About Instagram ad formats

Instagram in-stream video ads will no longer be available after 21 March 2022.

Your Instagram ad will appear in people's Instagram Feeds and Stories along with content from the Instagram accounts and hashtags they follow, as well as suggested accounts that are relevant to their interests. Instagram ads can also appear in the Explore placement. On Instagram's Explore page, people can discover accounts that they don't already follow. When someone taps on a photo or video in Explore, they may see ads during their browsing experience, similar to Instagram feed. Ads will not be displayed in the Explore grid or in the Explore topic channels.

All Instagram ads will have a "sponsored" icon and may contain a call-to-action button below the image. Your ad's caption will also appear below the image.

Your ad's appearance will depend on the format that you select (single image, video or carousel), and whether the ad is seen in Instagram Stories or feed:

• Images: If you use a single image in your Instagram ad, your image may appear in the square, landscape or vertical format.
• Videos: If you use video creative in your Instagram ad, your video may appear in the square or landscape format (except for in Instagram Stories).
• Carousel: If you use the carousel format as the creative for your Instagram ad, your ad will appear in the square format or vertical format on feed and stories.
• Instagram Stories: While we recommend that you use a full-screen vertical asset in Stories ads, this format can support the same media you use in other placements. Stories ads can support feed placement photo and video dimensions, meaning you can upload a single photo or up to a 120-second video that have an aspect ratio of 9:16 and 16:9 to 4:5.
• Reels: You can only use a full-screen vertical asset for Reels ads.
• Instagram Shop: Your ad must be in the single-image, carousel or collection format. Although we support all ratios, ads will all appear as square 1:1 images and be tappable to your website's product details page.

When creating your Instagram ads in Meta Ads Manager, you can preview them to see how they will look on Instagram.