{"id":170200,"date":"2025-04-04T02:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T02:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/advertising\/10-linkedin-ad-mistakes-made-by-linkedin-itself\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T02:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T02:52:07","slug":"10-linkedin-ad-mistakes-made-by-linkedin-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=170200","title":{"rendered":"10 LinkedIn Ad Mistakes… Made by LinkedIn Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Searching for bad examples of LinkedIn ad creatives for my new marketing course<\/a>, I ran against the wall. <\/strong><\/p>\n

There were so many good<\/em> examples. <\/p>\n

Part of my bad-examples-draught problem was that I\u2019d been looking up the top B2B brands\u2019 ads directly in the LinkedIn Ad Library.<\/p>\n

Once I switched to my own LinkedIn feed, the quality of creatives dropped significantly.<\/p>\n

Hurray, there are still plenty of B2B brands making awful mistakes, I thought.<\/p>\n

Once my thumb stopped at a LinkedIn ad by LinkedIn itself, I knew I had hit the goldmine.<\/p>\n

LinkedIn\u2019s LinkedIn ad mistakes<\/h2>\n

Take a look at these three ad examples.<\/p>\n

\"linkedin<\/figure>\n

Not necessarily awful, you say?<\/p>\n

Well, yes. They look like something of a mediocre B2B brand\u2019s ads from 2010.<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019ve looked at some excellent LinkedIn ad examples<\/a>, you can see what I mean.<\/p>\n

Not awful is not great.<\/p>\n

No good performance marketer would accept a ROAS (return on ad spend) that\u2019s \u201cnot awful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"good<\/figure>\n

Adding insult to injury is the fact that Reddit is absolutely killing it with their LinkedIn ads.<\/p>\n

Here are some more LinkedIn for Marketing ad creatives that popped up in my LI feed.<\/p>\n

Can you tell the mistakes they\u2019re making?<\/p>\n

\"bad<\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some key mistakes \u2013 and ensure you will avoid them in your own paid ads game.<\/p>\n

My bet is that if LinkedIn\u2019s paid advertising team would fix these 10 mistakes, their ROAs would improve 2x or more.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"linkedin<\/figure>\n

The first ad creative is in landscape format, <\/strong>meaning it uses up only about 60% of the total available LinkedIn feed real estate.<\/p>\n

The colour scheme is faded and boring; it doesn\u2019t convey excitement.<\/p>\n

And the in-image text blends into the background; you have to make an effort to read it.<\/p>\n

\"linkedin<\/figure>\n

The other two examples are slightly better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, now they\u2019re missing a call-to-action button.<\/p>\n

And there is no illustration of the product or the benefit.<\/p>\n

There are too many colours for a single ad creative: <\/strong>dark grey, light green, vintage green, three different blues, and white.<\/p>\n

\"linkedin<\/figure>\n

Batch two.<\/p>\n

In addition to ad design issues, you can also recognise some copywriting mistakes: <\/strong>weak value proposition and abstract propositions (\u201cshape perceptions\u201d), no social or number-led proof in in-image or ad text.<\/p>\n

Speaking of design problems, you shouldn\u2019t be using stock photos in your paid ad creatives.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Especially in 2025 when it\u2019s incredibly easy to create unique illustrations and images with a little help from AI image generation tools.<\/p>\n

I always recommend to my B2B clients not to use stock photos \u2013 or images of people in general \u2013 on their landing pages and paid ad creatives.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Whichever picture you select, even if you <\/strong>do<\/em><\/strong> make an attempt at diversity, will only be relatable to 5% of all people who see it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, even the diversity-positive pictures in Stocksy \u2013 my go-to photo gallery for high-quality pictures \u2013 represent a minuscule part of society.<\/p>\n

I, as a marketing strategist working with brands with glossy offices, should relate to the people in these photos. It is likely that so should you \u2013 a fellow marketer.<\/p>\n

But these people are not like me: they recall a generic Netflix office series, not a realistic day-to-day office life.<\/p>\n

So what visuals should you use instead of stock images?<\/p>\n

To find out, join my B2B ad creatives course. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

But before, copy and save the list of 10 LinkedIn ad creatives mistakes to save your own team from making these blunders.<\/p>\n

10 LinkedIn ad creative mistakes to avoid<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t make these obvious mistakes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Boring ad image layout<\/li>\n
  2. Missing call-to-action button<\/li>\n
  3. No illustration of product or benefit<\/li>\n
  4. Eclectic colour scheme<\/li>\n
  5. Generic stock photos<\/li>\n
  6. Overcrowding ad image with text\u00a0<\/li>\n
  7. Impractical information overload<\/li>\n
  8. Hidden or missing value proposition<\/li>\n
  9. Tiny product screenshots<\/li>\n
  10. No bold headline in ad image<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n