Aspect ratios for Reels, Shorts and paid social

Choose the aspect ratio before the video is cut, not after. Reframing a wide video into a vertical one usually crops away the part that mattered.

The three frames you will use

• 9:16, vertical. Reels, Stories, Shorts and TikTok. It fills a phone screen.
• 1:1 and 4:5. Feed posts and feed ads. 4:5 takes more of the screen than 1:1.
• 16:9, wide. YouTube, websites, email and presentations.

Plan for the safe zone

Platforms place buttons and captions over the edges of vertical video. Keep text and key subjects away from the top and bottom of a 9:16 frame, so nothing important sits under an interface.

One idea, several cuts

Build the video once, then cut it for each placement, instead of stretching one version to fit. This is how we make social cuts from a hero film: the same idea, framed for each feed.