Story Ad Specs: Dimensions, Safe Zones, and Timing

Story ads — on Instagram, Facebook, and similar placements — are full-screen vertical 9:16 video or images, typically 1080x1920, with a stricter safe-zone rule than most formats: keep roughly the top and bottom ~250 pixels free of text and logos, because that's where the platform draws the account name, timer, and the swipe-up/CTA area. Exact duration caps and file limits vary by platform and change over time, so confirm them in the ads manager before launch. What doesn't change: fully vertical, edges clear, message delivered fast.

What dimensions do Story ads use?

9:16 at 1080x1920 or higher. Stories occupy the entire phone screen, so any other ratio gets padded with bars and instantly looks like a repurposed asset. Build the creative natively vertical — framing, text placement, and pacing all differ from feed formats.

Why are Story safe zones stricter?

Stories layer UI at both extremes of the frame: profile info and progress bars at the top, the CTA and reply area at the bottom. Content placed there gets covered or ignored. The reliable habit is designing inside the middle band of the frame — captions, offer text, and the product hero all live in the central region, and the top/bottom margins hold nothing you'd miss.

How fast does a Story ad need to hook?

Faster than almost any other placement. Stories are tapped through at speed, and viewers skip with a single tap rather than a scroll — so the first frame carries most of the load. Open on the product, the problem, or the boldest claim; don't warm up. Compare openings by hook rate across variants, and use a hook generator to widen the pool of openings you test.

Should Story ads be designed sound-off?

Yes. Sound behavior varies by platform and user habit, so the safe assumption is muted viewing. Burned-in captions in the middle band, a legible headline, and a visual demonstration make the ad self-sufficient; voiceover and music enhance it for the viewers who do have sound on.

What separates Story ads that convert?

Not the specs — everyone ships 1080x1920. Performance comes down to creative angle and how many variants you put through the auction, and the winning variant is discovered, not designed on the first try. ROAS depends on your margin and your creative hit rate, which is a volume game. Polaris compresses that loop: add its MCP connector to Claude, attach a product photo, and generate Story-ready 9:16 UGC ads inside the conversation — parallel batches, one-click burned-in captions, ZIP download, first 12 free. Feed a steady stream of AI UGC ads into your Story placements, then let a ROAS calculator tell you which ones actually pay.