Instagram Reels ads: specs, safe zones and placements

This guide is built from Meta's own pages: the Meta Ads Guide specs for video ads in Instagram Reels and image ads in Instagram Reels, the Meta Business Help Center pages About text overlays and the safe zone for ads and About ad placements across Meta technologies, and the Instagram Help Center pages Create Instagram Reels ads in Meta Ads Manager, Boost an Instagram Reel, Create ads that link to Instagram videos or Reels, Instagram Reels ad placement availability by country, About Instagram insights and Troubleshoot boosting content or managing ads on Instagram. Checked on 10 November 2026. Setting up the business account itself is covered in our Instagram for business guide; this page is about the ads.

Where Reels ads appear

Instagram Reels is one of the placements Meta groups under Stories, Status and Reels. Meta's placements page says ads in this placement will appear in the Reels tab on Instagram and run in the mobile app and on desktop and mobile web.

The ads are full-screen vertical videos or images inserted between organic reels. The Ads Guide explains that once someone taps into a reel from Stories, Feed, the Reels tab or Explore, they are taken into a viewer that only shows vertically scrolling reels, and ads can show there. People can comment on, like, save, share and skip a Reels ad, the same as an organic reel. Instagram's help page adds that, once approved, an ad can also appear within the feed view of the Reels tab in public Instagram profiles of people 18 and older.

Reels ads are not offered in every country. Instagram keeps a list of the countries where the placement is available; it includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Turkey, among many others. If you target a narrow set of countries, check the list before you plan a Reels-only campaign.

Specs for video and image Reels ads

Reels ads can be video or a single image. These are the figures from Meta's Ads Guide:

For video, Meta also recommends H.264 compression, square pixels, a fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or more. Captions are optional but recommended. Videos that contain edit lists or special boxes in the file container are on Meta's list of things Reels ads should not contain, which matters when you export from some editing apps.

The 44-character primary text is a recommendation, not a hard limit. In Reels the text sits over the bottom of the video, so a long caption covers more of it.

The safe zone

In Reels, parts of the app interface, such as the profile icon and the call-to-action button, sit on top of your ad. Meta defines the safe zone as the area within your ad where important elements — like text overlays and logos — will not be cropped out or covered by the user interface.

For Instagram Reels, the Ads Guide gives numbers. Consider leaving at least:

• 14% of the top free of text, logos and other key elements,
• 35% of the bottom,
• 6% on each side.

If your Reels ad carries a disclaimer, Meta says to leave the bottom 40% free instead.

Phones with screens taller than 9:16 add another wrinkle. Meta says it may either zoom the creative to fill the screen, which can crop areas outside the safe zone, or show it at 9:16 with a black background filling the extra space. Keeping important text well inside the safe zone works for both cases.

Ads Manager can show the zone for you: turn on the Safe zone guardrail and a yellow overlay appears on your creative; the safe area is inside it.

Sound, music and what a Reels ad can't contain

Meta lists video sound as Optional, but strongly recommended for Reels ads, and the Instagram help page recommends that video ads include music or sound to better fit the placement.

The music is where many plans fail. Reels ads can't use licensed music. Meta recommends original audio or royalty-free music, such as the tracks in its Sound Collection.

According to the Ads Guide, Reels ads should also not contain:

• reels published before 15 October 2021,
• media with a face or camera effect,
• media with a GIF,
• media with product tags,
• videos that contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.

So a reel your team made inside Instagram with a popular song and a filter may look like a perfect ad but won't be accepted as one. Make the ad version with original or royalty-free sound and no effects from the start.

Running Reels ads from Ads Manager

Instagram's help page lists six objectives that can deliver to Reels: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales. When Advantage+ placements is on, Meta says it will include Reels ads in your campaigns automatically. To pick placements yourself, open Show more settings in the Placements section and include Instagram Reels in your selection.

Whether you should run Reels on its own or alongside Feed, Stories and the rest is a placement question, covered in our Meta ads placements guide. Stories ads have their own specs and sticker rules, covered in our Instagram Stories ads guide. The short version from Meta is that adding placements does not increase the cost of your ad.

There is also a way to send people to your reels. With the Awareness, Traffic or Engagement objective, Instagram explains that you can paste the URL of a reel, your Reels tab or an audio page into the Website URL box, so the call-to-action button opens it in the Instagram app. With Engagement, the conversion location must be On your ad with video views or post engagement as the engagement type.

If a creator makes the reel and you want to run it from their handle, that is a partnership ad, with its own permissions and codes; see our Instagram partnership ads guide.

Boosting a reel from Instagram

Boosting turns a reel you have already posted into an ad from inside the Instagram app or instagram.com. Instagram says boosted reels appear in the Reels tab, Explore, Feed and Stories. You need a professional (business or creator) account, and the troubleshooting page says you must be over 16.

To be boostable, according to Instagram's help page, a reel must:

• be 90 seconds or less and full-screen 9:16 vertical,
• not use licensed music,
• not be published before 15 October 2021,
• not contain face or camera effects, GIFs, product tags, interactive stickers or third-party camera filters,
• not have been shared to Facebook already.

Note the length difference: an ad built in Ads Manager can run up to 15 minutes, but a boosted reel must be 90 seconds or less. Two boost errors Instagram lists are also worth knowing: reels with tappable elements can't be boosted, and a video whose resolution is too low is refused.

The steps: go to your profile, open the reel, tap Boost, choose a goal, audience, daily budget and duration, then tap Boost reel. The ad goes to review against Meta's ad policies, and you get notifications when it is submitted, reviewed, approved or rejected, and when it ends.

One cost to watch: in most regions, Instagram says an Apple service fee of 30% of your total ad payment may apply when you add funds to your ad account in the Instagram iOS app. Instagram suggests boosting from instagram.com instead to avoid it.

Reading the results

Where you read the numbers depends on how the ad was made.

• Boosted reels: Instagram insights. When you boost content, Instagram says you also get ad insights with the ad goal results, cost per ad goal and spend, alongside the reel's own metrics such as views, viewers, interactions and accounts engaged. Instagram marks views and viewers as estimated and in development.
• Ads Manager campaigns: the Ads Manager table. If the campaign runs on several placements, break the results down by placement to see what Reels delivered. Columns, breakdowns and exports are covered in our Meta ads reporting guide.

Judge a Reels ad on the result your campaign is optimised for (a lead, a purchase, a landing page view), not on views alone. A cheap view that never reaches your website doesn't help much.

How we make Reels ads

This is our own practice, not Meta's guidance:

• We cut a separate 9:16 version instead of cropping a landscape video, and check it against the safe zone overlay before it goes live.
• We use original audio or royalty-free music from the first edit, so the same video works as an organic reel, a boosted reel and an Ads Manager ad.
• Key text goes in the middle of the frame and the brand appears early, since people can skip.
• We usually leave Reels inside a wider placement set and look at the placement breakdown, rather than starting with Reels alone.
• We run anything beyond a quick test from Ads Manager rather than the Boost button, for the extra objectives and reporting.

Frequently asked questions

What size should an Instagram Reels ad be?

Meta's Ads Guide recommends 9:16 at 1440 x 2560 pixels for both video and image Reels ads. Video can be MP4 or MOV up to 4 GB; images JPG or PNG up to 30 MB.

How long can an Instagram Reels ad be?

An ad created in Ads Manager can be up to 15 minutes, according to the Ads Guide. A reel you boost from Instagram must be 90 seconds or less.

What is the safe zone for Instagram Reels ads?

Meta suggests leaving at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other key elements, and the bottom 40% free if the ad has a disclaimer.

Can I use popular music in an Instagram Reels ad?

No. Reels ads and boosted reels can't use licensed music. Meta recommends original audio or royalty-free music such as its Sound Collection.

Why can't I boost my reel?

Common reasons in Instagram's help pages: it is longer than 90 seconds, not 9:16, uses licensed music, effects, GIFs, product tags, interactive stickers or third-party filters, was shared to Facebook, has tappable elements, or its resolution is too low.

For more on Meta advertising, see our guides to Meta ads basics, placements, Advantage+ creative and partnership ads. We build the landing pages ads send people to as part of our website development work. See all our services, or browse more guides.