Facebook Ad Specs Instructions And Guidance In 2020
The Facebook series of apps and services provide multiple types of advertising across Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger platforms. Each type of ad contains two important elements: format and placements, which determine the performance and placement of the ad.
There are 8 Facebook ad formats:
- Photo
- Video
- Stories
- Messenger
- Carousel
- Slideshow
- Collection
- Playables
There are 16 types of Facebook advertising placements, namely:
- Feeds
- Facebook News Feed
- Instagram Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Video Feeds
- Facebook Right Column
- Instagram Explore
- Messenger Inbox
- Stories
- Facebook Stories
- Instagram Stories
- Messenger Stories
- In-Stream
- Facebook In-Stream Videos
- Search
- Facebook Search Results
- Messages
- Messenger Sponsored Messages
- In-Article
- Facebook Instant Articles
- Apps
- Audience Network Native, Banner, and Interstitial
- Audience Network Rewarded Videos
There are four commonly used ad formats for advertising on Facebook, namely Image, Video, Carousel, and Collection. If you do n’t know which ad format to use, you can use BigSpy. BigSpy is the best social ad spy tool. It can spy ads in 40 countries and 76 languages, where you can know the most popular advertising materials and commonly used advertising formats. Open the Facebook ad spy page, and through advanced filtering, you can see the changes in advertisers’ advertising strategies.
The following is my collation and guidance on the ad specs and sizes of the four advertising formats in different ad performance:
1. Image
In 2020, pictures are the material of choice for Facebook ads, because the pictures are simple and clear, and the production cost is low. However, Facebook has very high requirements for advertising images, and Facebook clearly stipulates all image materials: if the text content in the image exceeds 20%, its delivery may be reduced. Therefore, advertisers still have to design materials carefully, and advertisers can use BigSpy to view and learn recently popular advertising materials. Different ad performance has different requirements for image specs. Below are the image requirements for different ad positions.
Facebook Feed
Facebook feed is a common Facebook ad performance for advertisers, where users can see changing personalized content and have a higher degree of acceptance of advertising. The following are the requirements for Facebook image feed ad specs:
- File type: jpg or png
- Picture aspect ratio: 1.91: 1 to 4: 5
- Body: 125 characters
- The desktop & mobile version of dynamic news: the minimum aspect ratio of single image ads: 400×500
With Link
- Picture aspect ratio: 1.91: 1 to 1: 1
- Recommended resolution: at least 1,080 x 1,080 pixels
- Title: 25 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Desktop device single image ads with links
- size of the picture
- Minimum width: 476 pixels
- Minimum height: 249 pixels
- Picture aspect ratio
- Minimum aspect ratio: 100×100
- Maximum aspect ratio: 191×100
- size of the picture
- Mobile devices single image ads with links
- size of the picture
- Minimum width: 320 pixels
- Picture aspect ratio
- Minimum aspect ratio: 100×100
- Maximum aspect ratio: 191×100
- size of the picture
Facebook Right Column
The ad format on Facebook’s right column is only available on the desktop. These ads are most often displayed in the right column of the Facebook page, but may also appear in other areas of the site. The following is the Facebook Right Column ad specs:
- File type: jpg or png
- Picture aspect ratio: 16: 9 to 1: 1
- Recommended resolution: upload the highest resolution picture
- Text: 125 characters
- Recommended resolution: at least 1,200 x 1,200 pixels
- Title: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
- Desktop version single image ad/link single image ad image size
- Minimum width: 254 pixels
- Minimum height: 133 pixels
- Single image advertising image maximum aspect ratio: 191×100
- The image aspect ratio of single image ads with links
- Minimum aspect ratio: 100×100
- Maximum aspect ratio: 191×100
Facebook Instant Articles
Instant Article is a mobile-optimized format that allows publishers to publish fast-loading interactive articles to Facebook applications. Approved publishers can embed ad slots in their immediate reading articles. After selecting the Read-Only version, once your audience views these articles, the system will show them your ads. The following are the requirements for Facebook Instant Articles ad specs:
- File type: jpg or png
- Picture aspect ratio: 9:16 to 16: 9
- Recommended resolution: upload the highest resolution picture
- Mobile devices: Single image ad image minimum aspect ratio: 191×100
With link
- The picture is cropped to 1: 1
- Recommended resolution: at least 1,200 x 1,200 pixels
- Title: 25 characters
- Description: 30 characters
- Mobile devices: Single image ad image minimum aspect ratio: 191×100
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is a second-hand trading platform, where you can find what you want and sell items you do n’t need. This ad position is available on both mobile and desktop devices, and both belong to single image ads.
- File type: jpg or png
- Picture aspect ratio: 9:16 to 16: 9
- Recommended resolution: upload the highest resolution picture.
- Text: 125 characters
With link
- The picture can be cropped to 1: 1
- Recommended resolution: at least 1,200 x 1,200 pixels
- Title: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
Facebook Search Results
When you search for content on Facebook, the results you see will be ranked based on your activities and the activities of the Facebook community. Facebook search is an advertising effect with a high conversion rate, because search represents the high demand of users. The following are the advertising specification requirements for Facebook Search Results image:
- File type: jpg or png
- Image ratio: 1.91:1
- Recommended resolution: Upload the highest resolution image available.
- Primary Text: 125 characters
With Link
- Image ratio: 1.91:1
- Recommended resolution: at least 1,080 x 1,080px
- Headline: 25 characters
- Description: 30 characters
Technical Requirements
- Minimum Image Width in Pixels: 600
- Minimum Image Height in Pixels: 600
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance : 3%
2. Video
Now more and more Facebook ads choose to use video as a creative material. The benefits of using video are many, for example: use a 15-second video to quickly attract the user’s attention, use a 1-minute advertisement to simply tell a story, and let more of users understand the brand. Which video ads do most advertisers use? With BigSpy you can view the latest Facebook video ads. Below we explain what specifications need to pay attention to when placing video ads in different ad performance?
Facebook Feed
Upload the highest resolution source video available without letter or pillar boxing (No black bars). Most file types are supported. However, we recommend H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+.
- Video Ratio: 9:16 to 16:9
- Recommended Resolution: Upload the highest resolution video available that meets file size and ratio limits.
- Video File Size: 4GB Max
- Video Length Minimum: 1 second
- Video Length Maximum: 240 Minutes
- Video Captions: Optional but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional but recommended
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Vertical videos (with aspect ratio taller than 4:5) may be masked to 4:5
With Link
- Headline: 25 characters
- Description: 30 characters
Desktop & Mobile News Feed Single Video Ad：
- Video Duration
- Minimum Video Duration: 1 second(s)
- Maximum Video Duration : 241 minute(s)
- Video Dimension
- Minimum width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
- Video Size
- Maximum Video File Size: 26GB
- Minimum Video File Size: 1MB
- Video Aspect Ratio
- Minimum Aspect Ratio: 100×400
- Maximum Aspect Ratio: 400×100
Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories can only serve videos on the mobile side. It is recommended not to place text and logos in about 14% (250 pixels) of the top and bottom of the video to avoid these important elements being blocked by personal homepage icons or call to action. This means that if your video size is 1080×1920, make sure that key elements appear in the 1080×1420 area that is not obscured by the title. The following is the Facebook Stories advertising video specs:
- Video ratios: 1.91 to 9:16
- For videos under 9:16: Colored gradient bars are rendered above and below. Content from the “Text” field is placed below video.
- Video File Size: 4GB Max
- Video Captions: Not available
- Video Sound: Optional
- Facebook Stories Single Video Ad
- Video Duration
- Maximum Video Duration : 2 minute(s)
- Maximum Video Duration For Playable Ads: 16 second(s)
- Video Dimension
- Minimum width: 500 pixels
- Video Aspect Ratio
- Minimum Aspect Ratio: 90×160
- Maximum Aspect Ratio: 191×100
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 0.01
- Video Duration
Facebook In-Stream Video
Facebook in-stream video ads allow advertisers to place ads before, during, or after video content. The in-stream video placement offers advertisers opportunities to drive longer view durations and can help deliver more complex marketing messages.
- Video Ratio: 16:9 to 9:16, 16:9 recommended
- Video File Size: 4 GB Max
- Video Length: 5-120 seconds
- Video Captions: Optional
- Video Sound: Optional, but strongly recommended
- Desktop & Mobile Facebook In-Stream Video Single Video Ad
- Minimum Video Duration: 5 second(s)
- Maximum Video Duration: 16 second(s)
3. Carousel
With the carousel format, you can display up to 10 pictures or 10 videos in a single ad, and each picture or video can be set with a dedicated link. As there is more creative space in a single advertisement, you can highlight different products, display specific details of products, services, or promotional activities, or use multiple carousel advertising pictures to tell the brand’s development story.
Want to know how competitors use carousel ads to display products? You can see it by using the keyword search on BigSpy. And you can download any ad creative on BigSpy.
Facebook Feed
- Minimum number of cards: 2
- Maximum number of cards: 10
- Image file type: jpg or png
- Video maximum file size: 4GB
- Video length: up to 240 minutes
- Image maximum file size: 30MB
- Recommended resolution: at least 1080 x 1080px
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Description: 20 characters
- Images that consist of more than 20% text may experience reduced delivery.
Technical Requirements
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance : 3%
Facebook Stories
Expandable Carousel in Facebook Stories allows you to showcase 3 images within a single ad, each with its own link. Expandable Carousel displays one card and gives people the option to tap to see 2 additional story cards. With more creative space within an ad, you can highlight different products, showcase specific details about one product, service, or promotion, or tell a story about your brand that develops across each carousel card.
Consider leaving roughly 14% (250 pixels) of the top and bottom of the image free from text and logos to avoid covering these key elements with the call-to-action.
- Minimum number of cards: 3
- Maximum number of cards: 3 (if more than 3 are included, we will display only the first 3)
- Image file type: jpg or png
- Video file type: not supported for Expandable Carousel
- Image maximum file size: 30MB
- Recommended resolution: at least 1080 x 1080px
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Mobile Facebook Stories Carousel Ad Media Dimension Minimum Width: 500 pixels
4. Collection
Collection Ads is an ad format that meets this need and can create a smooth and immersive product discovery and buying experience for users. Each boutique column ad will display the main video or a large picture, with 4 smaller pictures listed in a grid layout below it. Each collection ad features a primary video or image. Customers who tap on your collection ad to browse or learn more will be seamlessly taken to a fast-loading visual post-click experience powered by Instant Experience – all without leaving Facebook.
Facebook Feed
Collection is an ad format that makes it easier for people to discover, browse, and purchase products and services from their mobile devices in a visual and immersive way.
A Collection experience typically includes a cover image or video followed by several product images. When someone clicks on a Collection ad, they’ll land on an Instant Experience — a full-screen experience that drives engagement and nurtures interest and intent.
Image or Video: The cover image or video that displays in your collection ad uses the first media asset from your Instant Experience. Vertical images or videos may be masked to a max 1:1 ratio in Feed.
Headline: 25 characters
Primary Text: 90 characters
In addition, if you want to link slideshow ads, click: https://bigspy.com/blog/facebook-slideshow-ads
If you want to know the difference between different ads, preview the effect of Facebook ads, click: https://bigspy.com/blog/facebook-ad-preview
The above is the ad specs description of some ad formats, and here is a list of the Facebook ad specs guide for our commonly used ad formats in different placements. If you do n’t know how to design creatives, you may wish to use BigSpy to see how other advertisers started. If you still want to know more about ad specs, you can go to Facebook’s official instructions to view.
