What formats for your Facebook and Instagram (Meta Ads) advertisements?

We often encounter this crucial question throughout our day. To assist you in your Meta advertising endeavors, here's a 2022 recap of the available formats.

Traditional Meta Ad Formats

Let's begin by exploring the fundamental formats for Meta advertising:

• The Square Image: 1080×1080 Pixels

Widely utilized, the square format is the most prevalent and serves multiple purposes in advertisements, including standalone images and carousels. It's suitable for various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network.

• The Portrait Image: 1080×1920 Pixels 

This format, designed for stories and locations, is frequently used but often underutilized. When not properly adapted, it merely converts the square image into this format automatically.

• The Video: 9:16 Stories and 1:1 Square 

For videos, the same dimensions as the images above apply, with a maximum duration of 30 seconds (a recommendation, not mandatory). The file size should not exceed 30 MB, reducing the risk of rejection.

• The Shopping Collection Format: 1080x1080 Pixels 

Primarily found on Instagram, this format is designed to showcase your shopping product range. It features a primary square image followed by three smaller product variations created automatically from your product feed.

• The Instant Experience: 

This format, while not widely adopted, combines the previously mentioned formats. When clicked, it opens a full-screen page that you can customize with your desired content and creative assets.

For further details on this format, refer to Facebook's official recommendations: https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/instant-experience

What About New Formats on Meta?

Now that we've covered the foundational formats, let's explore the latest (more or less recent) updates on organic platforms and whether you can incorporate them into your advertising campaigns.

1080 x 1350 pixels, the new format on Instagram? This format is emerging on the platform, especially among influencers, as it accommodates the longer screens of modern smartphones. Although it holds potential on the platform, it isn't yet usable in your advertising campaigns. The square format remains "mandatory," and importing a 1080x1350 px visual will be reformatted into a square.

Clickable links in stories? On your daily Instagram stories, you notice links to pages positioned and customized by creators. But can you include them in your advertisements? Unfortunately, no, as ads are excluded from this feature. Consequently, you can identify an advertisement in an instant because they are the only stories that retain the swipe-up feature at the bottom of the screen.

Valuable Tips (Margins and Adaptation)

While outlining the formats is essential, it's even better to tailor your content to each platform and format. Here are some recommendations to consider:

1. Beware of Carousels in Stories: Square image carousels can appear in stories if you haven't disabled the option. Consequently, square images with relatively large text span across four stories, making it more unpleasant than a poorly adapted single image.
2. Consider Your Margins: When designing visuals or creating a creative brief, account for display elements such as logos, names, swipe-up or reaction icons in stories, and text in videos.
3. Avoid Repetition: Ensure that the text in your visuals, main text, and title each provide unique information, avoiding mere copy-and-paste repetition. As a bonus, aim for about 125 characters in the main text and 40 characters in the title.