How to create LinkedIn document ads

They're a type of Sponsored Content for e-books, case studies, white papers, infographics and presentations. They appear in the LinkedIn feed and on the LinkedIn Audience Network:

• People read the document without leaving LinkedIn and can download it. Downloads are always PDFs, whatever you uploaded.
• Links in the document only work once it's downloaded.
• Objectives: brand awareness, engagement, lead generation, website visits and website conversions.
• With a Lead Gen Form, people see a preview of the pages you choose, then click Unlock full document and fill in the form to read the rest. Single-page documents can't be gated.

Sources: LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn document ads, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Document ads advertising specifications, checked 15 October 2026

You need super admin, content admin or Sponsored Content poster access on the ad account's Page, and creative manager access or higher on the ad account. Then:

1. Create an ad set with one of the supported objectives, or edit an existing document ad set.
2. Go to the Ads in this ad set page.
3. Optionally name the ad (only you see the name), then write the introductory text.
4. In the Document section, click Upload or select. Pick a file from the Document Library, or click Upload, choose the file, click Add to library, then Select.
5. For lead generation, website visits or website conversions, move the slider to choose how many pages people can preview.
6. Enter a headline. It starts as the file name.
7. For lead generation, choose or create a Lead Gen Form; the button is Unlock full document. For website objectives, enter a destination URL and pick a call-to-action button.
8. Click Save ad, then launch the ad set when you're ready.

• You can upload up to five documents.
• You can also build the ad from an existing post on your LinkedIn Page instead of starting fresh.
• Ads are reviewed before they run.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Create document ads in Campaign Manager, checked 15 October 2026

From LinkedIn's specifications page:

• Links longer than 23 characters in the introductory text are turned into short links.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Document ads advertising specifications, checked 15 October 2026

LinkedIn's best-practice page suggests:

• Upload a PDF for the best quality, at a standard page size such as A4 or Letter.
• Avoid prices, URLs and anything else that goes out of date quickly.
• Keep it short. The document player has no search.
• Leave calls to action out of the document, since links can't be clicked in the player. Put them in the ad instead.
• Avoid multiple text columns and small fonts, and check your colours have enough contrast.

Source: LinkedIn Help: Document ads best practices, checked 15 October 2026

Common problems:

Sources: LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn document ads, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Create document ads in Campaign Manager, checked 15 October 2026; LinkedIn Help: Document ads advertising specifications, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is our own product, so weigh this section with that in mind. Zolyp doesn't run LinkedIn ads. It can publish your own PDF, PowerPoint or Word file as an organic LinkedIn document post, and when that post goes out from a company Page it shows its analytics, which helps you judge a document before paying to promote it. LinkedIn is one of the 9 platforms it publishes to (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads), and you approve the week before anything goes live. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, with a 3-day free trial.