Insights from testing Linkedin videos versus written posts

I started casually playing around with videos on LinkedIn about a year ago, mostly out of curiosity. LinkedIn introduced native videos in 2017 and delved deeper into the format in March 2024, seemingly overnight pivoting its algorithm to become the TikTok of B2B videos.

LinkedIn then took a significant monetization step with the introduction of “Thought Leader Ads,” which allowed advertisers to pay to amplify posts from users with large followings. These are LinkedIn's influencer ads, a play on expanding reach through established voices.

Why, you ask, dear reader? LinkedIn's growth has remained in the single digits since 2022 and the Microsoft-owned platform was looking for a new way to increase revenue from its over 1 billion members. LinkedIn creators enter the chat.

Now, for the record, I am a LinkedIn “Top Voice” (air quotes) and speak extensively on the platform about my love and universal curiosity for technology and marketing. However, video was new territory and one that made me uncomfortable. However, I set out on an adventure to learn more about how the LinkedIn algorithm favors videos and the role they play in personal brand marketing.

I was curious to test LinkedIn's claim that videos get five times more engagement and wanted to see if the hype lasted. Plus, since a staggering 84% of marketers use video in their content strategies, I wanted to dig deeper and understand the true value of the format. And you, lucky reader, will get some inside baseball information from someone in the trenches.

The TL;DR video is ideal for raising awareness in the top of the funnel

Here are my top performing posts by impressions over the last 90 days. Note that the top 3 are all videos. Even my worst-performing video post by impressions reached almost three times more people than my highest-performing written post.