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Successful Facebook video marketing requires three things.
The first thing is video ad production skills. You need to be good at creating head-turning video content to sell your products or services to your target audience.
The second thing is knowledge of the little secrets of Facebook video advertising. For instance, did you know that Facebook advises marketers to produce video ads that are 15 seconds long? Or that 80% of viewers watch videos on Facebook with no sound?
The third thing is an understanding of how Facebook ads actually work. You should launch at least a few ad campaigns to get a grasp of which users to target, how much money to spend, which placements to choose, etc.
And of course, you must know Facebook video ad specs.
5 Key Questions about Facebook Video Ad Specs
Here are answers to the major questions you may have when reviewing design requirements for Facebook video ads.
Question 1. What are the video ad specifications for different Facebook Placements?
Facebook allows businesses to run video ads on different Placements: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network.
Each of these Placements has its own video ad specifications. Let’s take a look at them.
Facebook Feed
- Supported objectives: All
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: Yes
- Sound required: No
Facebook Instant Articles
- Supported objectives: All except store visits and messages
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Facebook In-Stream Video
- Supported objectives: Engagement, reach, video views, brand awareness
- Video length: 5–15 seconds
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: Yes
- Sound required: Yes
Facebook Marketplace
- Supported objectives: All except app installs and engagement
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Facebook Stories
- Supported objectives: All except catalogue sales, store visits, and messages
- Video length: 1–120 seconds
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Facebook Search Results
- Supported objectives: Conversions, catalog sales, traffic
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Facebook Video Feeds
- Supported objectives: Brand awareness, engagement, app installs, video views, reach, conversions
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: Optional
- Sound required: No
Instagram Stories
- Supported objectives: All except catalogue sales, store visits, and messages
- Video length: 1–120 seconds
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 4:5 and 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 30MB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Instagram Feed
- Supported objectives: All
- Video length: 1–120 seconds
- Source ratio: 1.91:1 to 4:5
- Video file size: Up to 30MB
- Captions required: Yes
- Sound required: No
Audience Network Native, Banner, and Interstitial
- Supported objectives: Reach, traffic, app installs, video views, conversions
- Video length: 1–120 seconds
- Source ratio: 16:9 to 9:16
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: No
Audience Network In-Stream Video
- Supported objectives: Reach, brand awareness, engagement, video views, conversions
- Video length: 10–120 seconds
- Source ratio: 16:9, 1:1
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Captions required: No
- Sound required: Yes
Question 2. What are the specifications for Facebook video ad formats?
There are lots of supported video formats for Facebook ads. Basically, they can be divided into two groups: technical and graphical.
Facebook video ads can be uploaded in the following technical formats:
- 3G2
- 3GP
- 3GPP
- ASF
- AVI
- DAT
- DIVX
- DV
- F4V
- FLV
- GIF
- M2TS
- M4V
- MKV
- MOD
- MOV
- MPE
- MPEG
- MPEG4
- MP4
- MPG
- MTS
- NSV
- OGM
- OGV
- QT
- TOD
- TS
- VOB
- WMV
Facebook recommends video content creators focus on MP4, GIF, and MOV.
As for graphical formats, you can show video ads in many different forms to meet many different marketing goals. Here are Facebook video ad specifications for some of the graphical formats:
Carousel Ads
Carousel Ads take the form of a merry-go-round. This is one of the best video formats for Facebook ads because it allows you to combine up to 10 videos and images in one publication.
Here are the Facebook video carousel ad specs for every placement.
Facebook Feed
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Facebook Right Column
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Facebook Instant Articles
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Facebook Marketplace
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Facebook Search Results
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Audience Network Native, Banner, and Interstitial
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 240 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Instagram Stories
- Video length: Up to 15 seconds
- Video length for prompted videos: Up to 60 seconds
Instagram Feed
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Video length: Up to 60 minutes
- Recommended ratio: 1:1
Collection Ads
Collections are ad posts that have the form of a grid headed by a video or image cover.
Facebook Feed
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
Instagram Feed
- Video file size: Up to 4GB
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 1:1
Lead Ads
Lead Ads are ready-made forms that allow you to collect users’ personal information right from Facebook or Instagram.
- Video length: Up to 15 seconds
- Source ratio: 4:5 (vertical)
- Video: H.264, high profile preferred, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan
- Format: MP4 container, ideally with leading moov atom, no edit lists
- Aspect ratio: 4:5 (vertical)
- Video: H.264, high profile preferred, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan
- File type: MP4 container, ideally with leading moov atom, no edit lists
Question 3. What length should my Facebook videos be?
Think mobile. Viewers in the United States aged 18 to 34 watch an average of 105 minutes of online video via their smartphones per week.
When it comes to video ads and any other type of video content, the shorter your videos are, the more effect they’ll have on your audience.
In fact, Facebook stresses that you need to capture viewers’ attention within the first three seconds of your video ad.
One of the advantages of showing short video content on Facebook is looping. All videos that are less than 30 seconds loop continuously for up to 90 seconds.
For example, a 15-second video ad will have nearly six loops. After looping, the thumbnail of your video appears.
| Placement | Video Length |
|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | Up to 240 minutes |
| Facebook Stories | 1–15 seconds |
| Facebook In-Stream Video | Up to 240 minutes |
| Facebook Instant Articles | Up to 240 minutes |
| Facebook Marketplace | Up to 240 minutes |
| Instagram Feed | 1–120 seconds |
| Instagram Stories | 1–120 seconds |
| Instagram Explore | 1–120 seconds |
| Audience Network In-Stream | 5–30 seconds |
| Audience Network Rewarded Video | 3–60 seconds |
| Audience Network Native, Banner, and Interstitial Ads | 1–120 seconds |
Although short video ads are effective in most cases, don’t forget that long video content can also work great for some Facebook Placements.
For example, you can create long promotional videos (up to 240 minutes) for the Facebook Feed, Messenger Home, and Marketplace.
Question 4. Do my Facebook video ads need thumbnails?
Definitely. There are three ways of adding thumbnails to your Facebook video ads after you upload them to Ads Manager:
- Upload your own thumbnails — this is what Facebook recommends, by the way.
- Use one of the frames from your video ad after you upload it to Ads Manager.
- Let Facebook generate your video ad thumbnail automatically from the frames of your video.
Keep in mind that you can’t customize a thumbnail for a video that’s linked to from outside Facebook or for a video that’s part of a boosted post.
Question 5. Should I use a template to create video ads?
Video marketing is truly effective only when videos are produced at large scale.
But creating video at scale requires lots of resources. Video templates are a great tool to make the video production process easier.
Facebook offers a Video Creation Kit that contains seven templates for creating video ads from a Facebook Page and in Ads Manager:
- Promote a Product
- Drive Product Discovery
- Sell Multiple Products
- Showcase Product Benefits
- Showcase a Square Image
- Showcase a Horizontal Image
- Spotlight an Image
Each of these seven templates supports 9:16 vertical and 1:1 square aspect ratios.
To use the Video Creation Kit, go to your Facebook Page, click Publishing Tools, navigate to Video Library, and click on Use Video Templates.
Optimize Your Facebook Video Ads with Artificial Intelligence
Now you’ve got answers to five major questions about Facebook video ad specifications.
We highlighted Placements where you can launch Facebook video ads, showed you the best Facebook video ad sizes, maximum video ad length, recommended ratios, and other major design requirements.
If you want to optimize your video ad production, test our AI service for creating video ads right now to promote your products and services.
