Best Image Size for Facebook Posts and Ads (and other Social Media platforms too!)

** THIS BLOG WAS UPDATED ON 6 JUNE 2016 (but things keep changing!) **

If you want to know the best image sizes for Facebook posts and adverts, as well as the ideal specification for your photos for Twitter, LinkedIn and Google + updates, then you are in the right place! It’s so annoying when an image gets cropped automatically and doesn’t look as you intended isn’t it?

Before we get on to the actual sizes, here is our quick reference guide for uploading photos and images you have created from your mobile or laptop.

Taking photos on your mobile/tablet

Taking a photo on your phone or tablet and uploading it to social media should be quick and easy, without the need for editing. However, unfortunately images may be cropped at the top and bottom and not show as well as you would like on certain platforms. For example a square image would not look good on LinkedIn mobile newsfeed view, but would be ok on a desktop!

If you want to have the best chance of an image looking good, always go for a landscape image as your base for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ (ie take the photo with your mobile phone on its side with home button to the right).

Using photos and creating images for your social media posts from your desktop

Below is our guide on the exact sizes you need to create images that look perfect on every social media platform – this is particularly important if you are creating artwork from scratch or using photos and adding text to them.

If you do not use these sizes, you may find that photos are cropped and text is cut off and not readable when viewing your artwork on certain platforms and devices. This really will deplete the power of your message! (Sometimes it may not be a concern for certain photos if they were cropped a bit at the edges on some platforms, but it will depend on what is in your photo!)

Why not bookmark this page? It’s really handy to refer to?

Full details on ad and image sizes are below for each platform – but here is a quick reference for the best sizes for photos/images uploaded with status updates, plus a top tip for using a single size across all platforms!

• Facebook:
  • square image (min 504 pixels wide) – try 800 x 800 since bigger and better or
  • landscape 1200 pixels wide x 626 pixels high
• Twitter – although Twitter says 440 pixels wide x 220 pixels high, we recommend creating at 800 x 400 for quality purposes
• LinkedIn – 550 pixels wide x 375 pixels high
• Google + – as per Facebook (either option – square or landscape)
• Instagram – as per Facebook (but display bigger and better if square)

TOP TIP 

• We tested using the Facebook 1200 wide x 626 high image on all social media platforms, on all devices.  The image was clearly visible on all of them – but this image did not have any text over it. If you have an image with text over the top, it may have text cropped on Twitter and LinkedIn, for example. Therefore, when you create your images with text over the top, you should centre the text or have a good amount of clear space between the text and the left and right sides (or simply just use the recommended sizes per platform).
• If you want a bigger image on Facebook then use the square size
• Images look better on Instagram when they are square 
• The only other point to note is that the image will look a different size on LinkedIn when comparing a business page and a showcase page (sub page of a business page).  This is because there is a single column format on a business page and two column format on a showcase page.  

Facebook

• Image with your post –
  • a square image is ideal for your Facebook business page as it shows larger. The larger the image is, the better quality it will be. The photo will need to be at least 504 pixels x 504 pixels. Go for 800 x 800 if you can.
  • typically any landscape photo or image that is 1200 pixels wide by 626 pixels high will work well on all devices.
  • you can still use any landscape or portrait images, but you must bear in mind it must be at least 504 pixels wide. Best to avoid portrait if possible.

• Advert Images – If you’re paying to get your post seen by more people you need the image to look good.  The recommended image sizes for this vary depending on which type of advert you are going for:
  • ‘Clicks to Website’ and ‘Local Awareness’ need to be 1200 pixels wide by 626 pixels high. This seems large, but the larger, the better the quality. Facebook will downsize the image automatically for you. Quick tip: You can only have 20% text on the image on a Facebook advert
  • ‘Page Likes’ and ‘Event Responses’ need to be 1200 pixels wide by 444 pixels high. This is a little bit narrower so it can fit anywhere around Facebook
  • ‘Page Post Engagement’ will need to be 1200 pixels wide by 900 pixels high
  • ‘Offer Claims’ will need to be 1200 wide by 628 high (very slightly higher than clicks to website and local awareness)
  • ‘Video Views’ – for this you will need to ensure that the thumbnail image (the image shown as your video when the video is not playing) is 1200 pixels wide by 675 pixels wide. The video itself should be 1080 pixels.

A note about posts where you link to your blog…..   If you have a blog on your website and you link to individual posts from Facebook, you must ensure that the image you use on your blog is a minimum of 600 pixels wide and 315 pixels deep. This should ensure that your link post in Facebook automatically incorporates that image as a lovely big graphic and not a tiny thumbnail photo. The bigger the images, the more engagement you should get… it’s all about the visuals.  If you do find that Facebook still doesn’t display a picture correctly when you link to your blog, you can delete the link image and text it has brought in automatically (via clicking on the little ‘x’ in the corner of each item) and, instead, just leave the link to the blog in your status update text and upload an image to go with the post as you would any other photo.)

Twitter

• Image with your post – although Twitter says 440 pixels wide x 220 pixels high, we recommend creating at 800 x 400 for quality purposes

• For a Twitter ad using a tweet and a link to your website, you should use a photo of 800 pixels wide x 320 pixels high

• Twitter Cards – There are different sizes for images when advertising on Twitter, depending on what Twitter Card you use:
  • ‘Lead Generation’ Card should be 600 pixels wide by 150 pixels high
  • ‘Summary Card with Large Image’ should be a minimum of 280 pixels wide by 150 pixels high
  • ‘Summary Card with Small Image’ should be a minimum of 120 pixels wide by 120 pixels high
  • ‘Gallery Card’ and ‘Photo Card’ should be a minimum of 280 pixels wide by 150 high
  • ‘Product Card’ should be a minimum of 160 pixels wide by 160 high
  • ‘Website Card’ should be a minimum of 240 pixels wide by 96 pixels high
  • Image spec for Twitter:
    • Photos can be up to 5MB; animated GIFs can be up to 5MB
    • accept GIF, JPEG, and PNG files
    • DO NOT accept BMP or TIFF files
    • Your photo will be automatically scaled for display in your expanded Tweet and in your user gallery.

LinkedIn

• The recommended news feed size is 550 pixels wide by 375 pixels high.  (Although we have often posted landscape photos (with no text over the top) on LinkedIn personal profile updates without resizing them and they have looked ok! However, if you want all the images on your business LinkedIn page to be consistent, you will need to set the size for each one.) (From January 2017 LinkedIn will be rolling out a new format, the recommended size for the background photo will be 1536 x 768 pixels).

Google+

• The maximum size is 2048 pixels wide x 2048 pixels high. The minimum is 497 pixels wide and the image will resize in proportion to width
• The ideal size is a square image that is at least 620 pixels wide x 620 pixels high – this will work on Instagram and Facebook on any device.
• We have tested posting photos taken on mobiles and images we have created of various sizes (not exact) and they have all shown clearly with no text or image cropping.

Instagram

• All Instagram photos must be exactly square to look best. The maximum photo size (the best for quality) is 640 pixels by 640 pixels. 

YouTube

• For your Channel icon you will need a high-resolution square 800 by 800 pixels profile image that is recognisable at smaller resolutions. This image will be your channel’s icon throughout the site
• For Channel art, your image must be at least 2048 pixels wide by 1152 pixels high but any content you wish to be visible on mobile vs laptop vs TV will need to be positioned appropriately within this space. When you are in YouTube you are shown examples of how things look.

If you would like any practical social media training please get in touch.

We hope this has helped! For more handy tips on social media, including other Twitter posts, please see our blog and browse our blog categories. If you don’t want to miss future blog posts about marketing and social media, please sign up to our email newsletter (see right hand column). You can also follow us on social media – Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn  Google+  You Tube  Instagram Snapchat.

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