LinkedIn tells advertisers it is shutting down Stories videos

LinkedIn is telling advertisers to prepare for the end of its short-lived experiment with Stories, after the ephemeral videos failed to catch on among the professional social media set. On Tuesday, LinkedIn announced that it would shut down its Stories feature at the end of September. LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, copied the video format from apps like Snapchat and Instagram but indicated that it wanted to explore different video styles that would be more appropriate for its business setting. LinkedIn's move comes weeks after Twitter abandoned its Fleets video format. Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise,” Liz Li, senior director of product at LinkedIn, said in a blog post. The closure of Stories affects two types of advertisers—brands that planned ad campaigns with images and videos that appear in between Stories, and advertisers that planned to pay to promote their own Stories to LinkedIn users’ feeds. “Any image or video ads that you’ve planned to run in between Stories will instead be shared to the LinkedIn feed,” LinkedIn’s marketing solutions team said in a blog post on Tuesday. “If you promoted or sponsored a Story directly from your Page in Campaign Manager, these paid Stories will not appear in the LinkedIn feed,” the marketing solutions team said, “and they will need to be recreated in Campaign Manager as an image or video ad.” The changes will affect campaigns that were planned to run beyond the end of September, LinkedIn announced. LinkedIn was not immediately available for comment on how many advertisers this would affect, or to comment further on the failure of Stories. Stories have been a hit-or-miss video style depending on the platform. Snapchat popularized the format as a way to decrease the pressure of sharing videos publicly. The videos disappear within 24 hours. Facebook and its sibling company Instagram also embraced Stories after seeing their popularity. TikTok is currently trying out the disappearing videos as another style of video other than its usual short-form videos that live forever on the app. Advertisers have grown accustomed to creating ads that use the Stories format, which lends itself to short videos shot in the vertical position like most phones are held. The ads often have calls to action encouraging users to tap the screen for more information and links to products or app downloads. Last year, Twitter and LinkedIn both tried to incorporate Stories into their platforms. Twitter officially shut down its Fleets service in early August. LinkedIn announced it would still develop video tools for its 775 million users. The plan is to “evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational,” the company stated. Last month, Microsoft announced in its earnings report that LinkedIn’s quarterly ad revenue topped $1 billion for the first time, growing 97% year over year.

LinkedIn tells advertisers it is shutting down Stories videos

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