Meta ads placements and sizes: Facebook and Instagram ad specs

Meta ads placements are the 22 spots where your ad can appear: the Facebook, Instagram and Threads feeds, Stories, Reels, Marketplace, search results, WhatsApp Status and the Audience Network. An online store covers almost all of them with three frames: 4:5 (1440×1800 px) for feeds, 9:16 (1440×2560 px) for Stories and Reels, and 1:1 for Marketplace and carousels.

The placement list, sizes and safe zones below come from the Meta Business Help Center and the Meta Ads Guide. The guide is written by the CloudCart team for stores selling to shoppers across Europe, in one country or several. The full advertising setup (pixel, catalog, budget) is in the guide to Meta ads for an online store.

What is an ad placement, and the full list of Facebook and Instagram placements

A placement is the exact spot inside Meta's apps where someone sees your ad. You choose placements at the ad set level, while the format and the creative are chosen at the ad level.

Meta groups placements into five groups. The table follows Meta's help article on available placements and formats by campaign objective.

Group	Placements	What to know
Feeds	Facebook Feed, Facebook profile feed, Facebook Notifications, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook right column, Facebook Business Explore, Threads feed, Instagram feed, Instagram profile feed, Instagram Explore home	Since March 2026 Facebook Feed also covers the Friends tab. Facebook profile feed opens up after your ads have followed the advertising standards for a while.
Stories, Status and Reels	Facebook Stories, Messenger Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, WhatsApp Status	Full screen, 9:16. Carousels in Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels take images only.
In-stream ads for Reels	Facebook in-stream reels, Ads on Facebook Reels	Your ad runs inside Reels from other profiles. Where exactly is limited with block lists and topic exclusions in Meta.
Search results	Facebook search results, Instagram search results	Instagram search results can be picked only with manual placements.
Apps and sites	Audience Network native, banner and interstitial; Audience Network rewarded videos	Partner apps outside Meta. Switched off at the ad account level.

In Ads Manager, placements that do not fit the objective or format are marked as ineligible.

Advantage+ placements or manual placements: what changes

Advantage+ placements (formerly automatic placements) run your ad on every eligible placement, and Meta's delivery system moves the budget to wherever results come cheapest. During 2026 Meta is gradually removing manual placement selection at the ad set level for campaigns with the Sales, Leads and App promotion objectives. Awareness, Traffic and Engagement keep manual selection.

According to Meta, ad sets using Advantage+ placements had on average an 11.7% lower cost per result (CPA) than ad sets with manual placements. The figure comes from tests on 147,000 campaigns in late summer 2025 and is quoted in the help article about Advantage+ placements. It is an average across all advertisers, so check your own results in the reports.

Once manual selection leaves the ad set, control moves to three other places, described in Meta's article on changes to placement settings:

• The creative for each placement. One ad can hold up to 10 images and videos (a multi-media ad), and with asset customization you set a different image, text or link for specific placements. Where no suitable creative exists, the ad does not show there, and Ads Manager warns you.
• Value rules by placement. You raise or lower bids for specific placements based on how much a purchase from there is worth to you.
• Account-wide exclusions. In Advertising settings → Placement controls you exclude the Audience Network (both placements), Facebook Marketplace and Facebook right column. Exclusions can also be set per campaign objective. The change reaches running campaigns within up to 48 hours.

Note: Meta rolls these changes out gradually. If your account still shows manual selection for the Sales objective, Meta's advice stays the same: keep Advantage+ placements on and prepare creative in every format.

Facebook and Instagram ad sizes: the table

The safest sizes for Facebook and Instagram ads are 1440×1800 px (4:5) for feeds and 1440×2560 px (9:16) for Stories and Reels, according to the Meta Ads Guide. Images are JPG or PNG up to 30 MB; videos are MP4 or MOV up to 4 GB, with H.264 compression and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or more.

Placement	Aspect ratio	Recommended size	Meta minimum	Text (recommended)
Facebook Feed, image	4:5 (and 1:1)	1440×1800 px	1440×1800 px for 4:5; 1080×1080 px for 1:1	Primary text 50 to 150 characters, headline 27
Facebook Feed, video	4:5	1440×1800 px, 1 second to 241 minutes	as for images	Primary text 50 to 150 characters, headline 27
Instagram feed	4:5 (from 1.91:1 to 4:5)	1440×1800 px	1080×1080 px	Primary text 125 characters, headline 40
Instagram Stories	9:16	1440×2560 px (image 1080×1920 px)	1080×1080 px (technically 600×1067 px)	Primary text 125 characters
Instagram Reels	9:16	1440×2560 px, up to 15 minutes	1080×1080 px	Primary text 44 characters
Facebook Stories and Reels	9:16	1080×1920 px or 1440×2560 px	1080×1080 px	Short, inside the safe zone
Facebook Marketplace	1:1	1200×1200 px	1200×1200 px	Primary text 125, headline 40, description 30
Facebook right column	1:1	1200×1200 px	1200×1200 px	Short headline
Audience Network	depends on format	highest resolution available	398×208 px	Short
WhatsApp Status	the 9:16 Stories frame	no separate recommendation	500×320 px	Short

The minimums come from Meta's article on the recommended minimum pixels by placement, and the recommended sizes from the Ads Guide. Below the minimum the image looks blurry, so Meta advises uploading the highest resolution you have. The aspect ratio tolerance is 3% on Facebook and 1% on Instagram: a 1080×1340 px frame instead of 1080×1350 px will be cropped by Instagram.

If you are looking up the Facebook post size or Instagram post size for a frame that will be both an organic post and an ad, 4:5 at 1440×1800 px fits both.

Safe zone for Stories and Reels: how much to keep clear

In Stories and Reels, keep the top 14% of the frame, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side clear of text and logos. These figures come from the Meta Ads Guide for Instagram Stories and Reels. On a 1080×1920 px frame that is about 270 px at the top, 672 px at the bottom and 65 px on each side.

The profile name and the Sponsored label sit at the top; the primary text and the button sit at the bottom. For carousels in Facebook Stories, Meta gives 14% (250 px) at the top and bottom. If your Reels ad carries a mandatory disclaimer (for example the terms of a promotion), Meta advises keeping the bottom 40% clear.

On phones taller than 9:16, Meta either enlarges the frame (cropping outside the safe zone) or shows it as uploaded with black bars. In the Instagram feed at 1:1 or 4:5, keep the bottom edge and the sides clear.

1. Make the frame 1080×1920 px or 1440×2560 px. The product sits in the middle, between the top 14% and the bottom 35%.
2. Put the price and the benefit in the upper half of the safe zone. One message, for example "€39, delivered in 2 days".
3. Turn on the safe zone overlay in Ads Manager. When you create the ad, a toggle shows the safe area in yellow over the frame.
4. Check the preview for every placement. In the preview panel on the right, step through Stories, Reels and the feed and look for anything covered or cropped.

If you sell in several languages, check the safe zone for each language version: a headline in German or Polish is often longer than the English one and slips into the bottom 35% first.

Reels ads for an online store: sizes and what works

A Reels ad is a full-screen vertical 9:16 video shown between Reels on Facebook and Instagram. The recommended size is 1440×2560 px, the length is up to 15 minutes, and the primary text is best kept to 44 characters, because anything longer is hidden until the viewer taps.

For a store, Reels is where new customers come from, so the product has to be visible in the first seconds. Meta recommends sound and captions, using original audio or music from Meta's Sound Collection rather than licensed tracks. Carousels in Facebook Reels are images only, so a video carousel does not show there.

• The product in the first 2 seconds. In use, in hand, being unboxed. The logo can wait until the end.
• Captions burned into the video. Videos in carousels start muted by default, so the benefit has to be readable without sound.
• The price in the ad text. With 44 characters of primary text, price and delivery are worth more than a description.
• The message in 5 seconds. An image in Instagram Stories stays on screen for 5 seconds by default, and for video in a carousel Meta recommends 15 seconds.

How to make such videos from your product photos with AI is covered in the guide to AI video ads for an online store.

Meta ad formats: image, video, carousel, collection and catalog

The format is the type of ad itself; the placement is where it appears. Meta has five core formats for a store: single image, single video, carousel, collection and Advantage+ catalog ads (formerly dynamic product ads), which pull products from your catalog.

Format	When a store uses it	Requirements
Single image	One product with a clear benefit or price; an offer with a discount code	4:5 for feeds, 9:16 for Stories, 1:1 for Marketplace
Single video	New customers in Reels and Stories; a product that sells in motion	9:16 and 4:5; MP4 or MOV up to 4 GB
Carousel	A collection, a bundle, several colors or steps	2 to 10 cards (up to 3 in Instagram Stories); 1:1 at 1080×1080 px; text 125, headline 40, description 25 characters
Collection	A large range browsed on a phone	A cover (image or video) and at least 4 products in the product set; mobile only
Advantage+ catalog ads	Retargeting viewed products and reaching new customers with catalog products	A catalog in Meta and the Meta Pixel; image, carousel or collection format

Every carousel card has its own headline and link. On Facebook, 4:5 in a carousel is available only in Advantage+ catalog ads with catalog images. Video in an Instagram feed carousel can run up to 2 minutes, while Meta recommends 15 seconds. These requirements come from Meta's design specifications for carousel ads.

Collections show in Facebook Feed, Marketplace, Stories and Reels, and in the Instagram feed, Stories, Reels and Explore home. Since March 2026, single image ads and catalog collections in Facebook Feed no longer show the website address at the bottom, so your store name has to be visible in the frame or in the text.

Selling in more than one country? Keep one catalog per country store, so a carousel or collection in Vienna shows the German product names and euro prices, and the same ad in Warsaw shows Polish names and prices in the local currency. With CloudCart Multistore each country has its own store, language, currency and Meta feed, all managed from one admin.

Marketplace, Threads, WhatsApp Status and Audience Network: keep or exclude

For most online stores, Marketplace, Threads and WhatsApp Status are worth keeping on, while Audience Network and Facebook right column get checked in the reports after the first two weeks. The cost per purchase in the reports decides.

• Facebook Marketplace. People there are browsing things to buy, so the placement suits a store. The frame is 1:1, 1200×1200 px. Marketplace ads are different from listings by private sellers, which are covered in Facebook Marketplace for business.
• Threads feed. An image, video or carousel in the Threads feed. It is included automatically with Advantage+ placements and does not need a separate frame.
• WhatsApp Status. A vertical frame between status updates. The minimum size is 500×320 px, but the 9:16 Stories frame fits.
• Audience Network. Ads in partner apps and games outside Meta. It brings cheap impressions, but clicks from games often do not lead to a purchase. If the placement breakdown shows clicks without purchases, exclude it in Placement controls. With a placement excluded, Meta may by default still spend around 5% of the budget there (limited spend) if that improves results; in its own test from October 2025, Meta reports a 7.7% lower cost per result with this setting. You turn it off under Manage excluded placements.
• Facebook right column. A small square slot beside the feed, 1200×1200 px. Try it for retargeting people who already know your store, and exclude it if it brings no purchases.

Note: Meta does not recommend removing a placement just because it has looked more expensive so far, since the system first looks for the cheapest opportunities across all placements. The measure is the cost per purchase for the whole ad set, checked against the orders in your store.

Which placements an online store should use

An online store runs its sales campaigns with Advantage+ placements and creative in three aspect ratios, and uses manual placements only for traffic and engagement or to test a single placement.

Goal	Placements	Creative
New customers (sales)	Advantage+ placements	9:16 video + 4:5 image + 1:1 image in one ad
Retargeting viewed products	Advantage+ placements with a catalog	Advantage+ catalog ads, carousel or collection
Promotion with a code (Black Friday, Christmas)	Advantage+ placements	Frame with the code inside the safe zone, in all three ratios
Traffic to a new category or article	Manual: Facebook Feed, Instagram feed, Stories	4:5 and 9:16

Two EU rules shape what you can do on any placement. Under the Digital Services Act, platforms may not show ads based on sensitive data such as religion or sexual orientation, there is a ban on targeted ads to children, and very large platforms keep ad information in a public repository, as the European Commission's DSA page explains. So any competitor can see your running ads in the Meta Ad Library, and you can see theirs. And under EU cookie rules a website must get consent before installing a non-essential cookie, as Your Europe summarises, so the Meta Pixel records a visitor only after they accept marketing cookies, and your reported results by placement cover only consenting shoppers.

Because most Stories and Reels impressions are on phones, the speed and the cart of your mobile store decide how many clicks become orders. The checklist is in the guide to the mobile version of an online store.

Setting up CloudCart and Ads Manager: step by step

Advertising on every placement rests on three things from your store: a pixel that records purchases, a catalog with good images, and an offer you can measure in orders. You can also prepare the store with an AI assistant connected through a PAT token.

1. Pixel and Conversions API. In CloudCart: Apps → XML Feed → Facebook → Settings, fields Facebook Pixel ID, Access Token and Enable CAPI. The pixel sends the standard events from PageView to Purchase once the visitor has accepted targeting cookies. The Conversions API is a separately paid service outside the plans: on the pricing page it is not included in any plan. In Meta: you create the pixel in Events Manager, which is also where the token comes from. Details are in the guide to setting up the Meta Pixel and Conversions API.
2. Catalog. In CloudCart: Apps → XML Feed → Facebook, activate the feed, choose which products go in (category, brand, in stock only) and copy the public address. The product category comes from the Google taxonomy set on the category. In Meta: create a catalog in Commerce Manager and add the feed by URL with an update schedule. One feed per country store keeps language and currency right.
3. Product images. In CloudCart: the Image Health app (Apps → Image Health) scans the catalog and flags images whose shorter side is under 500 px as too small for the Meta catalog. By default Image Health expects 3 images per product. Upload a main image of 1080×1080 px or more so it fits 1:1 and 4:5. How to shoot products with a phone and a white background is in AI product photos.
4. The ad creative. Outside both systems: make a 9:16, a 4:5 and a 1:1 frame for each message, with the text inside the safe zone and in the language of each country you target. In Meta: upload them to one ad and use asset customization to link each frame to its placements.
5. Discount code. In CloudCart: create a code for the campaign in Marketing → Discounts. How many orders the code brought shows in Analytics → Order discounts. In Meta: the code goes in the frame and in the primary text.
6. The campaign. In Meta: the Sales objective, the Purchase event, Advantage+ placements, and for retargeting, Advantage+ catalog ads with the product set.
7. The follow-up outside Meta. In CloudCart: customers and subscribers are grouped in Marketing → Segments, and Marketing → Campaigns sends them an email or SMS. Unfinished orders are in Orders → Abandoned and come back with an abandoned cart reminder. The ad pays for the first visit, and the next one comes from your store's own campaigns.

Placement mistakes that raise your cost per purchase

The most expensive mistake is one square image for every placement: in Stories and Reels it sits with empty bands around it and draws less attention.

• Only one frame. With Advantage+ placements and no 9:16 frame, the ad loses the most watched placements or looks like a desktop ad squeezed onto a phone.
• Text in the bottom 35% of Reels. The price and the code end up under the button and the primary text.
• A catalog with weak images. An image under 500 px or with a watermark lowers the quality of Advantage+ catalog ads in every placement.
• The website address only at the bottom. Facebook Feed no longer shows it on single image ads, so the store name belongs in the frame.
• One language for every country. An English frame shown to shoppers in Italy or Czechia, linking to a page in another language and currency, wastes the click. Match the ad, the landing page and the price to the country.

Frequently asked questions