LinkedIn is testing pre-roll In-Stream Ads on creator videos and widening its Creator Marketplace. Here is what B2B marketers should do before access opens.
On 15 October, LinkedIn began testing a new way to put your brand in front of B2B buyers: pre-roll video ads that run before videos from creators and publishers, with select US creators getting paid when those ads run (ppc.land). It is a test, not a launch, but it tells you where LinkedIn wants your ad budget to go next.
If you sell to other businesses, this matters because the ad no longer sits in the feed next to everything else. It sits in front of content from people your buyers already follow and trust.
What LinkedIn actually announced
Advertisers can run pre-roll video ads across eligible creator and publisher content without negotiating individual partnerships. You pick a content category, such as Tech & AI, Finance or Lifestyle & Entertainment, or run across all of them. LinkedIn chooses the placements and optimises delivery towards your campaign objective (Net Influencer).
Setup is simple: in Campaign Manager, choose Video as the ad type and switch on In-Stream Ads. Access is limited to a select group of advertisers and creators in North America for now, with wider rollout planned (Net Influencer).
On the creator side, LinkedIn says eligible creators can join from their creator dashboard, but it has not defined eligibility, the ad length or the revenue share. The announcement's FAQ refers to invited creators, so entry looks like it is by invitation (ppc.land).
The Creator Marketplace got sharper too
Alongside the new format, LinkedIn expanded search in its Creator Marketplace. Advertisers can now filter creators by where their audience concentrates (industry, job function or seniority), by Top Voices status, and by content format: video, single image, text, article, carousel or newsletter (Net Influencer).
Search also matches creators on how they describe themselves, so a term like Founders or FinTech returns people who use those words, not just those tagged with a standard category. The marketplace is invite-only and limited to North America (Net Influencer). For context, it started as an alpha on 10 June 2026 (ppc.land).
Why the audience angle is the real story
LinkedIn is making this push because it wants a bigger share of video budgets. It is also pointing at a real shift in who buys. In the research it cites, nearly nine in ten marketers say their company's future growth depends on influencing Gen Z and millennial decision-makers. Marketers rate short-form and immersive video (49%) and expert-voice content (42%) among the most effective ways to reach Gen Z buyers (Net Influencer).
Of the marketers who work with expert voices, 64% say that content beats traditional campaigns at moving people from awareness to consideration. Note that these are survey figures from LinkedIn's own research, so read them as a signal rather than proof (Net Influencer).
The same article cites earlier LinkedIn Creative Labs research: videos featuring subject matter experts saw a 40% engagement lift, rising to 53% for executives. That is a useful reminder that the person on screen matters as much as the targeting.
What this means for a B2B budget
Do not move your budget on the strength of a test. But there are sensible things to do before it opens up.
Three ideas worth testing once you get access:
- Put an expert on camera. Your head of delivery or founder explaining one real problem will usually beat a polished brand film. LinkedIn's own data points that way.
- Match creators to your buyers, not your category. The new filters let you search by seniority and job function. A creator followed by finance directors beats one with a bigger, vaguer audience.
- Measure past the view. Video is an early-stage format. Track whether it lifts branded search, direct visits and sales conversations, not only video completions.
How it compares with what you run today
Most B2B teams on LinkedIn run sponsored content in the feed, lead gen forms or sponsored messaging. Those formats reach people while they scroll. A pre-roll ad reaches people who have already chosen to watch something, which is a different frame of mind: they are paying attention to a specific person and a specific idea.
That cuts both ways. Attention is higher, but patience is shorter. A pre-roll ad that rambles gets skipped. The first few seconds need to state a problem your buyer recognises, in plain words, before any logo appears. If you have run video on YouTube, the same discipline applies here.
It also changes who your ad sits next to. Your message will appear inside someone else's content, so the creator's credibility rubs off on you, for better or worse. That is exactly why the audience filters matter, and why you should look at what a creator posts before you pay to sit in front of it.
A simple plan for this quarter
You do not need In-Stream access to get ready:
- Write down your ideal buyers by job function and seniority. If you cannot, your go-to-market strategy needs that work before any video budget.
- Record two or three short videos with someone senior at your company talking through a problem your customers recognise. Post them organically first and see which get watched.
- Check your LinkedIn Ads account for current video campaigns and note the cost per qualified lead as a baseline.
- Pair any video push with account-based marketing lists, so the views land on the companies you actually want to win.
- Make sure the page people land on after watching is built for them. A video that sends viewers to a generic home page wastes the attention it earned, and content marketing that answers the next question keeps them moving.
What we still don't know
Plenty is missing. LinkedIn has not shared pricing, ad length, brand safety controls or how revenue is split, and the payout method is unexplained (ppc.land). Until those details arrive, treat In-Stream Ads as something to watch and prepare for, not something to budget around.
Key takeaways
- LinkedIn started testing pre-roll In-Stream Ads on creator and publisher videos on 15 October, for select US and North American advertisers.
- The expanded Creator Marketplace lets you filter creators by audience seniority, job function and format.
- Expert-led video is where LinkedIn's own research says engagement is highest.
- Prepare now: define your buyers, record expert videos and set a pipeline baseline.
If you want help working out whether LinkedIn video belongs in your plan, get a free quote and we will take a look at your numbers with you.
John Doe
Supreb Information. Thanks
15 July 2014 View replies . 1