A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: The Power Of Creative Refreshes In LinkedIn

On any social platform, visuals are the vehicle through which a brand communicates. Whether it’s an image or a video, the creative is often the deciding factor in whether someone scrolls past or stops to engage with a brand’s ad. In fact, LinkedIn reports that highly engaging creative can be 10 to 20 times more effective than alternatives, such as creative with minimal branding or no call to action.

That’s a huge performance gap, so how can brands keep creative assets fresh and effective over time on LinkedIn? And how do marketers know when it’s time to make a change? Marketers must take the time to evaluate recent creative performance trends and determine if it is time for a creative refresh. Let’s dive in what a creative refresh is and how to evaluate recent ad performance on LinkedIn.

What is a creative refresh in LinkedIn ads?

A creative refresh involves updating ad assets — whether imagery, video, or copy — to reinvigorate performance and reduce audience fatigue. But this doesn’t necessarily mean starting from scratch. Even testing small changes can breathe new life into a campaign before committing to a full overhaul. 

What should a creative refresh ultimately do?

Performance signals that reveal when to refresh ad creative

A creative refresh cadence isn’t just about keeping things fresh — it’s about knowing when your ads are no longer doing their job. By watching the right performance signals, marketers can understand when it’s time to update creative before results dip. Here are some metrics to keep an eye out for that may indicate it is time for a creative refresh:

• Frequency: If you are seeing above-average frequency for your industry, without increased actions in engagement or conversion, it’s a strong sign of ad fatigue
• Click-through rate (CTR): If the clicks are slowing down while impressions are stable or rising, your message likely isn’t landing the way it used to when it was recently added into your creative rotation
• Engagement rate: When engagement drops, it could mean the creative isn’t resonating or sparking interest
• Conversion rate: A drop can be a cue that it is time to revisit both your creative and your landing experience

Keeping LinkedIn ad creative fresh doesn’t mean constantly reinventing the wheel. It means staying responsive to performance signals and knowing when even small changes can drive better results. Lastly, creative isn’t the only factor at play with these metrics. Performance dips can be caused by other factors, such as your bid, audience, geography, and time of year, so it is important to step back and look holistically at campaign inputs.

Top signs a creative refresh is needed on LinkedIn

So when should brands update their creative? The answer isn’t “one size fits all.” While some sources recommend every 2–3 weeks and others suggest 6+ months, the best timing depends on the audience size, spend, industry, and past performance. Start with auditing current creatives in-market to get a sense of what types of messages are top performers and which are not connecting with the audience. From there, tackle creative refreshes in bite-sized chunks to replace underperforming creatives using the learnings gathered.

These refreshes could look like:

• Reworking visuals while keeping the core message
• Testing a new hook or headline
• Adding a CTA button to the design
• Trying different formats like carousel or video
• Mixing and matching existing copy with different visuals

No matter the type of creative refresh, it is important to keep three things in mind:

1. Messaging: communicate value and drive action

Clearly communicate the value proposition and what action you want the user to take. Messaging should answer: “What’s in it for me?” This is where collaboration between internal stakeholders and agency partners can be valuable.

2.  Branding: be recognizable from the start

Your brand should be immediately identifiable — regardless of whether the goal is awareness, engagement, or lead generation. Consistent branding builds trust and recall.

3.  Volume: give the algorithm room to work

LinkedIn recommends launching with 4–5 ad variations per campaign. This gives the platform’s algorithm the flexibility to optimize toward the best-performing creatives.

What this means for marketers

Creative is one of the most powerful levers marketers have when it comes to LinkedIn advertising performance. Unlike other social platforms, LinkedIn is perfect for tailored thought leadership content like white papers, infographics, case studies, blog articles, and other professional content that each play a role in capturing attention and encouraging action from users in various industries.

By monitoring key performance metrics and applying strategic creative refreshes, brands can stay ahead of ad fatigue and maintain campaign momentum.