A new study of over 577,000 LinkedIn posts challenges common marketing advice. It finds that posts with links get 13.57% more interactions and 4.90% more views than posts without links.
The LinkedIn study by Metricool analyzed nearly 48,000 company pages over three years. The findings give marketers solid data to rethink their LinkedIn strategies.
Link Performance Contradicts Common Advice
For years, social media experts have warned against adding links in LinkedIn posts.
Many claimed the platform would show these posts to fewer people to keep users on LinkedIn.
This new research says that’s wrong.
The data shows that about 31% of LinkedIn posts contained links to other websites. These posts consistently did better than posts without links.
Content Format Performance Reveals Unexpected Winners
The study also found big differences in how content types perform.
Carousels (document posts) work best for engagement, with the highest engagement rate (45.85%) of any format. People on LinkedIn are willing to spend time clicking through multiple slides.
Polls are a missed opportunity. They make up only 0.00034% of all posts analyzed but got 206.33% more reach than average posts. Almost no one uses them, but they perform well.
Text-only posts performed worse than visual content across all metrics. Despite being common, they received the fewest interactions.
Video Content Shows Remarkable Growth
LinkedIn video content grew by 53% last year, with engagement up by 87.32%. This growth is faster than on TikTok, Reels, and YouTube.
The report states:
“Video posting may have increased by 13.77%, but the real story is in the rise of impressions (+73.39%) and views (+52.17%). Users are engaging more with video content, which indicates that LinkedIn is prioritizing this format in its algorithm.”
Industry-Specific Insights
The research broke down performance by industry. Surprisingly, sectors with smaller followings often get better engagement.
Manufacturing and utilities companies had fewer followers than education or retail companies, yet they received more engagement per post.
This challenges the idea that having more followers automatically means better results.
Practical Tips for Marketers
Based on these findings, here’s what LinkedIn marketers should do:
- Don’t avoid links: Include links when they add value. They help, not hurt, your posts.
- Mix up your content: Use more carousels and polls. They perform much better than other formats.
- Send more traffic through LinkedIn: With clicks up 28.13% year-over-year, LinkedIn is better than many think for driving website traffic.
- Be realistic about follower growth: Only 17.68% of accounts gained followers in 2024. Growing a LinkedIn following is harder than on other platforms.
Looking Ahead
The Metricool report challenges fundamental LinkedIn marketing beliefs with solid data. The most useful finding for SEO and content marketers is that adding links helps rather than hurts your posts.
Marketers should regularly test old advice against real performance data. What worked on LinkedIn in the past might not work in 2025.
Featured Image: Jartee/Shutterstock
