What are LinkedIn Dynamic Ads?

Dynamic Ads are personalized ads that pull each member's own profile data (photo, first name, company, job title) into the creative. They run in the desktop right rail and come in three formats: Spotlight, Follower, and Jobs ads. Each member sees only their own information, and members can opt out of ad personalization.

What is the difference between Spotlight ads and Follower ads?

Spotlight ads drive clicks to your website or landing page with a custom CTA. Follower ads grow your LinkedIn Page following and use fixed CTAs (Visit company, jobs, or life), with people who do not follow you seeing a default Follow button. Both are personalized dynamic formats in the desktop right rail.

What are the specs for a LinkedIn Spotlight ad?

Company logo minimum 100x100 px (JPG or PNG, 2 MB), headline up to 50 characters, description up to 70 characters, company name up to 25 characters, CTA up to 18 characters, and a required destination URL up to 500 characters. An optional custom background must be exactly 300x250 px but removes the description and member photo.

Do Dynamic Ads run on mobile?

No. Dynamic Ads, including Spotlight and Follower ads, appear only in the right-hand column on desktop. They do not run in the feed or on mobile, which caps their reach compared with Sponsored Content.

Can you use a Lead Gen Form with Spotlight ads?

No. Dynamic formats do not support LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms. Send Spotlight clicks to a landing page, or use Sponsored Content such as single image or document ads if you need native lead capture.

Are Spotlight ads worth it for B2B?

They work best as a supporting format: retargeting warm audiences, reinforcing brand-name recognition, promoting events or demos, and growing followers. The personalization drives attention, but the desktop-only placement means they should complement your feed campaigns, not replace them.

Guide · LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Dynamic & Spotlight Ads

The personalized right-rail ads that pull each member's own name, photo, and company into the creative. What Dynamic Ads are, how Spotlight and Follower ads differ, the exact specs, and the desktop-only tradeoff you need to know before you build.

Last verified June 2026 against LinkedIn's Help Center

The short answer

Dynamic Ads are LinkedIn's personalized ad family. They auto-populate with each viewer's own profile data, their photo, first name, company, and job title, so the ad literally addresses the person looking at it. They run in the right-hand rail on desktop only: never in the feed, never on mobile.

There are three formats: Spotlight ads drive clicks to a website or landing page, Follower ads grow your LinkedIn Page following, and Jobs ads promote openings. Spotlight is the one most B2B advertisers care about. The personalization drives strong early attention, but the desktop-right-rail placement caps reach and makes these a supporting play, not your primary format. Use them for retargeting, brand-name reinforcement, and follower growth rather than as your main demand engine. For every format's dimensions in one place, see the full ad specs guide.

Dynamic ads at a glance

The quick orientation before the spec tables: what the format family is, where it runs, and what it is best at.

Attribute	Detail
Format family	Dynamic Ads, personalized from each member's profile data
Placement	Desktop right rail only. No feed, no mobile
Personalization	Member photo, first name, company, job title. Each member sees only their own info
Formats	Spotlight ads, Follower ads, Jobs ads
Objectives (Spotlight)	Brand awareness, website visits, job applicants
Billing	CPC or CPM
Opt-out	Members can opt out of profile-based ad personalization
Best for	Retargeting, brand reinforcement, follower growth, event and demo promotion

The three dynamic formats

All three personalize from profile data and run in the desktop right rail. They differ in what they are trying to get the member to do.

Spotlight ads

Personalized ad that drives traffic to your website or landing page.

Goal: Website clicks
Personalized: Photo, name, company, job title
CTA: Custom, up to 18 characters
Background: Optional custom image

Follower ads

Personalized ad that grows your LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page following.

Goal: Page followers
Personalized: Member photo + your logo, first name + company
CTA: Visit company, jobs, or life
Note: Non-followers see a default Follow CTA

Jobs ads

Personalized ad that promotes open roles to relevant members.

Goal: Job applicants and views
Personalized: Photo, name
Best for: Recruiting, employer brand
Note: A recruiting format, outside most B2B demand

Spotlight ad specs

Spotlight ads are personalized to each member and send them to your website or landing page. The one tradeoff to know: adding a custom background image removes both the ad description and the member's profile photo, which is the whole point of the format.

Asset	Requirement
Company logo / image	Minimum 100 x 100 px, JPG or PNG, 2 MB max. Larger logos reduced to 100 x 100; non-square logos scaled to fit
Ad description (above image)	70 characters max
Ad headline (below image)	50 characters max
Company name	25 characters max, shown on logo hover
CTA button text	18 characters max
Ad name (optional)	255 characters, internal only
Custom background (optional)	Exactly 300 x 250 px, 2 MB max. Removes the description and member photo. Usable white area is 276 x 148 px
Destination URL	Required, http:// or https://, 500 characters max. Supports third-party click tracking

Follower ad specs

Follower ads share the same text limits as Spotlight but exist to grow your Page following. The CTA is fixed rather than custom, and people who already follow you see a different button than those who don't.

Asset	Requirement
Company logo / image	Minimum 100 x 100 px, JPG or PNG. Larger reduced to 100 x 100; non-square scaled to fit
Ad description (above image)	70 characters. Suggested options auto-translate; custom text does not
Ad headline (below image)	50 characters. Suggested options auto-translate; custom text does not
Company name	25 characters max
CTA	Visit company (default), Visit jobs, or Visit life. Non-followers see the default Follow CTA
Personalization	Member profile photo beside your logo, with their first name and your company name in the copy

Strengths and limits

Dynamic Ads are a precision instrument, not a volume one. Knowing where they fit, and where they don't, keeps them from quietly draining budget.

LinkedIn allows

Objectives supported

Brand awareness
Website visits
Job applicants

Strong use cases

Retargeting warm audiences
Brand-name reinforcement after a feed campaign
Event and webinar registration
Demo requests
Growing LinkedIn Page followers

LinkedIn does not allow

Placement limits

No mobile
No in-feed placement
Desktop right rail only

Not a fit for

Primary reach or scale campaigns
Native Lead Gen Forms (not supported on dynamic formats)
Audiences that skew mobile

Personalization

Members can opt out of profile-based personalization, so not every impression is personalized.
Each member sees only their own data; it is never shown to other members.

Workflow

Once an ad is added to an ad set it cannot be deleted.
To remove an unwanted ad, delete the draft ad set and rebuild it.

Creative best practices

Meeting the spec is the baseline. What makes a dynamic ad work is leaning into the personalization, respecting the small canvas, and pointing it at the right audience.

Lean on the personalization

The member's name and photo are the hook. Write copy that plays off "you" and "your company" so the dynamic fields feel intentional.
Generic copy wastes the one thing this format does that no other LinkedIn ad can.

Respect the tiny canvas

The right-rail unit is small. One clear message, a legible logo, and a single ask.
Clutter dies at this size. If it does not read at a glance, cut it.

Background or description, not both

A custom 300 x 250 background removes the description and the member photo.
If personalization is your edge, skip the background and keep the profile image.

Match the CTA to the objective

The Spotlight CTA is 18 characters. Make it a specific verb: Register, Request Demo, Download.
A vague "Learn More" almost always underperforms a concrete action.

Use Spotlight for retargeting

Personalized right-rail units reinforce a brand people already saw in the feed.
Layer them on warm matched audiences rather than cold prospecting.

Budget for a capped reach

The desktop-only placement means narrow audiences saturate fast.
Watch frequency and refresh creative before fatigue drags your relevance down.

Performance benchmarks

LinkedIn does not publish format-level performance for dynamic ads, so there are no official CTR or CPC numbers to quote. What follows is the honest shape of the format: strong attention, capped reach, and standard LinkedIn click economics. Measure against your own account rather than any platform average.

Metric	What to expect
Placement	Desktop right rail only, which caps impression volume versus feed formats
Attention	Personalization (name + photo) lifts early attention and brand recall
Billing	CPC or CPM. Blended LinkedIn CPC typically runs about $8 to $33 (see the cost guide)
Reach ceiling	Narrow audiences saturate quickly, so plan frequency caps and creative refreshes
Lead capture	No native Lead Gen Form support. Drive clicks to a landing page instead
Reported metrics	LinkedIn does not publish format-level CTR or CPC for dynamic ads. Measure against your own account

How to set up a Spotlight ad

Seven steps from a fresh campaign to a live, personalized Spotlight ad in Campaign Manager.

1
Confirm your access
You need super admin, content admin, or Sponsored Content poster access on the Page, plus creative manager access or higher on the ad account.
2
Create the campaign and objective
Start a new campaign and choose brand awareness, website visits, or job applicants. Those are the only objectives Spotlight ads support.
3
Build the audience
Set targeting at the ad set level. Spotlight shines on warm, matched, or retargeting audiences rather than broad cold reach.
4
Create a new ad
On the Ads in this ad set page, click Create new ad and select the Spotlight format.
5
Decide on a background image
Optionally add a 300 x 250 background. Adding it removes the description and the member profile image, so skip it if personalization is your angle.
6
Write the creative
Add the headline (50 chars), optional description (70 chars), confirm the company name and logo, choose whether to show the member profile image, set the CTA (18 chars), and enter the destination URL.
7
Launch and monitor
Create the ad and launch the ad set. Remember that once an ad is added to an ad set it cannot be deleted, so to remove one you delete the draft ad set. Watch frequency and refresh before fatigue.