIn’s native analytics and third-party platforms, and you’ll turn fleeting attention into lasting brand affinity and measurable pipeline growth.

Next Steps:

1. Audit upcoming key moments (product launches, events) for First Impression and Reserved Ad opportunities.
2. Pilot CTV campaigns in tandem with feed ads to test cross-channel lift.
3. Streamline your creative workflow by training your team on Adobe Express templates and VAST tag deployments.
4. Establish integrated dashboards that bring LinkedIn and third-party metrics into one unified view.

With these innovations, the only limitation is your creativity, so seize the front row, step onto the biggest screens, and master video in the competitive LinkedIn feed.

About the Author

Kalin Anastasov

Writer

Kalin Anastasov plays a pivotal role as an content manager and editor at Influencer Marketing Hub. He expertly applies his SEO and content writing experience to enhance each piece, ensuring it aligns with our guidelines and delivers unmatched quality to our readers.