Linkedin Carousels

LinkedIn carousels

Design one swipeable LinkedIn document post. Your artifact is the slides of a phone-read PDF — sequence and visual hierarchy are the product — handed back as a slide-by-slide build ready to assemble in Canva/Figma/Slides plus a one-page design+export checklist. Everything adjacent (the account plan, the feed copy, the upload, a talk deck) routes out; see Handoffs.

What you produce

• A cover slide spec — the one slide that wins or loses the swipe to slide 2.
• Interior slides — each carrying a single focused idea, large type, a clear hierarchy.
• A CTA closer — the payoff slide plus one explicit ask.
• A design + export spec — canvas, safe area, type floor, PDF checklist (one page).
• A one-line caption starter — the first feed line; full caption tuning routes out.

Precondition: a topic, an angle, or a source (post/article). If the ask is the account plan or a block of feed copy, you are in the wrong skill — see the handoffs table.

Ground first

A carousel inherits an identity; it does not invent one. Read the brand kit (colors, type, logo — owned by ../brand-identity/SKILL.md) and the voice (../brand-voice/SKILL.md) from 02-DOCS/ if they exist; don't pick arbitrary fonts. Pull the angle from any plan or post already produced by ../linkedin-strategy/SKILL.md or ../linkedin-content/SKILL.md — reuse the hook, don't reopen it. If none exist, name your assumptions on slide 0 of the spec and proceed; don't stall.

The swipe economics (why every rule below exists)

Document/carousel posts are the highest-engagement native format on LinkedIn right now — roughly 6.6% average engagement, ahead of every other format, and top-performing pages post far more of them than median pages. The reason is dwell time: a swipeable deck holds the thumb on screen, and dwell — not likes — is the algorithm's main distribution signal.

So the whole bet is the cover slide and the swipe-to-slide-2 bounce. If the cover doesn't earn the first swipe, your slide count, your arc, and your CTA never get seen; every swipe after that extends dwell and signals quality, which is why each slide must pull to the next. Design backwards from that: stop the thumb, then keep it moving.

The cover slide

This slide is the entire campaign. Build it to one job: earn the swipe.

• Lead with a curiosity or benefit headline — promise a payoff, not a topic label. Why: a label ("Onboarding tips") gives no reason to swipe; a stake ("Why 60% of users quit in week one") does.
• One dominant element — the headline reads first, before anything else. Why: a cover with three competing focal points reads as zero.
• Intentional white space — let the headline breathe. Why: a dense cover looks like work, and the thumb keeps scrolling.
• An explicit swipe cue — an arrow, "Swipe →", or a 1/8 counter. Why: tell people the format is a deck so they know there's more.

The test: would this stop my own thumb mid-scroll on a crowded feed? If you hesitate, the cover is too quiet.

Bad  (topic label, no stake, no swipe reason)
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  Tips for better          │
  │  user onboarding          │
  │                           │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Good (stake + payoff + swipe cue, one dominant line)
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  60% of new users quit    │   ← largest element, reads first
  │  in week one.             │
  │                           │
  │  Here's where they fall   │   ← supporting line, smaller
  │  off — and the fix.       │
  │                  Swipe →  │   ← explicit cue
  └──────────────────────────┘

More cover-hook shapes (number / contrarian / mistake / outcome / question) with Bad→Good rewrites are in references/carousel-patterns.md.

The narrative arc

A carousel is not a list — it is a sequence engineered so each slide creates a reason to see the next. Pick one arc and map slides to it. Branch on the angle:

Momentum rule: end each interior slide on a small open loop — a cliff line, a "but here's the catch", a half-finished list — so the thumb keeps swiping. Why: a slide that fully resolves gives permission to stop. Each arc expanded to a full slide map is in references/carousel-patterns.md.

One idea per slide + hierarchy

The line between a finished deck and one abandoned at slide 3 is one idea per slide.

• One point per slide — if a slide has two ideas, split it. Why: cramming dilutes the message and stalls momentum; a single point is swiped through fast and remembered.
• Type floor ≥ 28 px — it is read on a phone, one-handed. Why: body text below ~28 px forces a pinch-zoom, which is a stop.
• One dominant element per slide — a headline, a number, or a visual that reads first.
• Generous white space + a consistent grid — same margins, same headline position across slides. Why: a stable frame lets the eye land instantly and the deck feels designed.

Bad  — crammed, four competing points, tiny text
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │ Onboarding fixes:         │
  │ • Shorten the signup form │
  │ • Add a progress bar      │
  │ • Send a day-1 email      │
  │ • Show a sample dataset   │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Good — one idea, one dominant element, breathing room
  ┌──────────────────────────┐
  │  Step 1                   │
  │                           │
  │  Cut the signup form to   │   ← single point, large
  │  3 fields.                │
  │                           │
  │  Every extra field drops  │   ← one supporting line
  │  completion ~7%.          │
  └──────────────────────────┘

Slide count

Aim for the 6–12 band, ~8 as the sweet spot (cover + ~6 content + CTA). Reported peaks cluster around 7–8 slides; 8–12 is where the highest dwell/save/share rates show up. Fewer than 5 underdelivers (not worth the swipe); more than ~15 loses people before the payoff. Treat the band as a guide, not a law: length follows the arc, not a quota — if the arc resolves in 7 slides, ship 7, don't pad to hit a number.