Guide · Ads · AI · For the owner whose ads open WhatsApp
One picture for every spot your WhatsApp ad can show: placement crops, Meta's flexible media and AI animation
An ad that opens WhatsApp can be shown in many spots across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, from feeds to Stories and Reels, and each spot has a different shape. Meta lets you crop the picture for each spot yourself. It can also stretch one picture into more spots for you, and its AI can turn a still picture into a short moving one. Here is what Meta's Help Center says each of these does, which are on by default, and what to look at before you publish.
Published 8 October 2026 · Updated 9 October 2026
One picture, many shapes
Meta's Help Center calls it asset customization for placements. It lets you tailor the picture, video and words of one ad for each place the ad can appear, and Meta lists those places as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta Audience Network. You can use a different crop for each spot, for example a tall one for Stories so the picture fills the phone screen, and crop around the part of the picture that carries your message. You can upload a shorter video where a spot needs one: Meta gives 1 to 15 seconds for Facebook Stories. You can also use different text, headlines and links, and Meta notes that short copy works well in Instagram Stories.
Meta's own tips for a more engaging ad point the same way: use a tall or square picture or video, because most people hold their phones upright; keep the text short; show several pictures in a carousel; add movement; and use a call-to-action button. How ads appear inside WhatsApp itself is covered in our guide to ads in WhatsApp Status.
The smallest pictures Meta recommends
Which shape for which spot, and what Meta fills in
Flexible media: Meta stretches one picture to more spots
Flexible media is Meta's automatic option for ads with placement-customised pictures. Instead of one picture going to one spot, Meta may deliver it to more spots where it expects better results, for example a tall picture made for Stories or Reels shown in Feed too. Meta says flexible media may be switched on by default and can be switched off at any time. It works only when you upload the media yourself and choose the single image or video format.
Meta says it uses technology to detect when important information might be cut off a picture by the new shape, and then stops that version from being delivered. It cannot yet do the same for videos, so for a video Meta points to the ad preview, and warns that the preview does not show every possible format and the live ad may look slightly different.
- Leads objective
- Every conversion location except website and instant forms, and website and calls.
- Sales objective
- Every conversion location except website and in-store, and website and calls.
- Engagement objective
- Every conversion location except Facebook Page.
- Traffic objective
- Every conversion location except Facebook and Instagram.
- Awareness and App promotion
- Every conversion location.
Our reading: ads that open WhatsApp are not on the exclusion list
Add animation: Meta's AI makes a picture move
Add animation is a generative AI feature in Advantage+ creative. Meta says it adds common movements such as panning, zooming and rotating to an eligible picture and turns it into a short video, and that text in the picture may move too. Meta says it is being rolled out to eligible advertisers, so it may not appear for you yet.
- The animation is two seconds long, looping to 8 seconds, at 16 frames a second.
- Ads with it are delivered only to Instagram Reels at this time.
- It works only with a single image ad, not a video or a carousel.
- It does not work with placement crops: Meta says to choose Original for each placement in the media editor instead.
- Meta recommends pictures without heavy text, people, more than four main objects or brand logos.
An ad picture created or significantly edited with some of Meta's generative AI tools may carry an AI info label next to the Ad label, or a note under About this ad in the ad's three-dot menu. Meta launched supplemental terms for its generative AI ad features on 6 May 2024. More on the other AI tools that change an ad's pictures and words is in our guides to Meta's automatic creative changes and Advantage+.
Our reading: a moving price is still a price
What to look at before you publish
- Crops. In Ads Manager, under Ad creative, the media editor shows each placement. Crop each one around the part of the picture that matters, or choose Original if you want Add animation.
- Flex media. Meta says the switch is gradually moving into Advantage+ creative: if it is not on the Crop screen, go on to Enhancements and find Flex media. For the Awareness objective, or any objective whose conversion location is calls, Meta says to use the Crop screen.
- The preview. When flexible media is on, Meta shows a Flexible media label on the ad preview in Ads Manager. If you cannot see an animation in the preview, Meta says to choose Advanced preview and open the Advantage+ creative tab.
Questions
Which picture shape works best for an ad in WhatsApp Status?
Meta's page on aspect ratios recommends the tall 9:16 shape for Stories, Status and Reels placements, so the picture covers the whole phone screen. If you do not upload one, Meta may pad, expand or crop your picture to fit, so check the preview before publishing.
How big should the picture be for an ad in WhatsApp Status?
Meta's Help Center gives 500 by 320 pixels as the recommended minimum for WhatsApp Status, and 1080 by 1080 for most Facebook and Instagram spots. Meta says these are only minimums and recommends the highest resolution picture available.
Can Meta show our WhatsApp ad's picture in a spot we did not design it for?
It can, if flexible media is on. Meta's Help Center says flexible media may be switched on by default and lets Meta deliver one picture or video to more placements where it expects better results. Meta says it stops a picture from being delivered when important information would be cut off, but cannot yet check videos the same way. It can be switched off at any time.
Can Meta's AI turn our ad picture into a video?
Yes, with Add animation, a generative AI feature in Advantage+ creative that Meta is rolling out to eligible advertisers. It adds movements such as panning and zooming to a single image, two seconds looping to 8, and Meta says ads with it are delivered only to Instagram Reels at this time.
Which picture shape should an ad that opens WhatsApp use?
Meta's tips say a tall or square picture or video, because most people hold their phones upright, and its placement tools let you crop differently for each spot, for example tall for Stories. Our reading: make one crop for each spot the ad can appear in, rather than letting one shape stretch across all of them.
Sources
- Meta Business Help Center: About asset customization for placements in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
- Meta Business Help Center: About flexible media in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
- Meta Business Help Center: Add animation to an image in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
- Meta Business Help Center: Best practices to make your ad more engaging, read 8 October 2026.
- Meta Business Help Center: Recommended minimum image pixel requirements across placements in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
- Meta Business Help Center: Best practices for aspect ratios, read 9 October 2026.
More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.
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