Ad Dimensions 2026: Google Demand Gen & Meta — The Complete Reference

Wrong ad dimensions cost time, money, and patience. Creatives get rejected, campaign launches get delayed, and designers produce formats nobody needs. This happens to every team running Google Demand Gen or Meta Ads — often multiple times per quarter.

The good news: with just 3 core formats you can cover roughly 90% of all placements on both platforms. This article provides all current image and video specifications (as of March 2026), explains safe zones visually, and includes a free PDF guide to download — ready to share with designers, freelancers, or agency partners.

Why the right dimensions determine campaign success

Choosing ad dimensions is not a purely technical question. It directly affects how well your campaigns perform.

Google's Demand Gen best practices (February 2026) show that advertisers who implement at least 3 out of 4 best practices achieve over 40% more conversions on average. Asset quality and asset variety — meaning coverage of all aspect ratios — are a central factor in what Google calls "Ad Strength." To reach "Excellent" status, you need at least 3 landscape images, 3 square images, 3 portrait images, plus videos and 9:16 assets for YouTube Shorts.

Meta's algorithm favours mobile-first formats. 4:5 and 9:16 take up significantly more screen real estate than 1:1 or 1.91:1, which demonstrably leads to higher engagement rates. Delivering only landscape formats means leaving reach on the table.

Wrong dimensions cause three specific problems: automatic cropping by the platform, UI overlap (especially in Stories and Reels), and rejected creatives that block campaign launches. All of this is avoidable once you know the specifications.

Google Demand Gen: image, video & carousel formats

Single image ads

Maximum file size is 5 MB. Accepted formats are JPG and PNG. Logo should be 1200 × 1200 px (1:1), professional minimum is 512 × 512 px. Google recommends providing at least 3 assets per aspect ratio — without this, you will not achieve "Excellent" Ad Strength status. Up to 20 images can be uploaded per ad.

Carousel ads

Carousel ads consist of 2 to 10 cards. You can use square (1200 × 1200 px) or portrait (960 × 1200 px). The key rule: all cards within a carousel must use the same aspect ratio. Each card can have its own headline and destination URL (on YouTube and Gmail). Product feeds are not available for carousel ads.

Video ads

Technical requirements: H.264 codec for video, AAC for audio. Maximum file size is 256 GB. Recommended length is 15 to 60 seconds, with the hook needing to land within the first 5 seconds. YouTube Shorts videos can be up to 60 seconds, with 10 to 20 seconds recommended. Videos under 10 seconds will not serve on In-Stream placements. You can use 1 to 5 videos per ad.

Safe zones for vertical formats (9:16)

Google defines explicit safe zones for vertical formats — both for videos and images. Core content (text, logo, CTA) must be placed within the safe zone, as YouTube UI elements overlay the edges. Safe zone requirements for 9:16 images are identical to those for videos.

Practical tip: Create a 1080 × 1920 px template with safe zones as guide lines. Every designer building Shorts creatives should use this template.

Meta Ads: Facebook & Instagram image and video formats

Feed ads (Facebook + Instagram)

Maximum file size for images is 30 MB, accepted formats are JPG and PNG. Since 2026, Meta recommends higher resolutions (1440 px width instead of 1080 px) for high-density displays. 4:5 is the most effective feed format — it takes up significantly more screen space than 1:1, resulting in higher attention.

Aspect ratio tolerance differs between platforms: Facebook allows 3% deviation, Instagram Feed only 1%.

Stories & Reels

Format is 1080 × 1920 px (9:16), ideally 1440 × 2560 px. Stories allow up to 60 seconds, images display for 5 seconds. Reels can be up to 90 seconds, with 15 to 30 seconds performing best. Reels favour audio-forward content — videos without sound perform significantly worse. Maximum file size for video is 4 GB, accepted formats are MP4 and MOV.

Safe zones for Stories and Reels are critical. This is the most common mistake: designers place CTAs or logos in areas covered by UI elements.

What this means for you: only the middle 51% of the area is safe. Everything important — headline, logo, call-to-action — belongs in this zone. Ignoring this produces creatives that look different on a phone than they do in Figma.

Carousel ads

Meta carousels use 1080 × 1080 px (1:1) per card, with 2 to 10 cards. Each card can have its own link.

Video specifications

H.264 codec, AAC audio (128 kbps+ stereo). Recommended sizes are 1080 × 1080 (1:1) or 1080 × 1350 (4:5) for the feed, and 1080 × 1920 (9:16) for Stories and Reels. Maximum file size is 4 GB, maximum length 241 minutes.

In practice: 3 formats covering roughly 90% of all placements

Instead of producing separate assets for every placement, 3 core formats serve as your foundation. This significantly reduces production effort and frees up budget for creative testing instead of resize work.

Why exactly these 3 formats?

Both platforms prioritise mobile-first. 4:5 and 9:16 occupy the largest share of visible screen space and demonstrably achieve higher engagement rates than landscape formats. 1:1 is the most universal format — it works everywhere as a fallback and is accepted by both platforms across all placements.

Google's "Excellent" Ad Strength requires asset variety across aspect ratios. These three formats fulfil that requirement. Fewer formats means faster production, and faster production means more testing iterations. That is where performance is decided.

Workflow recommendation: Create a master design and derive the 3 formats from it. Always place the core message and CTA in the safe centre — especially for 9:16, where safe zones consume almost half the area.

Checklist for designers & creative teams

This checklist works as a quick reference. Print it or pin it in your project management tool.

1. Respect safe zones: No text or logo in Stories top 14%, bottom 35%
2. Core message + CTA always in the safe centre — that is roughly 51% of the area for 9:16
3. Text overlay max. 20% of the image area (Meta best practice, no longer a hard limit, but a recommendation worth following)
4. Logo placement consistent: Outside safe zones, ideally bottom left or right
5. File sizes: Images under 5 MB (Google) or under 30 MB (Meta), video under 4 GB (Meta)
6. Colour profile: sRGB for web, no CMYK exports
7. Videos: H.264 + AAC, minimum 1080p, hook within first 5 seconds
8. Always export all 3 core formats — derive from a master design, do not crop after the fact

Free reference document to download

The EARNST Ad Dimensions Guide compiles all specifications from this article into a 6-page PDF: dimensions, visual safe zones, designer checklist. Dated 13.03.2026, valid until June 2026 — verified against official Google Ads Help and Meta Ads Guide documentation.

Ideal for sharing with designers, freelancers, or agency partners who do not want to read this article every time.

Need help with implementation? We build tracking systems and campaign setups for companies that want to work with data rather than just talk about it.

Sources

• Google Ads Help — Demand Gen Asset Specifications
• Google Ads Help — Ad Formats, Sizes & Best Practices
• Google Blog — Demand Gen Drop February 2026
• Meta Ads Guide — Ad Format Specs & Recommendations
• Instagram Help — Safe Zones for Stories & Reels