*** UPDATED WITH THE LATEST CHANGES August 2021 – Quentin Pain ***
READ FIRST
Sometime in early 2021 the group header changed again. You’re welcome to read everything below (to show how tricky this is), and you’re welcome to search the web to find a better answer, but I’ve tried and none are available (there’s a ton of stuff on this – much of it blatant plagiarised copies of my original post), but I’ve yet to find any that are correct.
So instead, know this one thing. If you make your Facebook Group Header 848 x 314 it will currently work on a desktop view without anything ‘disappearing’ top or bottom (carry on reading about what it used to do if you’re interested – that’s about all you need to know though.
The screenshot above shows the new dimensions.
NOTE: For some reason, something happens to the header when uploaded to Facebook and some clarity is lost. Doubling its size to 1696 x 628 in the hope of getting a higher resolution doesn’t help.
[EVERYTHING BELOW IS HOW IT USED TO BE – IT’S ONLY LEFT IN FOR HISTORICAL REASONS – BUT WHO KNOWS WE MAY HAVE TO RETURN TO IT AGAIN IN THE FUTURE]
Old Header Sizes Below
It’s exceedingly hard to hunt down the size for your Facebook Group Header cover photo. So here it is: 820 x 428 pixels (Facebook changed to this new size on 28th November 2017, but note that the top and bottom of your header is hidden – full details below – note that all old headers will be cropped almost in half if not updated to the new size – if your current group header image looks a little weird – that’s why). The aspect ratio for a Facebook group header is 205:107 (but start with 820 x 428 pixels as this is the actual size on a standard desktop monitor).
When updating your group image, FB do give you the chance to move an oversized graphic around, but it’s far better to design it the right size in the first place. When you’ve got the size exactly right, the image will NOT be draggable – this is what you want.
If you want to find what size your graphic should be for a Facebook Profile Page Cover Photo it’s also quite a challenge. Here it is: 851 x 318 pixels. But read on…
Facebook Profile Header Image Size
BUT – things get in the way. Here’s a snap of my Profile Cover Photo together with all the dimensions you need:
The above cover photo is for my Facebook profile page and automatically embeds my profile name to the right of my profile image (Quentin Pain).
Your profile picture extends 25 pixels below the bottom of the graphic into the menu bar (as you can see above), and there is also an embedded 2 pixel white border with thin grey outline added to your picture (this fixed border stops creative designers doing funky things by merging their picture onto the menu bar and cover graphic etc. – shame).
Facebook Page Header Image Size
If you have a Facebook Business Page (aka Fan Page or Community page etc.) and you want to take full advantage of the space, you’re going to need a slightly different sized image. It’s 820 x 320 pixels.
Facebook Group Header Image Size
Next up we have the Facebook Group Cover Photo. If you run a group on Facebook, use the dimensions below to make best use of the image header area. The size is 820 x 428 pixels.
NOTE: On Desktop devices, Facebook makes the top 48 pixels and the bottom 49 pixels of the image invisible. So make sure your graphic is 820 x 428 pixels and that nothing you need to be seen is in the top 48 pixels or the bottom 49 pixels of the image since it won’t be shown when viewed on a desktop computer.
NOTE 2: You can see the whole header on a desktop by clicking anywhere on the header, which opens it in a popup.
Here’s the group header image for my Content Writers group. It’s called The Science of Copywriting – feel free to join if you write content for yourself or others and want some daily inspiration and ideas.
I got these sizes by creating a pixel based image, uploading it, and then slowly figuring out precisely down to the pixel where Facebook was cutting off the top and bottom. Click on the image below to see the header in place in a group I created in Facebook to test this out:
Facebook Desktop Ad Image Size
My mission is to help people write and publish the best content online, so they not only promote their business, but also get to be seen as the best in their industry or market.
So to promote that, I use Facebook marketing to help spread the message. And that means I also need to know the size for my ad images.
Some of the marketing I do is based on Facebook Sponsored Posts. The best results come from videos (at least for now – but it does depend on the video of course!). For a fixed image, Facebook recommend a size of 1200 x 628 pixels.
Below is an example that advertises a Workshop I did for bloggers, online content writers and freelancers. Luckily, all ad images on FB seem to have the same aspect ratio, which is 1.91:1 (so you can create your ad images at 1200 x 628 and FB will scale them accordingly without losing the aspect ratio).
Advertising with Facebook is a science, and as with all advertising, you must think through the customer journey.
And that depends 100% on the traffic you drive to your ad.
If it’s cold traffic, you’ll need to entice and educate your visitors.
If it’s pre-sold or warm traffic, you need to give them a compelling reason to find out more.
Either way, don’t even think about click-baiting your visitors. Facebook are banning people at a faster rate than ever for trying to game the system.
Just put up good stuff and be straight (it can be funny or quirky too, but take care).
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