What Size Should My Photo And Video Ads Be? A Facebook Specs Breakdown.
Facebook ads are one of the most effective ways to reach the right couples for you. Now that Facebook pretty much made it so you need to pay for ads in order for your content to be seen by a significant number of people (even if you have a large following), we might as well cover all the different criteria for the text, images, and video that you may need.
There are a lot of different kinds of Facebook Ads! And the specifications for them are constantly changing. If you want to know what size images or videos to use for each type of Facebook ad, or how much text you can work with, you are in the right place.
-
Single Image Ad Specifications
This one is a classic! Not only it has been around from the beginning, but it is still very widely used. It is extremely versatile and can be used with pretty much every objective except video views (which requires a video, dah...)
Image Specs:
- Size: 1,200 x 628 pixels
- Stories (both FB and IG): 1,080 x 1,920 pixels
- Ratio: 9:16 or 16:9 (if you include a link then the image will be cropped to 1.91:1)
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
Pro Tips:
- If you choose Page Likes as your objective, your image will be cropped to 8:3.
- Use very minimal (or better yet, use none) text in your image if you want your ads to perform well.
- Try using panoramas and 360 images, they will appear as a cool interactive experience!
-
Single Video Ad Specifications
If a photo is worth 1,000 words, then a video with worth 1,000 photos! Using video can mean your ads convey the message much more precisely even without any text! But don't worry if you are not a videographer, you can easily use your photos to create stunning slideshows that tell the story just as effectively.
Video Specs:
- File format: mp4, mov, and gif files are best to use, however, most other video files are also accepted.
- Aspect ratio: from 9:16 to 16:9 (remember that vertical videos and square videos take up much more room and thus perform better in many cases)
- Resolution: Minimum of 600 pixels width (use the highest resolution possible)
- File size: 4GB limit
- Length: Facebook from 1 second to 240 minutes and Instagram from 1 to 60 seconds
- Facebook and Instagram Stories length: from 1 to 15 seconds
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
Here is a complete guide for video specs https://www.facebook.com/business/m/one-sheeters/video-requirements#
Image credit: Facebook
-
Carousel Ad Specifications
The carousel ad type lets you place 3 to 10 images, videos, or slideshows in one ad, each one can be linked to different URL – and your audience can scroll through the media on their device.
You can use carousel ads with every objective, except for Engagement and Video Views.
Image/video Specs:
- Size: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels
- Ratio: 1:1 (square)
- Video length: up to 240 minutes
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters limit
- Headline: 40 characters limit
- Description: 20 characters limit
-
Collection Ad Specifications
Collection is the newest ad type. It only runs on mobile, and you can use this ad type with four objectives:
Traffic, Conversions, Catalog Sales, Store Visits (The first two are what you will mostly use as a photographer)
This ad type tends to work very well for photographers and videographers, especially when you are trying to showcase your work.
When couples tap on the collection ad, it opens up and they’re taken into an immersive, full-screen experience (known as Instant Experience). This is an excellent way to showcase your photos and keep their attention.
Image size:
- Fit to width (linkable): image width of 1,080 pixels
- Fit to width (tap to expand): minimum image height of 1,080 pixels
- Fit to height (tilt to pan): image height of 1,920 pixels
Image ratio: Images use the full width of the screen by default
File type: .png and .jpg
Tilt-to-pan images
With the tilt-to-pan option, you can upload photos that are wider than the mobile device, and people can tilt their phone to rotate the image from side to side.
Image height: 1,920 pixels
Image width: between 3,240 and 5,400 pixels (which is 3-5x the width of the screen)
Image ratio: Images use the full width of the screen by default
File type: .png and .jpg
Text block
because this full-screen experience is designed to be like a landing page, you can insert text blocks. Generally, you can say a lot more in a much neater way in this ad type as opposed to most other formats.
Here are the things you can customize with the text block:
- Font
- Font size
- Font style
- Font color
- Font alignment
- Line height
- Background color
Facebook ads are a chalk full of options, the trick is to think through which ad format and objective will deliver the best results. The difference between those who are very successful with Facebook ads and those who are not so much, is the strategy.
