Thanks to its powerful advertising capabilities, Facebook has become a multi-billion dollar business. According to its most-recent third-quarter report, the California-based company earned over $10 billion in revenue from companies using their platform in Q3, a 49% increase from last year’s Q3 revenue. These impressive earnings prove that Facebook is growing at an amazing rate as both a social and business platform worldwide.
Customisation is the core of the social media giant’s advertising strength. Facebook offers many options for tailoring ads according to objective, audience, budget, placement and format. This allows marketers to reach their target audience in a goal-oriented and cost-effective way.
One of the biggest factors in a successful ad is the content itself. Content is what your audience sees and engages with on their News Feeds. Your content should make the biggest impact in capturing people’s attention.
Content formats include Photo, Carousel, Video, Slideshow, and Canvas. Every format has its own benefit, ideal usage and specification. Facebook constantly updates its advert specifications for content in order to accommodate for new innovations in technology.
This Facebook Ad specs basics guide will break down the latest design recommendations and technical requirements so all your content is optimised everywhere on Facebook.
Photo Ad Specs
Single photo adverts are useful for many business goals and are especially helpful for increasing brand and product awareness. This format is clean and simple, but also inspiring and engaging.
Recommended Design Specs
Image:
- File type: JPG or PNG
- Min size: 400 x 150 pixels
- Max size: 1200 x 628 pixels
- Ratio: 1.91:1 (landscape orientation)
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
Objective-Specific Specs
Page Promotion:
- Image size: 1200 x 444 pixels
- Image ration: 8:3
App Engagement:
- Image ratio: 16:9
Best Practice
Limit text overlay on your images to less than 20%. Facebook reports that images with more text overlay experience reduced delivery.
Video Ad Specs
Video ads allow businesses to promote product features, drawing attention with sound and motion. Different video ad options are optimised for the different ways people consume video on various platforms and devices.
Recommend Design Specs
Video:
- Format: MP4 or MOV formats are ideal (see the full list of all supported video formats)
- Aspect ratio: 16:9
- Resolution: 720p or more
- File size: 4GB max
- Facebook length: 240 minutes max
- Instagram length: 60 seconds max
- Captions: Optional but recommended
- Sound: Optional but recommended
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Link description: 30 characters
View Facebook’s technical requirements for different video ad placements here.
Carousel Ad Specs
The carousel format allows businesses to showcase up to ten images or videos within one advert, each linking to its respective page. With a simple and effective swipe/click, your audience can scroll through all your content. E-commerce businesses especially benefit from carousel ads.
Recommended Design Specs
General:
- Cards: 2 – 10 Content Cards
Image:
- Size: 1,080 x 1,080 pixels
- File Size: 30 MB max
- Ratio: 1:1 (square)
- File type: JPG or PNG
Video:
- Format: MP4 or MOV
- Length: 240 minutes max
- File Size: 4 GB max
- Resolution: 720p or more
- Facebook length: 60 minutes max
- Instagram length: 60 seconds max
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 40 characters
- Link description: 20 characters
View Facebook’s technical requirements for different carousel ad placements here.
Slideshow Ad Specs
Slideshow adverts are a quicker and more affordable video format that uses motion, sound and text to captivate your audience. They can be made in minutes using still images (with thousands of stock images provided) or existing videos, cutting time and production costs. They work well with any connection speed and are great for targeting regions with slower connection speeds.
Recommended Design Specs
Slideshow specs:
- Image number: 3 – 7 photos
- Image size: 1,280 x 720 pixels
- Image ratio: 16:9, 1:1 or 2:3
- Video format: MP4 or MOV
Copy:
- Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 25 characters
- Description: 30 characters
Read up on some useful slideshow-making tips from Facebook here.
Canvas Ad Specs
Canvas is an advert format specific to mobile devices, offering a full-screen, highly engaging brand experience. Canvas ads are initiated with a simple tap on a mobile news feed ad (which looks like a regular ad). These adverts incorporate image, video and carousel all into one immersive brand experience.
See an example of what a Canvas ad looks like here.
Recommended Design Specs
News Feed Canvas Ad Unit:
- Text:125 characters
- Headline:45 characters
- Description:30 characters
- Image size:1,200 x 628 pixels
- Image ratio:9:1
- Video format: MP4 or MOV
- Video aspect ratio:16:9 or 1:1
Canvas Image:
- Fit to width: Width of 1,080 pixels
- Fit to width: Min height of 1,080 pixels
- Fit to height: Height of 1,920 pixels
- Ratio: Full-screen width
- File type: JPG and PNG
- Number of photos: 20 photos max
Canvas Video:
- Format: MP4 or MOV
- Aspect ratio:16:9 or 1:1
- Length: Videos should total under 2 minutes
- Resolution: 720p or more
Canvas Carousel:
- Image size:1,080 pixels (max width) x 1,920 pixels (max height)
- Image ratio: Similar sizing for all images
- File type: JPG or PNG
- Number of images:10 images max
Canvas CTA Buttons:
- Height: 48 pixels with 48 pixels of padding above and below
- Text: 30 characters max
- Options: Serif or Sans Serif
Canvas Header:
- Image size: 66 pixels (max height) x 882 pixels (max width)
- File type: transparent PNG
Facebook advertising is just one part of a well-rounded lead generation strategy. For more tips and tricks about generation leads for your business, download our free guide below.
