Facebook ads can be an extremely confusing platform, especially if you've never used them before.
Nowhere is that more evident than when you start thinking about all of the different sizes for images or videos that you can use inside of the platform.
One of the questions that I get most frequently is what is the correct size for images to use in a Facebook ad.
While size can vary slightly depending on the type of placement that you are looking for a 1080 x 1080 image in either a JPG or PNG format, is going to be the most common. This is the size that is used for what Facebook refers to as a Newsfeed ad.
If you'd like to cover all of your bases, you can also create a 1200 x 628px and a 1080×1920 variation of the same image, to ensure Facebook will display your image correctly across virtually all placements.
If you are looking to run a different kind of ad ( there are currently more than seven different types of ads within the Facebook ecosystem alone) or if you're interested in understanding the different sizes that you would need to optimize each ad that you're running, we are going to dive into the correct sizes for each different type alone.
If you’d like to see a full chart of the different sizes, we’ve included one here for you.
Facebook News Feed Ads
The first advertising placement we are going to be taking a look at today is what Facebook refers to as their Newsfeed ads.
What Are Facebook News Feed Ads?
Facebook news feed ads are the most common advertising placement within the Facebook ecosystem and they are the ads, video, or photo, that appear as you are scrolling through the news feed.
What Are The Specs For Facebook News Feed Ads
Facebook news feed ads specifications are fairly straightforward, but you very slightly based on the experience that users receive on desktop and mobile.
Image Specifications for News Feed Ads
If you're going to be running a Facebook news feed ad, your images need to be either 1200 x 628 or 1080 x 1080, And like all images need to be in a PNG or jpeg format.
I would suggest creating one of each, rather than allowing Facebook to Autoscale the image to fit the correct placement.
Facebook also asks that each image you're using has a minimum height and width of 600 pixels, which is not a problem if you use the recommended image sizes listed above.
Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that Facebook requires their images to have an aspect ratio between 9:16 and 16:9 and they may potentially make some changes to the aspect ratio of the image if it's shared via a link.
Facebook also asks that you keep your images relatively text free and while they now will allow some images with more than 20% of the image being covered by text ( this was not allowed previously), they do reserve the right to disapprove the ad or reduce the ads reach if they believe the text overwhelms the image resulting in a poor user experience.
Video Specifications for News Feed Ads
As far as running video ads in the Facebook news feed goes, the requirements are pretty straightforward.
Facebook asks that you upload the video in the highest resolution possible ( with a maximum file size of 4 gigabytes) and they require that it be no smaller than 600 by 315px or 600 by 600x if you’re using a square video.
The minimum length for any video is going to be one second with a maximum length of 240 minutes or 4 hours ( side note: can you imagine watching 4 hours worth of a Facebook video ad, I can't).
Facebook does not require that you upload a video with sound or captions but highly suggest that you include them. Just like with most Facebook videos, if you don't include an SRT or caption file one will be automatically generated for you ( all those Facebook but does not guarantee accuracy).
You can use a variety of different video formats, but the two we suggest are either MP4 or MOV.
Facebook Carousel Ads
The second style of Facebook ads were going to be exploring today or what Facebook refers to as Carousel ads.
What Are Facebook Carousel Ads
Just as with the carousels of your childhood, where horses went around and around in a loop, Facebook Carousel ads allow you to do the same thing with images or videos inside of your potential customers' news feed.
This ad type allows you to display a wide variety of different things, such as a collection of your products or if you're being very creative you can potentially use this to tell a sequential story through the use of image or video.
What Are The Specs For Facebook Carousel Ads
Unlike with Newsfeed ads where you are limited to a single piece of creative ( video or image) for each ad, Carousel ads require a minimum of two images or videos and will allow you to add up to 10.
Image Sizes for Facebook Carousel Ads
Carousel ads tend to display in only the 1080 x 1080 pixel format for the images that you are going to be using.
Just like with the other types of ads, Facebook recommends that you upload either a JPEG or PNG formatted image, with a maximum file size of 30 megabytes.
Video Specifications for Facebook Carousel Ads
If you opt to use video instead of images inside of your Carousel ad you're going to be reliant on a square video of 1080 x 1080 pixels and again you will have the opportunity to upload video up to 4 gigabytes and 240 minutes in length.
Just like with other video placements, you're not required to upload videos with sound or captions and it's highly suggested that you use either the MP4 or MOV format for your video.
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One of the new placements inside of the Facebook ads ecosystem is what Facebook refers to as the Facebook or Instagram story ads.
What Are Facebook & Instagram Story Ads
These bad types will appear inside of users’ Facebook or Instagram stories, if you're not familiar with this feature they will appear at the top of either someone's Instagram feed or their Facebook feed.
You can find the stories, by looking at the top of either your news or Instagram feed and finding the section that has user's profile photos with a circle around it
If you would like to take advantage of running an ad inside of the stories placement, your ad will be run in between the other user-generated stories that your potential customers are watching.
Image Specifications For Facebook & Instagram Story Ads
Unlike with most other placements, which rely on a square format, the recommended size for use within a story ad placement is 1080 by 1920 pixel size.
Additionally, the image should be taller than it is wide using a 9 by 16 aspect ratio vs the standard 16 by 9.
If you'd like a mental image of what this looks like, 16 by 9 is the standard ratio used by most widescreen televisions, so if you imagine your living room television propped up on one side you'll have a better idea of what we're talking about here.
Facebook does have a minimum resolution requirement of 600 by 1067 for this advertising placement and like other placements suggest that you uploaded in a JPEG or PNG format.
Lastly, Facebook requires that any images used for the stories placement have a maximum file size of 30 megabytes.
Video Specifications For Facebook & Instagram Story Ads
Using video inside of story ad placements is going to be different from other formats as well.
Rather than the standard 240-minute duration, Facebook caps the maximum length of a video that you can use for a stories ad placement at 60 Seconds and it must be at least three seconds long ( unlike the traditional lower limit of 1 second).
Just like with images in this format, you should be shooting to have a 9 by 16 aspect ratio, meaning the video is taller than it is wide.
Unlike with other placements that allow videos, Facebook does not allow captions inside of story placements And they require that these videos be in an MP4 format.
Facebook Right Hand Column Ads
This Facebook advertising placement is the original place that Facebook allowed, although it has fallen out of favor as of late due to the popularity and effectiveness of the newsfeed and other placements.
Image Specifications for Facebook Column Ads
If you're looking to create a right hand, mad, you're going to want to upload an image that is 1200 by 628.
just like with most other image Replacements, Facebook requires that you upload them and either a JPEG or PNG format and that the images have a minimum width and height of 600 pixels which shouldn't be a problem if you use the suggested Dimensions above.
Video Specifications for Facebook Column Ads
Unfortunately, Facebook does not currently allow videos to display in Facebook ads, so you'll be using another placement if you would like to use a video.
Facebook Audience Network Ads
Facebook created The Audience Network to display Facebook ads on site outside of Facebook itself. You will often find this ad placement on other websites, such as blogs or news sites, as a part of their advertising mix.
Image Specifications for Facebook Audience Network Ads
If you would like to run your ad on the Audience Network, Facebook again typically will use a 1200 by 628 image size with a minimum height and width of 600 by 600 pixels.
just like with most other image placements Facebook asks that you upload these either in a JPEG or PNG format.
Video Specifications for Facebook Audience Network Ads
Facebook typically treats Audience Network ads more like their own main placements and will allow you to upload a video meeting the standard specifications for most Facebook ad placements.
This means, as long as we have a video that is longer than one second and less than 240 minutes long and is available in either the 9 by 16 or 16 by 9 aspect ratio, we will be able to use it inside of the Audience Network placement.
Keep in mind that again we will have a file size limit of 4 gigabytes and if we would like to have captions or sound included, we can do that but they won't be enabled by default.
Facebook Instant Article Ads
One of the biggest problems with the increase in Mobile traffic to websites was how slow many websites were to load.
Facebook, obviously not out of the goodness of their heart, but as a way to help bring an extra Revenue while also increasing the user experience of people clicking on links inside of Facebook, decided to help solve the problem by creating what they call instant articles.
Essentially, instead of leaving and loading the full website of where you're clicking to sites can enable instant articles, meaning the user will be able to consume the content faster and also allows Facebook to load the instant article ads, Which look and feel like typical banner ads on any website you have visited in the past.
Image Specifications for Instant Article Ads
If instant-articles are where you would like to be running your Facebook ad, you're going to be using the 1200 by 628 pixel rectangular image format that many of the other image placements use.
Just like the other placements, Facebook requires that you have a minimum of a 600 pixel Square image and that it's uploaded in a JPEG or PNG format.
Video Specifications for Instant Article Ads
If you decide to use video in your instant articles placements Facebook will suggest that you're using a 15 to a 30-second video in either an mp4 or MOV format end what's the maximum file size of around 4 gigabytes.
Although Facebook suggests that you keep your video to 15 to 30 seconds in this format, you can upload a video of up to 240 minutes in length.
Facebook Marketplace Ads
Facebook Marketplace is one of the most recent plays by Facebook to put a dent in the e-commerce ecosystem.
Think of it as a slightly more transparent Craigslist, where you can directly connect with sellers of a product that you might be interested in ( either local to your neighborhood or around the world).
Facebook understands that purchases in e-commerce are very visually driven and as a result make us a very image or video forward ad placement.
Generally speaking, unless you are specifically trying to sell a product locally I wouldn't suggest using Facebook Marketplace as the only placement for your advertising campaign, but it can be worth including alongside other advertising placements in the vast majority of campaigns that involve physical products.
Image Specifications for Marketplace Ads
If you want to try your hand at running ads inside of the Facebook Marketplace, Facebook is going to require the typical minimum of a 600 by 600 square image all of the recommended sizes is 1200 by 628 pixels.
Just like with most other image placements Facebook is going to ask that you upload these either and a JPEG or PNG format and that you have no more than 20% of the image that is covered in text.
Video Specifications for Marketplace Ads
Using video in a Facebook Marketplace ad is not very common, but I believe that it's underutilized.
Just like with virtually all of the video placements inside of Facebook ads, Facebook suggests that you use either in MP4 or MOV format and that you have a video that is no longer than 240 minutes in length and no larger than 4 gigabytes.
Facebook Messenger Ads
Facebook Messenger ads, exactly like they sound, will appear inside of Facebook Messenger. If you've ever noticed an advertisement in between the conversations you are having with your friends, this is where messenger ads will typically appear.
if you click on those ads, you will be taken to a larger version of the ad so that you can click through to the website, landing page, or wherever else the call to action from the ad will take you.
Image Specifications for Messenger Ads
Unlike with most other advertising placements, Facebook recommends that you upload two different images to a messenger ad placement.
The first is going to be a 1080 x 1080 pixel square image that will be used for when the ad appears in someone's messenger itself.
The other is their typical rectangular image of 1200 by 628 pixels which will appear when the ad is expanded ( meaning clicked on) by the user.
Uploading both of these images allows for the best user experience when the ad gets bigger.
Once again we're going to have to follow the rules and upload either in a JPEG or PNG format and keep the 20% text rule in mind.
Video Specifications for Messenger Ads
Since this ad type is designed to be as non-intrusive as possible and appears as a single line in between different conversations that you are having with friends, Facebook does not currently allow video inside of the messenger ads format.
Facebook Sponsored Message Ads
The last Facebook and type that we are going to be taking a look at here today or what Facebook calls is sponsored messages.
Unlike the standard messenger ads placement, sponsored messages appear as an actual message ( much like any other conversation from on your friends) inside of your Facebook Messenger.
Rather than taking someone to an off-site landing page, the goal of a Facebook sponsored message is to start a messenger conversation with a prospect or customer.
Image Specifications for Instant Article Ads
For sponsored messages, Facebook typically will recommend that are rectangular image size of 1200 by 628 pixels and the minimum image that you can upload is a 600 by 600 pixel Square you know they're a JPEG or PNG format.
Video Specifications for Instant Article Ads
Just like with the other messenger advertising placements, Facebook does not currently allow you to use video in a Facebook sponsored message ad placement. If you would like to put a video in front of a customer there's a variety of other ways to do that, including setting up something like Manychat to deliver the video after they have engaged with your sponsored message ad using an image.
Wrapping Up:
While there are a variety of different placements and hundreds of different combinations that you can create by choosing different ways to display your Facebook ads, most advertising placement for why on similar requirements.
In fact, you can reach 90 to 95% of your Audience by just making sure that your images or videos are created in one of three different formats mentioned above.
For Images:
- 1200 x 628 pixels for Facebook Audience network
- 1080 x 1080 pixels for Facebook and Instagram news feeds
- 1080 x 1920 pixels for Facebook and Instagram Stories
For Videos:
- 9:16 For any vertical Placements (think Instagram)
- 16:9 for virtually all other placements.
Chris Shaffer
Chris lives at the intersection of business strategy and growth tactics. Having consulted with dozens of different businesses (as well as building several of his own), he brings a unique perspective on what's working across the eCommerce world in businesses of all shapes and sizes.The Simple 5-Step Process We Used To Generate $64,000 In 12 Months Working Part Time On Etsy.
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