Reels ads are full-screen vertical video ads that Meta shows between organic Reels on Instagram and Facebook. Someone swiping through short videos meets your ad in the same format as everything around it, can like, comment on or share it, and can tap the call-to-action button to visit your site, message you or open a form.
How Reels ads work
Reels is a placement, not a campaign type. You do not build a separate “Reels campaign”; you run a normal campaign and either let Advantage+ placements include Reels or tick the Reels placements yourself. The ad then competes in the same auction as your other placements, and Meta shifts spend towards Reels when it expects better results there.
The format is 9:16 vertical video at full screen, with sound on by default for many viewers. Meta recommends 1080 by 1920 pixels. Profile details, the caption and the call-to-action button sit over the bottom of the frame and icons run down the right-hand side, so the safe zone matters more here than in the feed. At the time of writing (October 2026) Meta accepts fairly long Reels ads, but most that work are short, and Meta’s current length limits are listed in its Ads Guide.
If you only have square or 4:5 video, Meta can place it in Reels with padding or cropping. It rarely looks native, and it usually performs worse than video shot vertically from the start.
Why they matter
Meta has made Reels central to both Instagram and Facebook, so a campaign that excludes the placement leaves out a lot of the attention on those apps. Reels impressions can also be cheaper than feed impressions, though cheaper impressions do not always mean cheaper results.
For UK businesses that sell something visual or explainable in seconds, such as a salon in Leeds, a restaurant in Bristol or a product brand shipping across the country, Reels ads let you show the thing working. Service businesses use them too: a short clip of an electrician explaining a common fault reads as advice, not an advert, and that is the point.
Common mistakes
- Repurposing a TV-style landscape advert. Black bars and tiny text signal “advert” and get swiped away.
- A slow opening. The first second decides whether people stay. A logo card or a long intro wastes it; open with the hook.
- Text under the interface. Prices, offers or captions at the bottom of the frame end up hidden behind the caption and button.
- No captions. Many people watch without sound, and burned-in captions also help viewers with hearing loss.
- Judging Reels on the same terms as feed. Reels often brings more reach and fewer clicks; look at results and cost per result, not click-through rate alone.
How to act on it
Start with vertical-first creative: film on a phone, upright, with the subject in the centre of the frame and nothing important in the bottom third. Open with movement, a face or a clear problem, then show the product or answer, then say what to do next. Add captions and keep the edit tight.
Run Reels inside your existing campaigns rather than in isolation, and use a placement breakdown to see how they compare with feed and Stories. Watch hook rate to judge the opening and cost per result to judge the whole ad. If you would like Reels planned, filmed to brief and run alongside your other placements, that is what my Facebook video, Reels and Stories ads service covers.