Social Creative Spec Sizes for 2021
Social platforms are always evolving to adapt to new trends and UI. With that, formatting and sizing your creative for each platform is ever-changing.
Wondering what sizes you should be using for your ad creative in 2021? We’ve put together a handy guide to all the current social creative spec sizes. Whether you are looking to create a new profile cover for your business, or want to know what the best size for your video on Instagram is, we’ve put together some best practices to make the most out of your social assets.
Important Note: Ensure your creative is mobile-first friendly
In the last few years, there has been a significant shift from desktop browsing to mobile. According to BackLinko, the current mobile vs. desktop share worldwide is weighted towards mobile with 53.81% of people accessing the internet, with 78% of those users exclusively accessing social media on mobile. And with this, businesses should ensure that their creative is optimized accordingly. Making your social assets mobile-first will allow you to capitalize on a smartphone’s real estate. For example, rather than formatting an image as landscape, you will want to focus your efforts to design your creative to be portrait format.
When creating video content for social, be sure to also consider adding closed captioning, or subtitles to your content, as most social platforms don’t have audio prompted to play automatically on mobile, or desktop.
Instagram Creative Content Sizes:
Feed:
Mobile First format: 1080px by 1350px (4:5)
Universal format: 1080px by 1080px (1:1)
Carousel format: 1080px by 1080px (1:1)
Story, IGTV, or Reels:
1080px by 1920px (9:16)
If you are formatting a video, best practice is having the video under 15 seconds for a Story or Reel. If you are uploading video content for IGTV, it should be longer than 1 minute, with best practices to be over 2 minutes in length.
Other formats:
Instagram profile picture size:
The minimum size is 110px by 110px — you can upload a profile image that is bigger eg. 1080px by 1080px, however you must ensure that the content of your profile picture is legible or visible at smaller pixel size.
Facebook Creative Content Sizes:
Feed:
Mobile First format: 1080px by 1350px (4:5)
Universal format: 1080px by 1080px (1:1)
Carousel format: 1080px by 1080px (1:1)
If you are creating a long-format video on Facebook, it is still okay to go with 1920px by 1080px (16:9) dimension, as videos will take full screen when a mobile phone is turned side-ways. However, for shorter format videos, most users won’t turn their phone, so the best practice would be to format to the above sizes.
Story:
1080px by 1920px (9:16)
If you are formatting a video, the best practice is to have the video under 15-seconds for a Story.
Other formats:
Profile picture size: 1080px by 1080px
Group cover image size: 1640px by 922px
Event cover image size: 1920px by 1080px
Twitter Creative Content Sizes:
Feed: 1920px by 1200px
The best format for images and video in the Twitter feed is 1920px by 1200px on both mobile, and desktop
Fleet: 1080px by 1920px
Twitter’s answer to Facebook/Instagram’s stories format — be sure to keep any video content 15 seconds or shorter.
TIK TOK + SNAPCHAT
TikTok + Snapchat Creative Content Sizes:
TikTok and Snapchat both use a (9:16) or 1080px by 1920px format.
In most cases, content would normally be created in the apps natively, but some content creators will bring in edited videos, or ads to run on the platform.
TikTok: 1080px by 1920px (9:16)
Like Snapchat and Instagram, videos were limited to 15-second formats, however, TikTok recently extended the limit to 60 seconds when you string 4 15-second segments together. However, this only applies to videos recorded natively on the app.
Snapchat: 1080px by 1920px (9:16)
Videos are usually between 3–10 seconds in length, however, a Snapchat video can be now up to 60 seconds long.
With Multi-Snap recording, you can record a longer video and post it in ten-second chunks.
Linkedin Creative Content Sizes:
Feed:
1200px by 627px — this format is best for the main image in an article post
1200px by 1200px (1:1) — this format works best for single image or video posts
Story: Linkedin is the latest social platform to adopt the story format.
1080px by 1920px (9×16) — video length 15 seconds
Other formats:
Profile Image: 1080px by 1080px
LinkedIn Cover Image: 1536px by 768px
LinkedIn Hero Image: 1128px by 376px
LinkedIn Business Banner Image: 646px by 220px
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If you have questions about any of the formats provided above or want to learn more, feel free to reach out, Chat with us! · getONBOARD.ca
ONBOARDdigital is a performance-based digital marketing agency located in the heart of Toronto, Canada. A team of passionate digital strategists, campaign managers, and creative professionals, we strive to inspire our clients and help them succeed. #getONBOARD.
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