LinkedIn on October 15, 2026 began testing In-Stream Ads, a program that pays select US creators when pre-roll video ads run before their eligible videos, and opened paid one-to-one consultations called Advice Sessions to Business Premium subscribers in the United States.

In Short

LinkedIn now lets a small group of US creators earn money when short ads play before their videos, and lets some paying US members charge for one-on-one video calls booked through their profile. It matters to advertisers, who get new video placements next to creator content, and to people using LinkedIn to sell their own skills on the side. LinkedIn did not say how much of the ad money or the consultation fees it keeps, so the real value for creators is still unknown.

What LinkedIn published

The announcement appeared on LinkedIn's Pressroom under the byline LinkedIn Corporate Communications, dated October 15, 2026, and filed under Product News and Company News. Its headline, "New Ways to Build Meaningful Connections, Grow Your Side Hustle, and Earn on LinkedIn," groups seven features into two blocks. Four concern how members keep track of people they know: a Network feed, a personalised digital business card, private profile notes and pinned comments. Three concern money: a creator dashboard, In-Stream Ads and Advice Sessions.

Availability varies sharply across the seven. Some are global, some are limited to the United States, and one is described only as a test. The post contains no figures on payouts, prices, eligibility thresholds or how LinkedIn splits revenue with the people taking part.

What it does contain is a justification. "More people are pursuing something of their own alongside their careers," according to LinkedIn, "with the number of founders up 70% on LinkedIn, and the share of LinkedIn members reporting more than one ongoing position has increased 26% since 2019." The 26% figure has a baseline year. The 70% figure for founders does not: the post gives no starting date, no definition of a founder and no absolute count. A separate claim that "more than 80% of LinkedIn creators are building content alongside another role" also comes without a sample size or a definition of who counts as a creator.

In-Stream Ads: the advertising piece

For advertisers, the most consequential item is the smallest in scope. According to LinkedIn, eligible creators can "discover and join our In-Stream Ads program directly from the dashboard, earning revenue when pre-roll video ads run alongside their eligible video content." The program "is being tested among select U.S. creators and advertisers, with broader access planned over time."

That is the full public description. The post does not say what makes a creator or a video eligible, what share of ad revenue creators receive, how payouts are calculated, which ad formats or lengths run, or how advertisers buy the inventory. A resource link at the bottom of the post, titled "In-Stream Ads: How it works for brands and creators on LinkedIn," points to a separate page whose contents were not part of the announcement.

The post also describes the test in two slightly different ways. The body refers to "eligible creators" who can discover and join the program from the dashboard. The FAQ at the bottom refers to "invited creators participating in the In-Stream Ads test." Taken together, the plainest reading is that entry is by invitation during the test, with an opt-in step inside the dashboard. LinkedIn has not said how invitations are decided.

The model is not new to LinkedIn. When the company debuted BrandLink in May 2025, it placed 3 to 30 second pre-roll video ads before contextually aligned videos from publishers and a group of about 30 B2B creators, and said it would share advertising revenue with creators for the first time. It never disclosed the percentage. It had previously paid news publishers about half the ad revenue from their content.

BrandLink then moved from managed beta to self-serve access in Campaign Manager in March 2026, and on June 10, 2026 LinkedIn added a Creator Marketplace in alpha for select North American brands and creators. Those programs were built around a curated list of names, among them Guy Raz, Steven Bartlett and Shelley Zalis. In-Stream Ads, as described, routes enrolment through a dashboard available to all creators, which suggests a wider pool of video inventory than BrandLink's hand-picked roster. Whether In-Stream Ads replaces BrandLink, sits beside it or sells the same placements under a new name, the October 15 post does not say.

The difference matters for buyers. A curated creator list gives an advertiser a reasonable idea of where its ad will appear. A dashboard-based program opened to a growing number of creators shifts that question to whatever eligibility and suitability rules LinkedIn applies, and none have been published yet.

The comparison with other platforms

Revenue sharing on video is long established elsewhere. YouTube's Partner Program pays creators 55% of ad revenue from long-form videos. X, in January 2026, more than doubled its creator revenue sharing pool and changed payouts to count only verified home timeline impressions, without publishing dollar figures. LinkedIn has now joined the group of platforms that pay creators for ads served around their work, but it remains the only one of the three that has never stated a split.

Advice Sessions: selling time, not content

The second earning tool works on a different principle. Advice Sessions lets members "offer 1:1 consultations directly from your LinkedIn profile," according to LinkedIn, with booking management, payments and video hosting all handled on the platform. "It's now available to Business Premium subscribers in the U.S., with more markets coming soon," the post states.

Here, too, the commercial terms are missing. LinkedIn does not say whether it takes a commission on each session, whether consultants set their own prices, how payouts reach them, or what "secure payments" covers in terms of refunds and disputes. The FAQ again uses broader language than the body: it says the tools allow "eligible creators to offer paid 1:1 consultations," while the body limits the feature to Business Premium subscribers in the US. The body is the more specific of the two.

Placing a paid service behind a paid subscription is consistent with how LinkedIn has long tiered its product. In May 2026, noyb filed a GDPR complaint over LinkedIn's paywall for profile visitor data, noting that Premium cost about 29.74 euros a month and gave up to 365 days of visitor history. Advice Sessions adds a second layer: a member pays LinkedIn for Business Premium in order to be allowed to charge other members.

The creator dashboard

Both earning tools are reached through a new dashboard. According to LinkedIn, creators "can now more easily understand what's working, manage their content, and discover new ways to grow and earn, all from one place." The dashboard "will roll out globally in the coming weeks and can be found on mobile by tapping your profile picture in the top left of the app."

The dashboard consolidates analytics LinkedIn has been adding in pieces. In July 2025, LinkedIn opened a Member Post Analytics API to 11 third-party tools, including Hootsuite, Buffer and Later, covering follower growth, impressions and video views. In June 2026 it began splitting impressions into in-network and out-of-network reach, a change led by Sam Corrao Clanon, head of LinkedIn's Create organisation, who is also listed among the resources at the bottom of the October 15 post. Clanon said at the time that he still could not see what pushed a given post into discovery. The new dashboard is not described as solving that.

The networking features

The other four features carry no direct revenue, though they shape where content is seen.

A Network feed

LinkedIn is "testing a dedicated Network feed that brings posts from your connections and people you follow." The body of the post says the test is "rolling out in select markets, starting with the U.S., India, U.K., and Australia." The FAQ lists only "the U.S., India and Australia." The UK appears in one list and not the other, and LinkedIn has not explained the difference.

A feed restricted to known connections and followed accounts is, by design, a feed with less algorithmic discovery in it. That has implications for creators whose reach depends on out-of-network distribution, and for brands paying to amplify those creators. LinkedIn rebuilt its main feed ranking with large language models in March 2026, serving more than 1.3 billion members and processing more than 1,000 historical interactions per member. The post does not say whether the Network feed uses that same ranking, a chronological order or something else, nor whether ads run inside it.

The timing places LinkedIn alongside Meta. Two days earlier, on October 13, 2026, Facebook added a tool that lets people type what they want from Feed and Reels. Both companies are giving members more control over what the recommendation system shows them, though by different routes.

Business cards, notes and pinned comments

The digital business card can be designed, personalised and added to a digital wallet, according to LinkedIn, and is "rolling out globally over the coming months." Profile notes let Premium subscribers "add private notes to profiles to remember they met someone, what they discussed, and when to reconnect," and are "available globally." Authors can now pin comments on their posts. The post gives no rollout date or market list for pinned comments.

Profile notes are the only one of the four restricted to paying members. The post does not say whether notes are stored as personal data about the person being annotated, whether that person can see or request them, or whether they are excluded from any training of LinkedIn's models.

The stated reason: people, as AI content grows

LinkedIn frames the package as a response to change in the workplace. "As AI changes how people create and communicate, LinkedIn believes trusted human relationships matter even more," the FAQ reads. The post also cites unnamed research: "Our latest research shows more than half of Gen Z aren't sure what to do next, from staying in touch to turning that introduction into a meaningful professional relationship." No survey name, sample or fieldwork dates are given.

The emphasis on human relationships lands on a platform where machine-written posts are already common. A January 2026 analysis by Originality.ai found that 53.7% of long-form posts from 99 influential LinkedIn profiles were likely AI-generated. Paying creators per ad served on their videos creates an incentive to publish more video, and LinkedIn has not said whether AI-generated or AI-assisted videos are eligible for In-Stream Ads.

One sentence in the post appears twice in slightly different forms: "Your career isn't necessarily one job anymore. Your career isn't necessarily defined by one role anymore." It reads as an editing slip rather than a statement of policy.

Why this matters for marketers

LinkedIn is a business with a growing advertising line. Microsoft reported that LinkedIn revenue rose 12% year over year in the quarter to June 30, 2026, driven mainly by Marketing Solutions. Over the full fiscal year, LinkedIn revenue grew 11%. Microsoft does not report LinkedIn's advertising revenue separately.

Creator content has been the main way LinkedIn has added video inventory to sell. Each step since 2025 has widened it. BrandLink put ads in front of publisher and creator video. Thought Leader Ads, expanded in March 2024, let brands sponsor posts from any member, not only employees. Collaborative posts, opened worldwide on July 23, 2026, allow up to five co-authors. In-Stream Ads, if it grows beyond the US test, would turn every eligible creator video into a potential ad slot.

The wider creator economy gives LinkedIn a reason to move. Platforms compete for creators' output, and payment is the most direct lever. For B2B buyers, the questions the October 15 post leaves open are the practical ones: how In-Stream Ads is priced and targeted, what brand safety controls apply to an inventory pool that is no longer hand-curated, how completion and attention are measured, and whether creators see enough of the money to keep producing video for LinkedIn rather than for platforms that publish their splits.

None of those answers appear in the announcement. What it does establish is direction. LinkedIn wants members to earn on the platform, through ads on their videos and fees for their time, and it has started building the payment rails to make that happen in the United States first.

Timeline

Summary

Who: LinkedIn, through its Corporate Communications team, affecting creators, Business Premium and Premium subscribers, and advertisers testing video placements in the United States.

What: A package of seven features. In-Stream Ads pays select US creators when pre-roll ads run on their eligible videos. Advice Sessions lets US Business Premium subscribers sell paid one-to-one video consultations. A creator dashboard brings analytics and earning tools together. A Network feed test, digital business cards, Premium profile notes and pinned comments cover networking. No revenue shares, fees or eligibility rules were disclosed.

When: Announced October 15, 2026. The dashboard rolls out globally in the coming weeks, business cards over the coming months, and profile notes are available now. In-Stream Ads remains a test with broader access planned over time.

Where: In-Stream Ads and Advice Sessions are limited to the United States. The Network feed test covers the US, India and Australia, with the UK listed in the post's body but not its FAQ. The dashboard, business cards and profile notes are global.

Why: LinkedIn says more members run side businesses, citing a 70% rise in founders and a 26% increase since 2019 in members reporting more than one position. For advertisers, the change opens a creator video inventory that is broader than BrandLink's curated roster, with pricing and safety controls not yet published.