Testing LinkedIn's video claim

A new study by marketing expert Caroline Giegerich, published in Adweek, shows that LinkedIn video posts perform three times better than text posts. 

In August, LinkedIn reported that it was experiencing a surge in video engagement. Giegerich tested to see if LinkedIn video gets five times the engagement of text posts as it claims. She explained, “Curious to test LinkedIn’s claim that videos receive five times more engagement, I wanted to see if the hype held up.” 

The study involved a 90-day analysis of video versus text performance on the platform. She noted that 84% of marketers use video in their strategies.

The data from her study confirmed that video posts consistently outperformed written content on LinkedIn. According to her, her lowest-performing video posts nearly tripled the impressions of her top-performing text posts. She also found that her most successful video reached 774,000 impressions and video posts averaged around 250,000 views.

When her videos were most successful

Giegerich findings showed that videos were most successful when they were under 5 minutes long. Also, when filmed directly to the camera and posted in the morning between 9-11 AM EST. She said, “I keep my videos under 5 minutes and speak directly to the camera about technology in terms everyone can understand… Over time, I added fun sound effects and captions with Capcut.”

Video for awareness, text for engagement

Giegerich’s findings reveal an interesting pattern in LinkedIn’s algorithm: video posts are more effective for building awareness, while text posts drive better engagement among an existing network. She explained, “My written posts dominate the top three spots for engagement, even though my video posts drive significantly more awareness.”

Her study suggested LinkedIn’s algorithm distributes video content more widely to audiences beyond her immediate network. Text posts, shown to her connections, create more targeted engagement. She explained, “One format is more targeted to my network, and the other is being heavily fanned by the LinkedIn algorithm to an audience outside of my immediate network.”

Monetization options on LinkedIn

The study also said that LinkedIn’s monetization features are limited compared to competitors like TikTok and Instagram. Currently, LinkedIn offers sponsored posts and consulting opportunities but lacks more advanced incentives for creators. Additionally, its creator accelerator program only accepted 100 participants in 2022.