Facebook Guide: Formats and Best Practices for Pages

Images, Reels, Stories, carousels and ranking rules: what works for a Facebook Page, with numbers checked against Meta's own documentation.

Published on September 23, 2026 · Social platforms

For plenty of brands, Facebook is still essential: local business Pages, enthusiast groups, events, customer reviews. But the platform looks very different than it did a few years ago. Videos are now published as Reels, Meta cracks down harder on recycled content and stuffed captions, and the feed recommends more and more posts from accounts people don't follow. This guide covers Facebook Page formats with numbers checked against Meta's official documentation, what Meta says about ranking, and a practical way to post well.

Facebook Page formats

As with Instagram, separate what the app allows from what Meta's API allows, since scheduling tools go through the API. And for images, the only numeric recommendations Meta publishes live in its ads guide. They're still the best reference for organic posts.

Images

Meta's ads guide recommends a 4:5 ratio for Feed, at 1,440 × 1,800 pixels, in JPG or PNG. Square 1:1 is also supported in Feed. In practice, a 4:5 vertical takes up more of a phone screen than a landscape image and reads well everywhere.

Video and Reels

In June 2025, Meta announced on its newsroom that all videos on Facebook would be shared as Reels, and that Reels on Facebook would no longer have length or format restrictions in the app. The change rolled out gradually.

There's a catch. Meta's Reels publishing API documentation still specifies 3 to 90 seconds, 9:16, a recommended 1,080 × 1,920 pixels (540 × 960 minimum), MP4, at 24 to 60 fps. If you publish through a tool, keep Reels under 90 seconds.

Stories

According to the Page Stories documentation, a video Story can't exceed 60 seconds, in 9:16 (1,080 × 1,920 recommended). Story photos must be 10 MB or smaller. Stories stay up for 24 hours.

Carousels

For ads, Meta allows 2 to 10 cards per carousel in square 1:1, at least 1,080 × 1,080 pixels, per its carousel ads guide. For organic posts, carousels published through Meta's API are also capped at 10 media items. Ten slides is plenty to tell a story or show a product range.

Reels safe zones

Meta’s Reels ads guide recommends keeping roughly the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side free of key elements, since that's where the interface, caption and buttons sit. It's a good habit for organic Reels too: put your headline, product and logo in the middle of the frame.

What the Facebook feed rewards

In 2023 Meta published an explainer on how AI influences what you see, along with system cards covering the vast majority of signals used in Feed ranking. One factor it names explicitly is how likely you are to share a post. Meta says it combines many predictions, some based on behavior and some on explicit user feedback. Its Facebook Feed system card also points to how likely a post is to draw comments and spark a real back-and-forth.

The takeaway for a brand: a post people want to send to a friend, or one that starts a conversation in the comments, is worth more than one that collects a few polite reactions.

Original content wins, recycling gets penalized

In March 2026, Meta detailed its approach to rewarding original creators on Facebook. It treats as unoriginal any reposting of content the Page had no role in creating, as well as simply adding borders or captions or changing a Reel's speed. That content gets less distribution in Feed and Reels, and repeat offenders can lose recommendations altogether. In the same post, Meta says views and watch time on original Reels roughly doubled in the second half of 2025.

Keep captions clean

In April 2025, Meta announced a crackdown on spammy content. Accounts that post long, distracting captions with an excessive number of hashtags, or captions unrelated to the content, see their reach reduced. On Facebook, a useful, direct caption with few or no hashtags is the way to go.

What to post on a Facebook Page

• Short, original Reels: a product demo, behind the scenes, a tip in under a minute. It's the format Facebook recommends most broadly.
• Carousels to present a range, a before-and-after, or the steps of a method.
• Photos paired with a real question that invites comments: a choice between two products, a memory, an opinion.
• Practical updates: holiday hours, events, new arrivals. An up-to-date Page reassures people who look you up before they visit.
• Stories for same-day announcements and staying close to followers.

Facebook and Instagram: share without duplicating

Facebook and Instagram both belong to Meta, and it's tempting to post exactly the same thing on both. The technical formats are close, which helps: a 4:5 visual and a vertical 9:16 Reel work on either network. But people use them differently. On Facebook, posts travel more through sharing and comment threads, and the copy can be a bit more explanatory, with practical information or a question that invites a real answer.

A simple method: keep the same visual or video, and rewrite the caption for each network. On Facebook, lead with a line that sets context, add something useful, then close with an open question. Drop the hashtag blocks carried over from Instagram, since Meta associates them with spammy captions on Facebook. And make sure the video isn't an export carrying another app's watermark. On both networks, original content is now explicitly treated better.

How often to post

Meta doesn't publish a recommended posting frequency for Pages. What works is consistency: a weekly rhythm you keep over time, rather than bursts followed by silence. For most brands, a few posts a week mixing Reels, carousels and photo posts is a solid baseline. Time spent answering comments is part of the job. It's what turns a post into a conversation, which is exactly what ranking rewards.

Common mistakes

1. Publishing Reels over 90 seconds through a tool. The app no longer has a limit, but the Reels publishing API rejects anything longer.
2. Reposting videos from elsewhere. A clip lifted from another account counts as unoriginal, even with captions added.
3. Stuffing captions with hashtags. Meta explicitly targets this.
4. Captions unrelated to the visual. They're treated as spam.
5. Putting key text at the bottom of a Reel. It disappears under the caption and buttons.
6. Treating Facebook as an Instagram mirror. The formats look alike, but the audience, expectations and habits differ. At least adapt the copy.
7. Leaving comments unanswered. An unanswered question shuts down the very conversation you opened.

Pre-publish checklist

• Image at 4:5 (1,440 × 1,800 px) or square, JPG or PNG.
• Vertical 9:16 Reel, 90 seconds max if published through a tool, key elements centered.
• Story video 60 seconds max.
• Carousel of 10 media items max, all at the same ratio.
• Original content created by your brand.
• A clear caption directly tied to the visual, with few or no hashtags.
• A reason to comment or share: a question, useful information, a point of view.
• Time set aside to reply to comments.

Facebook as part of a multi-network routine

Facebook, Instagram and Threads share a parent company, not the same rules or expectations. With Oposto, you describe your brand once: it learns your voice, colors, products and audience from your website, prepares posts, image carousels, design carousels and short videos, adapts each post to each network, plans them in a calendar and publishes them at the scheduled time. Then it measures real performance and reuses what works.

To see next month's Facebook content ready for review, try Oposto: describe your brand once, it prepares a month of content in the right format for each network, and you approve.