Ad specs / YouTube
YouTube in-feed video ad size
A YouTube in-feed video ad is a thumbnail, a headline and up to two lines of text that invite a click to watch the video. Google recommends a 1280 × 720 thumbnail (1280 × 640 minimum; JPG, GIF or PNG under 2 MB) and caps headlines at 2 lines of 40 characters and descriptions at 2 lines of 35. The video runs at 1920 × 1080, 1080 × 1920 or 1080 × 1080 (vertical does not show on in-feed in Video Reach and Video View campaigns), with 15 seconds recommended and no maximum length. Google publishes no safe zone for the thumbnail.
| Format | Google's video ads specs and format requirements page, under its heading 'In-video ads on YouTube': 'In-feed video ads include an image thumbnail, a headline, and up to 2 lines of text (depending on where the ad appears)'. Google's video ad formats page: 'In-feed video ads consist of a thumbnail image from your video with some text' |
|---|---|
| Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 pixels recommended, 1280 × 640 pixels minimum (Google's video ad specs page and Google's video ads specs and format requirements page) |
| Thumbnail aspect ratio | 16:9 (Google's video ad specs page and Google's video ads specs and format requirements page). The 1280 × 640 minimum is 2:1, Google's figure, shown here as written |
| Thumbnail file | JPG, GIF or PNG, under 2 MB (Google's video ad specs page) |
| Video size | 16:9 at 1920 × 1080, 9:16 at 1080 × 1920 or 1:1 at 1080 × 1080 (Google's video ads specs and format requirements page) |
| Video length | No max length (Google's video ad formats page); 15 seconds recommended, also for Video reach campaigns, where in-feed is listed with skippable in-stream under 16:9 (Google's video ads specs and format requirements page) |
| Video file type | .MPG (MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) recommended; .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, .FLV, .MPEG-1, .MP4, .MPEGPS, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (H.265) also accepted; audio-only files (MP3, WAV, PCM) can't be used (Google's video ad specs page) |
| Maximum video file size | 256 GB (Google's video ad specs page) |
| Headline | Maximum 2 lines, 40 characters per line (Google's video ads specs and format requirements page, which adds: 'Headlines are excluded from desktop and TV watch page and may not show up on mobile'). Video action and Demand Gen campaigns have their own limits, below |
| Description | Maximum 2 lines, 35 characters per line (Google's video ads specs and format requirements page, which notes that descriptions don't appear on the desktop watch page or on TV) |
| Video action campaigns | Headline 30, long headline 90, description 90 and call to action 10 characters, with at least 10 seconds of video recommended (Google's video ads specs and format requirements page); Google's video ad formats page says in-feed ads in Video action campaigns include 2 call-to-action buttons |
| Demand Gen campaigns | Long headline 90 characters, 'Used in the in-feed video ad format (Discover and YouTube)'; description 90 characters; minimum video length 5 seconds (Google's Demand Gen video assets and ad format guidelines page, whose 40-character headline is filed under skippable in-stream) |
| Vertical video | Google's square and vertical video ads page: vertical video ads 'may show up on in-stream, in-feed, and YouTube Shorts' for Performance Max, App and Demand Gen campaigns; 'For Video Reach and Video View campaigns, vertical ads may show up on all surfaces and devices listed above except in-feed'; and 'Campaigns may not serve if they only have vertical videos as these assets will no longer serve in our YouTube in-feed environments' |
Source: Google Ads Help — Video ads specs and format requirements, as of . Each row names the Google page it quotes. Platforms revise specs without notice; check the source before you build a template on it.
Related reading
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