Facebook Ad Image & Video size guide 2019 infographic

There are a lot of different Facebook Ad Formats to choose from, and each one of them comes with its own set of image and video specifications. What are they? What’s best for your goals? Find out in this Facebook Ad Format – Image & Video Size Guide 2019.

Facebook Ad Formats - Image & Video Size Guide 2019

When you arrive at the last step of your Ad campaign preparation, you need to pick a Facebook Ad Format for your message. Each one, offers unique and creative ways to display your message and engage your audience.

But how do you know which one to choose?

There is a total of 5 different types of Facebook Ad format to choose from.

– Single Image
– Slideshow
– Single Video
– Carousel
– Collection / Instant Experience

Each of these Facebook Ad format has different media requirements, you should be aware of before creating your ad. It is important to understand what each one can do, so you can better differentiate yourself from the competition.

Let’s go over each Facebook Ad format and their specifications together.

1. Facebook Single Image Ad

This Facebook Ad Format is by far the most popular. It’s simple, efficient and clean.

It’s also the easiest to create. Not to mention Facebook now provides free access to Shutterstock images library. Even if you don’t have an image of your own, you can always use a professional looking picture for FREE.

This Facebook Ad format goes everywhere. It can be used across most placements: Instagram, right side column, instant article, and many others…

Single image Ad looks more native to the platform and can be easily thought to be a post shared by a friend. This is why you have to make sure you image stands out and grab your audience’s attention right away.

Facebook image ad specs

Recommended Size: 1080 x 1080 px

Min Width: 600 px
Min Height: 600 px
Image Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1

Text: 125 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

Use Facebook free professional stock photography tool to up your Ad game.

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2.Facebook Slideshow Ad

Slideshow ad is an ideal middle ground between picture ad and a full on video ad.

Facebook allows you to use multiple single images and/or videos and turn them into a short slideshow. This Facebook Ad Format helps you capture a high quality video without all the challenges and expenses of producing a video.

You can add up to 5 images, each one appears for 0.5 sec, making it a total of 2.5 secs ad. The Slideshow tool also provides you with the possibility to change its overall size. Your slideshow can either be square (1:1), rectangle (16:9), vertical (2:3) and of course you can keep your original file size. You can even add up music to play along your Slideshow.

Slideshow Specs

Recommended Size: 1080 x 1080 px.

Image ratio: 16:9, 1:1, or 2:3

Video Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
Vertical Videos: With aspect ratio taller than 2:3, may be masked to 2:3
Video File Size: Max 4 GB
Video Format: .mov or .mp4 file types.
Video Length Minimum: 1 second
Video Length Maximum 240 minutes
Video Captions: Optional but recommended
Video Sound: Optional but recommended

Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%

Text: 125 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

Use Facebook Slideshow ad tool to turn your pictures into a short video.

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3. Facebook Video Ad

Video ads are quite popular these days.

Facebook users are watching more and more videos and marketers know it. This type of Facebook Ad Format can help you reach more people and engage your audience in a different way. Video ads can run on both Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook video Ads tend to perform better than single image ad.

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Video Ad Specs

Recommended Resolution:

Upload the highest resolution video available that meets file size and ratio limits.

Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%

Text: 125 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

4. Facebook Carousel Ad

The carousel ad format allows you to show between 2-10 images or videos within a single ad with an external link for each one of them. Facebook users can scroll through each images/videos on their mobile devices or click the right or left side arrows present on the desktop. Just like any other ad format, the carousel display a post description above the carousel, a headline, a link, a link description and a call to action.

The Facebook Carousel Ads bring unique advantages for businesses who are looking to be more creative and enhance the ad experience.

Highlight multiple products and/or services linking to different landing pages.
Showcase more information about a single product or service by displaying your product being used in up to 10 different ways.
Display your brand’s creativity with a single image panning over different cards.

Facebook Carousel cards can each link to different URLs

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Carousel Ad Specs

Recommended image/video resolution: 1080 x 1080 px

Min Cards: 2
Max Cards: 10
Image File Type: jpg or png
Image Max File Size: 30 MB
Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%

Video Max file size: 4 GB
Video Max Length: 240 Minutes

Text: 125 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link description: 30 characters

*Only Carousel created in Facebook Ads Manager allow each card to link to a different landing page.

5. Facebook Collection Ad / Instant Experience

Facebook Collection ad is only available on mobile and looks quite different from all the other format. When someone click on the collection ad, a full page screen opens. It is known as Instant Experience.

Instant Experience Ads offer an immersive full-screen experience on mobile. Businesses are able to present their products and services in a visually compelling way that no other Facebook Ad format offers.

According to a Google research made in 2017, it takes an average of 22 seconds to fully load a mobile landing page. If your site doesn’t load within the first 3 seconds, over 50% of your site’s visitors are most likely to leave.

That’s a lot of missed opportunities…😵

That’s where the Instant experience comes in. Just like Instant articles, this Facebook Ad Format is optimized for mobile devices, which means they load faster. Much faster. Facebook claims Instant Experience Ads load 15x faster than mobile websites.

It can literally bring you a lot more leads/conversions and save you a ton of money on your pay-per-click ads.

Beside a fast loading time, what’s so great about it?

Facebook Instant Experience Ads can include images, videos, product carousels, form fill-outs, and tagged products all within the same ad, if you’d really like to.

This Facebook Ad format is easy to create. You have the possibility to choose from one of the five templates available to you, or you can customise your own Instant Experience to your liking.

Lastly, this ad format is compatible if Facebook Pixel as well as third party tracking pixel such as Google. Yes that’s right. You can track clicks and overall ad performance with Facebook native analytic tool and/or third party tool such as Google Analytics.

Facebook Instant Experience Ad offers you a way to create a media-rich experience to capture the attention of your audience and to keep them engaged longer to view your ad.

Facebook Instant Experience Ads load 15x faster than mobile websites.

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Collection Ad Specs

Headline: 25 Characters
Text: 90 Characters

Instant Experience specs

Image Specs

Multiple Images Max: Up to 20 images
Max Height: 1920 px
Max Width: 1080 px
File Type: png, jpg and gif

*If no cover image is designated, standard image size is applied.

Tilt-to-Pan Image Specs

Height: 1920 px
Width: Between 3,240 & 5,400 px
Position: The element starts centred and is always 100% of the screen height; 1920 px.
Call to Action: A “Tilt to see more” CTA is NOT automatically added. If you want to add a CTA, you will need to include the text in the image or video.

Video Specs

Min Resolution: 720p
File Type: mp4 or mov
Duration: Unlimited videos but combined duration cannot exceed 2 minutes.
Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
Thumbnail: The first frame of each video serves as the thumbnail or poster frame.
Captions: Not recommended.

*Video requirements are the same as standard video ad specs.

Text

Length: Can have multiple text blocks. Max 500 characters each.
Font Style: Bold, italic, underline – apply to whole block, not individual words.

Button

Each Instant Experience must have one or more buttons.

Button Text: 30 characters max. Text must fit on one line and may be truncated on low-resolution

To recap:

Each Facebook Ad Format offers unique ways to reach your audience and to engage with them.

I’m sure you already have a favourite format or two, but keep in mind not matter which format you choose that your text doesn’t exceed 20%. Otherwise your overall reach will decline. Use the Image text overlay tool to find out how much text is present on your image and/or video. (yes it applies to videos as well). Familiarize yourself with each ad format and come up with a creative ways to advertise your products and services.

We’ll keep this guide updated with the latest Ad specs for both images and videos, so make sure to bookmark it. Let us know which ad format is the most appealing to you in the comments section.

Pierre Guez

Guez Marketing Founder, social media strategist, marketer and content creator with a passion for connecting people through technology. When he is not helping business owners build a strong online presence he loves to discover new ethnic food, to watch sci-fi movies and to craft delicious cocktails.

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