What size and format should Facebook ad creatives be?
Produce every concept in three aspect ratios: 9:16 vertical for Stories and Reels, 1:1 square for feeds and general compatibility, and 4:5 for feed placements where taller performs. Use the highest resolution source you have, commonly 1080x1920 for 9:16 and 1080x1080 for 1:1, keep videos short with the message landing in the first three seconds, and upload MP4 or MOV for video and JPG or PNG for statics.
Last updated 2026-08-11
The three ratios that cover the platform
Meta's placement list is long, but its geometry reduces to three shapes. Full-screen vertical surfaces, Stories and Reels, want 9:16. Feed surfaces on Facebook and Instagram accept 1:1 and 4:5, with 4:5 occupying more screen on mobile feeds. Some desktop and right-column placements use wider crops that Meta derives automatically. A concept produced in 9:16, 1:1 and 4:5 can therefore run everywhere without automatic cropping doing violence to the composition. The expensive mistake is producing one ratio and letting placements inherit it: a 9:16 crushed into a feed or a square letterboxed in Stories both underuse the surface they paid for.
Resolution and file basics
Upload at the highest resolution available; the common working sizes are 1080x1920 for 9:16, 1080x1080 for 1:1 and 1080x1350 for 4:5, and there is no benefit to going below them. For video, MP4 and MOV are the standard containers. For statics, JPG and PNG both work, with PNG preferred where crisp text matters. Meta compresses everything on ingestion, so start clean: a source that is already compressed or upscaled degrades twice. Check Meta's published specs for the current file size and length ceilings per placement rather than memorising them, because the limits are generous for normal use and the exact numbers shift over time.
Video length and the first three seconds
Short performs. For most direct-response uses the working range is roughly 15 to 30 seconds, and the first three seconds carry a disproportionate share of the outcome, because that is where scrolling viewers decide whether to stop. Open on the hook, not a logo. Design for sound-off first, since a large share of feed viewing is muted: captions or on-screen text should carry the message without audio, with sound as enhancement. Hook rate, three-second views over impressions, is the metric that isolates whether your opening works, and it is worth reading per aspect ratio, because an opening framed for vertical often dies in square.
Safe zones on vertical placements
Stories and Reels overlay interface elements on your creative: profile information near the top, and the call to action, captions and engagement controls along the bottom. Text or key visuals placed in those bands get covered on real devices while looking fine in your editor. Keep critical content in the central region of the 9:16 frame and treat the top and bottom edges as decoration space. The reliable check is previewing the actual ad on a phone through Meta's placement previews before launch, since the overlay geometry differs slightly by surface and evolves; a preview costs a minute and catches the covered-headline problem every time.
Ratios are a launch-time responsibility
Having three ratios on disk is not the same as shipping them: the assets must be attached so each placement receives its intended shape, and at batch scale this is where discipline fails. One missing 9:16 in a forty-ad launch means some placement quietly serves a cropped square, and nobody notices until the placement breakdown looks odd. This is a checkable property, which makes it a guardrail rather than a hope. Volume Creatives checks at launch that every selected placement has a correctly shaped asset and flags gaps before publish. Launching by hand, make the same check part of your pre-publish review, per ad, per placement.
Formats beyond the single image or video
Carousels use 1:1 cards and suit sequences: multiple products, steps, or a story told across cards. Collection and catalog-driven formats pull product imagery from your feed, so the spec question becomes feed hygiene rather than per-ad sizing. Flexible and dynamic formats accept multiple assets and let Meta assemble combinations per impression, which delegates the ratio-to-placement mapping but also means what serves is a combination you did not hand-compose. Whichever format you use, the underlying rule holds: supply every shape the format can serve natively, because every automatic derivation is a small quality tax you did not have to pay.
Placement specs are Meta's to change and occasionally do change, particularly file limits and new surfaces. The three-ratio system is stable strategy, but verify current per-placement specifications against Meta's published documentation when precision matters.