What each mockup draws
One image or video and one set of text go into every frame at once, so you can see how the same ad sits in each feed before you build a version for each. Each frame draws the parts of the platform around your ad: the page name and picture, the label, the text above or over the media, the button, and the like, comment and share row.
- Facebook feed
- The page name and the Ad label above the text, your media, then the headline and button in the link bar under it.
- Instagram feed
- The account name above the media, the button bar under it, then the caption under the action row.
- Stories and Reels
- Your media full screen, the account name at the top, the text and button at the bottom.
- TikTok
- Your media full screen, the action column on the right, the caption and the button bottom left.
- The intro text above the media, the headline and button in the bar under it.
- X
- The post text above the media, with the headline on the card.
- The Pin, with the title and the account name under it.
- YouTube
- Your media in the player with the Ad badge and the advertiser over its lower part, then the headline and button in a bar under it.
- Google Display
- 5 standard banner sizes a responsive display ad fills: the medium rectangle, large rectangle, half page, leaderboard and large mobile banner.
The Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn frames show an image at its own shape, as long as the feed shows that shape, and crop a taller or wider one to the nearest shape it does show. The other frames have one shape each: a square image in the Story frame fills the screen and loses its sides, as it would in the app, so the mockup is also a quick check of how a crop lands. To check whether a file meets a placement's size and ratio, use the ad size checker.
Why the label says Ad
Meta changed the word it shows on ads. Its best practices for image ads say: "Ads that were previously marked with a 'Sponsored' label will now display an 'Ad' label instead." Older mockup templates and many screenshots in guides still show Sponsored, which dates them. The Facebook, Instagram and Story frames here draw Ad. The other frames draw the word each platform puts on its own ads.
The buttons
The button list is Meta's, the 31 choices Ads Manager offers, in its own capitals. Not every platform has the same list. TikTok offers 22, LinkedIn 13 and YouTube 17, so each of those frames shows the nearest button on its own list, and falls back to that platform's default when nothing is close. The X and Pinterest frames show no button, because the ads they draw here don't carry one. If a button changes between frames, that is the platform's list, not a typo.
Long text
Every frame shows the whole primary text you type. In the apps, long text is cut behind a "See more" or "…more" link, but none of the platforms publishes where that cut falls, and it moves with the screen width and the app version. Rather than guess, the mockups leave the primary text whole, so a long caption makes a tall card. Headlines, page names and handles are shortened to fit their line, and the Google Display banners and the YouTube player, which have a fixed size, shorten their text to fit the box.
What the platforms do publish is how long each field should be. The ad text preview counts your primary text, headline and description against Meta's, TikTok's, LinkedIn's and ChatGPT's own figures, and says which are recommendations and which are limits.
Safe zones on the Story, TikTok and YouTube frames
Turn on Safe zones to draw a dashed outline over the Story and Reels, TikTok and YouTube frames. Each is the platform's own zone, from the same rows our ad specs pages draw it from: Instagram Stories ad size, TikTok in-feed video ad size and YouTube in-stream ad size. Words and a logo inside the outline stay clear of the name, caption, buttons and progress bar the app draws on top. The outline is left out of the PNG. To check a file of your own against a zone, drop it into the safe zone checker, or lay a safe zone template over your edit.
Saving a PNG
Each frame has its own Download PNG button, and so does each Google Display banner size. The file is drawn in your browser at twice the size on screen, so it stays sharp in a slide or a client email, and the frame is saved without the page around it. With a video, the PNG holds the frame showing when you press the button: press Pause the video first to hold the moment you want. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is kept when you close the page.
What a mockup can't tell you
A mockup is a drawing of each platform's layout, made to check a crop and to show a client how the ad will read. It is not a screenshot. The apps change their layout often, draw differently on a phone and a desktop, and sometimes add parts of their own, such as a product tag, a music line or a comment preview. Ads Manager and the other platforms' managers show a preview of the real ad before it runs, and that preview is the one to approve the final version on.
A mockup also can't show what the platform will change. Meta and TikTok can turn on enhancements that crop, brighten or add music to an ad, and the safe zone outlines are each platform's guidance, not a promise of what every device covers. Read more on what Meta can change in turning off Meta's creative enhancements.
Making the ads that go in them
Terrads makes image and video ads from your product photos and brand, composed for the placement each one runs in, with the post text written for each platform. Its viewer draws the same mockups around every ad it makes, so a batch can be checked and shown to a client without leaving the app.