Launch LinkedIn ads straight from your Canva designs

Tips: What makes a great LinkedIn ad campaign?

Your creative does the hard work! In fact – LinkedIn found that 49% of B2B decision-makers are more likely to explore a company's products or services when the advertising is creative, using storytelling, humor, or emotion to make an impact (source: MAGNA Media Trials x LinkedIn).

Here are five ways to strengthen your LinkedIn ads and launch a campaign that shines:

Lead with the outcome, not the offer

People pay attention to what matters to them. Start by clearly stating a solution to a challenge and leave the finer details for the landing page.

Tell a mini story

Storytelling helps your ad land emotionally – but it doesn't need to be elaborate. Instead, try leading with simple storytelling setups like a before-and-after, a problem you can solve, or a surprising fact. 

Stick to one idea

Pick your strongest point of view, then build the messaging and design around it. Taking the time to ensure you’re communicating one message will lead to more success than throwing in lots of different ideas and hoping one will stick.

Match the ad to the moment

Someone who is discovering your business for the first time needs something different from someone comparing you against competitors. Make sure to adjust your tone, format, and message depending on who you're talking to, and target these ads to the relevant audiences.

Create plenty of designs

Be sure to create at least four to five ads for your LinkedIn campaign. This can help you reach more people in your target audience. Get creative! Test design variations and headlines to see what resonates best. Find more LinkedIn tips here.

Launch a winning campaign

Ready to go? Here’s the whole process from start to finish, so you can reach your marketing goals.

If you don't have a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account – head here to learn how to set one up and create your first campaign.

Step 1: Create your ad

1. From the Canva homepage, go to More, then open Grow.
2. Describe your business or paste in a link, and you'll get a starting design to work from.
3. Already have a design you love? Choose Get started and bring your own in instead.

Step 2: Connect your LinkedIn Ads account

1. Confirm your LinkedIn Ads account, then choose the company page your ad will run from. This is the name and logo people will see attached to your ad.

Step 3: Set up your campaign

1. Create your campaign, then choose your objective — what you want the ad to do, like send people to your website.
2. Set your budget and how long you want the campaign to run.
3. Create your ad set, which is the group your ad sits in. Here you choose your format, the language of your ad, and the country you're targeting.

Step 4: Add your creative and copy

1. Choose your ad creative — a recent ad, a Canva design, or your own upload.
2. Add your ad copy and the link you want people to land on, then choose your call to action (CTA).
3. Not sure how to word it? Generate a first draft with AI, then edit it until it sounds like you.
4. When everything looks right, submit it to LinkedIn for approval and your campaign goes live.

Step 5: See how it's going

1. Go to Learn. The Overview tab gives you a snapshot of your account, including your key metrics and your best-performing ad.
2. Start with that best performer. It's the most useful thing on the page, because it tells you what your audience responded to.
3. Ask yourself what it has that the others don't: the image, the headline, the offer. That's your brief for the next one.

When you're ready to go further

Once you've got a campaign under your belt, here's where to take it next.

Run a set, not a single ad

LinkedIn recommends two to three creative assets per format. A set of ads gives the platform options to serve, and keeps your audience from seeing the same thing until they stop noticing it. You can select the whole set at once, so a campaign of five ads isn't five trips through setup.

Change one thing between versions

Be strategic about what you’re changing – change either the headline, the image, the offer, but not all three. This means you'll know exactly what made the difference when you compare ad performance.

Refresh before an ad wears out

If something performs well and then drops off, swap in a fresh version rather than waiting it out. Be ready to experiment and change things up so your audience doesn’t grow tired of seeing the same creative again and again.

Add video to the mix

Video is one of the fastest-growing formats on LinkedIn – and video ads average three times the engagement of non-video ads (Source: LinkedIn internal data, Q4FY25).

Here are some helpful tips for attention-grabbing video ads.

• Make it feel native to the feed – a founder sharing a real insight, or employees sharing tips often feel more authentic than a polished ad
• Focus on the first three seconds – that’s your hook, so make it matter. 
• Design for sound off, so captions aren't optional. 
• Keep it to around 45 seconds.

Build the report you need

The Learn feature lets you create your own report: group by ad or by creative, filter down to the format you're interested in, choose your metrics and timeframe, then save it. Because it's visual, you can share it with anyone without asking them to read a spreadsheet.

Now: Create, launch and learn

Let’s do this! Your first LinkedIn campaign will teach you more than any amount of planning will. So experiment: Get one live, give it a week, and see what it tells you.