As well as the welcome relaxation of Facebook competition rules there’s more good news from Facebook with image sizes of link shares increasing for most users from Tuesday. When sharing links you’ll have noticed that an image accompanying the article or blog post you’re sharing is the size of a thumbnail. Facebook have now introduced larger images (up to 3.5 x size of the thumbnails) for link shares as well for Facebook Ads to make stories “look even more beautiful”.
On the face of it, perhaps not big news but make not mistake; this is a significant change. A quality larger photo is more likely to encourage users to click through to the article or blog post in question, so the change will be helpful in driving traffic to your website or blog. The whole image and text box is now ‘clickable’ making it easier for users to take the action to visit your website or blog. Furthermore, an image could be used to clarify or to provide a summary of the linked article thus aiding understanding.
As well as link shares, image sizes have been increased for Facebook desktop and mobile Ads. Facebook suggests that the minimum image size should be 560×292 pixels, but in order for it to work for everyone, it should be 1200×627 pixels. The good news for advertisers is that “one size fits all” so just one image file can be used across all Facebook adverts in a campaign.