Free ad space · 1584 × 396 · currently a blue gradient
Your LinkedIn banner is free ad space. Most founders leave it blank.
Published July 10, 2026
TL;DR
The banner is the biggest visual on your profile's first screen. Give it one job: reinforce your headline. Seven concepts below, pick by goal. Keep text right-of-center, 40px+, and preview every crop with the free Banner Checker before you upload. Then see how the whole top fold grades with the free 8-Second Test.
Here's a billboard metric for you: the banner takes up more pixels than your photo, headline, and About preview combined. It's the first thing that renders and the least thought-about element on most founder profiles. When buyers do their pre-call profile sweep, the default blue gradient tells them one quiet thing: this person has never looked at their own profile through a visitor's eyes.
That's fixable in an hour. Pick one concept, follow the layout rules, ship it.
7 banner concepts, pick by goal
1. The value proposition
Your headline's promise, bigger and prettier: "Onboarding that activates users in week 1, not month 2." One sentence, brand colors, nothing else. If in doubt, do this one.
2. Product + result
A clean product screenshot with one outcome stat overlaid. The screenshot proves it exists; the number proves it works.
3. Social proof
Client logos, a rating, or one killer metric ("214 senior engineers placed"). Best when your buyers don't know your company yet but know your clients.
4. You, on stage
A speaking shot with the event visible. Borrowed credibility, works especially well for consultants and deep-tech founders doing conference circuits.
5. The lead magnet pointer
Promote your free tool or resource with a short URL. Mine points at the 8-Second Test, and yes, people type banner URLs more than you'd think.
6. The one-liner story
A belief or contrarian stance you're known for: "Most B2B content is written for the algorithm. Buyers can tell." Works when your content strategy consistently backs it up.
7. Clean brand field
Brand color, subtle texture or logo mark, no text. The quiet-luxury option: says "we have our act together" without saying anything. Better than clutter, better than default.
Layout rules (the part everyone gets wrong)
- Canvas: 1584 × 396 px, export PNG or JPEG under 8MB. See the full size and safe-zone spec for the pixel-level breakdown.
- Your profile photo covers the bottom-left corner. Nothing important in the left ~25% or bottom ~30%.
- Mobile crops tighter on the sides. Keep the message in the middle 60% vertically and right-of-center horizontally, then actually preview it on your phone.
- Text at 40px minimum. If you squint on mobile, your buyer won't squint at all, they'll scroll.
- One message. The banner reinforces the headline, it doesn't get its own subplot.
- Skylines, handshakes, and abstract "synergy" stock art. Wallpaper says nothing.
- Three logos, two taglines, a QR code, and a phone number. That's a flyer, not a banner.
- Last year's positioning. If the offer moved, the banner moved. Stale banners are why the quarterly audit exists.
No designer? No problem.
Canva or Figma, 1584 × 396, solid brand-color background, one crisp sentence in a big clean font, your logo small in the right corner. That's it. A plain banner with a sharp sentence outsells a beautiful banner with a vague one. Spend your taste budget on the words.
Remember the banner never works alone: it frames your photo and hands off to your headline and Featured section. Buyers grade the composite, which is exactly what the vision model inside the 8-Second Test does too.
Free · two minutes · no login
See how your banner and photo grade together
The 8-Second Test's vision AI judges your banner in context: with your photo, headline, and About, the way a buyer's first glance actually works. Blunt verdict, prioritized fixes.