Every Ad Size a D2C Brand Needs in 2026
Creative is the variable you control every single day, and a wrongly-sized asset is the cheapest way to waste it — a 1080×1080 square forced into a Reels slot gets cropped, centered or rejected by the auction. Here is the size sheet we use when we brief our production team, with the math on why each spec exists.
Meta: feed, Stories, Reels
The Meta auction reads a creative’s behavior before it reads its pixels, but a malformed asset starts every test at a disadvantage. Keep these as your defaults:
| Placement | Size / ratio | What you must respect |
|---|---|---|
| Feed (image & video) | 1080×1080 or 1080×1350 (4:5) | Text under 20% of the frame; captions safe |
| Stories | 1080×1920 (9:16) | 250px clear zone top & bottom — UI overlays |
| Reels | 1080×1920 (9:16) | First 1.5s must carry the hook; captions baked in |
| Collection / catalog | 1080×1080 | Clean product on consistent background |
If you only produce one thing per campaign, make the 4:5 feed vertical. It occupies more of the mobile screen than a square at the same cost.
Google: search text limits and display banners
Search ads have no pixels to crop — they have character limits, and truncation is the silent killer. A headline that cuts at character 29 loses the word that proves intent.
| Asset | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Search headline 1 / 2 / 3 | 30 chars each | Put the keyword and the promise first |
| Search description 1 / 2 | 90 chars each | Price, delivery and proof in the first 40 |
| Long headline | 90 chars | WhatsApp or merchant-free-shipping angle |
| Display — MPU | 300×250 | Still the workhorse of the Display Network |
| Display — mobile banner | 320×50 | Smallest glanceable unit; keep to one message |
| Display — leaderboard | 728×90 | Desktop; headline + one CTA |
| Display — skyscraper | 160×600 | Side placements; vertical read |
Shopping and Performance Max: the feed is the creative
In Shopping and PMax, your image and title ARE the ad — and they share a frame with competitors. Two rules keep you legible: title ≤ 70 characters in the first line (Google truncates around there; product + key attribute first), and a clean square product image with no watermark text, measured by the platform at 1000×1000 minimum. Feed quality is a ranking input now, not just a formatting preference — we wrote the full argument in Google Shopping & Performance Max for D2C.
Pricing the size decision
Here is the discipline that actually saves money: decide the placements before production, size the master asset to the largest canvas you need (1080×1920), then export crops — never upscale downward in reverse. One reels master gives you Stories, feed vertical and a square for catalog. And when briefing, always test the 4:5 feed vertical first: it costs the same as a square and earns more screen.
An ad is not finished when it looks right. It is finished when it fits the placement it was bought for.
Preview it before you buy it
Every asset in the sheet above maps to an input in our Ad Preview Simulator — pick the placement, see the spec and the realistic CPM range, then run the reach math before you spend a rupee.
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