Should my LinkedIn videos be vertical or horizontal?

The longer answer depends on where your viewers watch, whether you’re posting or paying to promote, and which other channels the same video is going to. Here’s what LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok say in their own help pages, and how we’d apply it.

What shapes of video does LinkedIn accept?

LinkedIn is unusually flexible. Its help page on sharing videos lists an accepted aspect ratio of 1:2.4 to 2.4:1, which runs from a very tall frame to a very wide one. Resolution can be anywhere from 256 x 144 up to 4096 x 2304 pixels.

So the platform won’t reject a vertical 9:16 video, a 4:5 video, a square one or a classic 16:9 landscape one. The question isn’t what’s allowed. It’s what works best for the people scrolling.

1:2.4 to 2.4:1 is the range of video shapes LinkedIn accepts, from very tall to very wide.

Why does vertical usually work better on LinkedIn?

Because most people watch on a phone. LinkedIn’s own marketing blog says more than half of its users mainly view their feed on mobile, and it advises marketers to use a vertical orientation for video ads. In its words, vertical “provides a better viewing experience” for mobile users, with “no drawbacks” for people watching on a computer.

A vertical video fills far more of a phone screen than a landscape one, which sits as a thin strip between the posts above and below it. More screen means more attention before the thumb moves on.

LinkedIn is also giving vertical video more space in the app. In October, it brought back its mobile Video tab, a separate feed of short vertical videos that you swipe through, and put it where Notifications used to sit, as DUO’s Justin DeMarchi reported on 30 October. Video posts still appear in the main feed too.

One thing to know: you can’t post straight into that feed. LinkedIn’s help page says its immersive video feed features existing videos based on their quality and relevance. You share your video as normal, and LinkedIn decides where it shows.

Should I use 9:16 or 4:5?

Both are vertical, and both work. The right one depends on how you’re using the video.

• For a LinkedIn video ad, LinkedIn’s advertising specifications list 4:5 as the recommended ratio, at 720 x 900 pixels, with 9:16 also supported up to 1080 x 1920 pixels.
• For a video you’ll post on LinkedIn, Instagram Reels and TikTok, 9:16 is the practical choice. It’s the tallest shape Instagram Reels accepts, the shape TikTok recommends and well within LinkedIn’s range, so one version can go everywhere without re-editing.

There’s one caveat for ads. LinkedIn’s guide to its ad types says vertical ratios are recommended, but that videos are only shown in that shape on mobile devices that support a vertical video player. So check how your ad previews on a computer as well as a phone.

When does horizontal still make sense?

Landscape hasn’t disappeared. LinkedIn supports 16:9 at up to 1920 x 1080 pixels, and in our view it’s still the better fit in a few cases:

• A recorded talk, panel or webinar that was filmed in landscape.
• A screen recording or product demo, where cropping would hide what matters.
• An audience you know mostly watches at a desk, on a computer.

If you have a landscape video that works, there’s no need to throw it away. But if you’re making something new for the feed, we’d start vertical.

What are LinkedIn’s video safe zones?

A safe zone is the part of the frame that the app’s buttons, captions and profile details won’t cover. LinkedIn’s guidance is simple: keep the edges of your video (top, bottom and sides) clear of key elements, text and logos, so the LinkedIn interface doesn’t overlap them. The help pages we read don’t give exact pixel margins, so the safe approach is to keep anything important comfortably inside the frame.

Two more tips from LinkedIn’s own creator guide matter just as much as the shape:

• Add subtitles. LinkedIn says 85% of videos watched on LinkedIn are viewed on mute.
• Get to the point. LinkedIn says the first three seconds matter the most, so open with a strong hook.

What about Instagram and TikTok?

Both lean even further towards vertical.

Instagram Reels can be anywhere from 1.91:1 (landscape) to 9:16 (vertical), according to Instagram’s Help Centre, with a minimum frame rate of 30 frames per second and a minimum resolution of 720 pixels.

TikTok lists vertical 9:16 as its recommended shape for in-feed ads, at 540 x 960 pixels or more, with horizontal and square also accepted. Its safe zone depends on the shape, the length of the ad caption and any extra formats used, and TikTok offers downloadable safe zone templates in the same help page.

TikTok has also tested the difference. In a 2021 analysis of ads, it found that videos shot in 9:16 saw a 91% lift in conversion compared with videos that didn’t match the screen and were framed by black bars. That’s TikTok’s own study of its own ads, but it points the same way as everything above.

So which should my business choose?

For most businesses posting on LinkedIn today:

1. Make it vertical. Use 9:16 if the same video is going to Instagram and TikTok, or 4:5 if it’s a LinkedIn ad.
2. Keep the edges clear. Put text, logos and faces well inside the frame.
3. Design for sound off. Add subtitles and make the first few seconds work without audio.
4. Keep landscape for landscape content, such as talks, webinars and screen demos.

That’s why every Signet Film is made vertical, in 9:16, for the phone screen where your customers scroll. Each one is built from scratch in your brand and voice, around the four beats we explain in our launch post: the hook, the services, the proof and the ask.

If you’d like to see what that looks like for your own business, tell us where to find you and we’ll send your preview by email.