Portrait, landscape or square: choosing a video ad format
9:16, 16:9 or 1:1. Where each format is shown, and what changes in the design when you switch.
The same ad in the wrong shape wastes most of the screen. Picking the format first, before the copy, saves redesigning later.
Portrait, 9:16 (1080 × 1920)
Instagram Reels and Stories, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook Stories. Full screen on a phone held upright, which is how most social video is watched. Keep important text away from the top and bottom edges, where app buttons and captions sit, and stack lines vertically rather than side by side.
Landscape, 16:9 (1920 × 1080)
YouTube, websites, presentations, LinkedIn and anywhere a video plays inside a page or on a big screen. There is room for text beside an image, for charts, and for explainers with several things on screen at once. The Vox explainer and map story styles are most at home here.
Square, 1:1 (1080 × 1080)
Feed posts on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. It takes more of a scrolling feed than landscape does, and it crops well if a platform trims it. A good compromise when one file has to go to several places.
What changes between them
Switching format is not a resize. Portrait has a narrow column, so headlines wrap onto more lines and need to be shorter; landscape has a wide stage, so layouts can put things side by side. The studio lays the piece out for the format you choose, which is why it is set beside the brief rather than afterwards.
Length
Short is usually right for social: 6 to 15 seconds holds attention in a feed. Explainers and stories need longer, 30 seconds to a minute. The studio offers 3 seconds to a minute; choose the length with the number of beats in your brief in mind, at roughly two to three seconds a beat.