Video Ad Sizes for Every Platform: 2026 Guide

Nothing wastes an advertising budget faster than a video in the wrong shape. A landscape clip squeezed into Instagram Stories, a headline hidden behind TikTok’s buttons, a logo buried under a caption: every one of these makes a good advert look careless, and costs you attention you’ve already paid for.

This guide lists every video ad size you need in 2026, for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and WhatsApp, along with the “safe zones” that most guides skip. There’s an interactive previewer further down so you can see exactly where the interface lands on each format.

Key takeaways

• Four sizes cover almost everything: 9:16 (1080 × 1920), 4:5 (1080 × 1350), 1:1 (1080 × 1080) and 16:9 (1920 × 1080).
• Vertical 9:16 is the workhorse: it runs on Reels, Stories, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and WhatsApp Status.
• Safe zones matter as much as size. On Meta’s vertical placements, keep the top 14%, bottom 35% and 6% of each side clear.
• Don’t crop one video into every shape. Produce each ratio properly so nothing important gets cut off.

The Four Sizes That Cover Almost Everything

These are the formats South African advertisers use most, and the pixel sizes to export at:

Placement	Aspect ratio	Size (pixels)
Instagram and Facebook Reels	9:16	1080 × 1920
Instagram and Facebook Stories	9:16	1080 × 1920
Instagram and Facebook Feed	4:5 (or 1:1)	1080 × 1350 (or 1080 × 1080)
TikTok	9:16	1080 × 1920
YouTube Shorts	9:16	1080 × 1920
YouTube in-stream ads	16:9	1920 × 1080
WhatsApp Status	9:16	1080 × 1920
Google video campaigns	16:9, 1:1 and 9:16	1920 × 1080, 1080 × 1080, 1080 × 1920

If you only make one version of an advert, make it 9:16. It reaches the most placements, and it’s the format people are already holding their phones in.

Preview Every Format

Pick a platform to see its shape, the areas its interface covers, and where your headline and call to action should sit. Turn the safe zones off to see how the advert looks to a viewer.

Instagram and Facebook (Meta)

Meta ads run across Instagram and Facebook from a single campaign, so it pays to think of them as one set of formats.

Reels and Stories: 9:16

Reels and Stories both use full-screen vertical video at 1080 × 1920 pixels. The interface sits on top of the video, so Meta recommends keeping roughly the top 14%, bottom 35% and 6% of each side clear of text and logos. That bottom third is where most adverts go wrong: the caption, the profile name and the ad’s button all stack there.

Meta now applies the same safe zone to Stories and Reels, so one properly designed vertical advert works across both.

Feed: 4:5 or 1:1

In the main feed, the caption and buttons sit below the video rather than on top of it, so there’s no safe zone to worry about. Use 4:5 at 1080 × 1350 where you can. It fills more of a phone screen than square video, so your advert gets more of the feed as people scroll. Square 1:1 at 1080 × 1080 works everywhere as a fallback.

TikTok

TikTok ads are vertical 9:16 at 1080 × 1920. The safe zone is less predictable than Meta’s, because it changes with caption length and interactive add-ons, but the pattern is consistent:

• Keep text away from the right edge, where the like, comment and share buttons sit
• Stay clear of the bottom quarter, where the caption, sound and account name appear
• Leave a little room at the top for the Following and For You tabs

For a definitive check before launch, use the safe zone templates in TikTok Ads Manager.

YouTube and YouTube Shorts

YouTube needs two different shapes:

• In-stream ads: 16:9 at 1920 × 1080. These play before and during videos, including on TVs. Viewers can skip after five seconds, so your brand and offer need to land before then. The ad label, progress bar and Skip button run along the bottom, so keep text above that strip.
• Shorts: 9:16 at 1080 × 1920. Shorts behave much more like TikTok and Reels, with the title and channel along the bottom and buttons down the right-hand side.

Google’s wider video campaigns can use horizontal, square and vertical versions together, so supplying all three gives Google the best chance of showing the right one in each placement.

WhatsApp Status

WhatsApp Status uses the same 9:16 at 1080 × 1920 as Reels and TikTok, with a lighter interface: a contact name and progress bar at the top and a reply bar at the bottom. It’s one of the most underrated channels in South Africa, and our guide to WhatsApp Status video ads covers how to use it.

How to Make One Advert Work Everywhere

The tempting shortcut is to make one video and crop it into every shape. In practice, that’s where products get cut in half, headlines get sliced off and logos disappear behind buttons.

The better approach is to plan one idea and produce it in each ratio:

1. Start with 9:16. It covers the most placements, so design the core advert for vertical first.
2. Keep the key action in the centre. A product and headline that sit in the middle of the frame survive the move to 4:5, 1:1 and 16:9 far better.
3. Rebuild, don’t crop, for 16:9. Widescreen needs its own composition, not a vertical video with black bars down the sides.
4. Check every version against its safe zone before it goes live.

This is one of the quiet advantages of AI production. As a South African agency for AI adverts, we produce each ratio from the same brief rather than cropping one master file, so every version is composed for its own frame, with text inside the safe zone. Our complete guide to AI advertising in South Africa explains how the process works, and how to brief an AI advert covers telling us which platforms you’re running on.

Common Video Ad Size Mistakes

• Text in the bottom third on Reels and Stories. It’s the single most common reason a caption or button covers a headline.
• Landscape video in vertical placements. A 16:9 clip in Stories plays as a thin strip in a sea of black, and people swipe straight past it.
• Relying on sound. Many people scroll with the sound off, so add on-screen text or captions that carry the message without audio.
• Text that’s too small. Your advert is watched on a phone, often at arm’s length. If you have to squint on a desktop screen, it’s too small.
• One video for every placement. Mismatched shapes waste the budget you spend on every impression.

If you post regularly, getting formats right every time is exactly what consistent social media management takes care of.

Getting Started

Every Aiadverts package comes with platform-ready files in the sizes you need, so there’s nothing to resize or crop yourself. A single advert package starts from R3,000, and our guide to what AI video ads cost explains the monthly options.

Get a free demo advert made for your product in every format you run. No cost, no commitment.