Over the past few years, LinkedIn has been investing in video like nobody’s business.
But there were a few hiccups in its evolution from a desktop display business to a mobile-first, video-centric platform. Remember LinkedIn’s short-lived attempt at short-form ephemeral video?
LinkedIn launched its version of Stories in 2020 and shut it down the following year because of low engagement and feedback from users that the format didn’t suit the platform’s professional vibe.
It was a good experiment, though, says Lindsey Edwards, LinkedIn’s VP of product management, on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
Products evolve, she says, and sometimes you try things that don’t work. It’s all part of the process. Timing is also everything.
“When I look back at Stories, I’m not sure it was the wrong product, although there were lessons learned,” Edwards says. “Maybe it was just a little too far ahead of its time in terms of the comfort level of the audience.”
Since then, though, video has become core to LinkedIn’s content strategy and a key component of how the platform monetizes. According to LinkedIn, engagement with video has increased 36% over last year, and there’s also been a 36% increase in the amount of video being uploaded.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn expanded its video advertising offering – which was recently rebranded from the Wire Program to BrandLink – to include ad placements alongside creator content, the ability to sponsor video from top creators and improved targeting by demographics and location.
And in March, LinkedIn hosted its first-ever NewFronts presentation, where it touted BrandLink and its new CTV ads, which allow advertisers to target business professional audiences on streaming services using LinkedIn’s first-party data.
Still, are advertisers ready to think of LinkedIn as a B2B streaming hub?
“It’s a journey, for sure,” Edwards says.
“It was our first NewFronts ever, and we’ve been in the advertising business at LinkedIn for 14 or 15 years,” she says. “But early signals, early feedback, everything is pointing at quite a positive reception to the moment and the message we were trying to deliver.”
Also in this episode: What LinkedIn is doing to court video content creators, battling AI slop and why Edwards is a fan of vibe coding. (She recently used AI tools to build her own wine-tracking app.)
