Google Ads video thumbnail: 1280x720 minimum, under 2 MB

Google Ads' video specs page lists thumbnails at 16:9, at least 1280 by 720, as JPG, GIF or PNG, under 2 MB. Sume's Video inspect can return stills at timestamps you choose, as JPEG or PNG, with a long-edge cap you set, so a thumbnail is one call away.

Requirements on the page

The page also lists in-video text assets: headlines of 2 lines at 40 characters per line and descriptions of 2 lines at 35. Those are fields in the ad, not pixels in the video, so keep them out of the cut.

Pulling a still

Video inspect's frames accepts at with 1 to 24 timestamps in seconds, a format of jpeg or png, and max_edge from 64 to 2160, defaulting to 768. The default is too small for this spec, so set max_edge to at least 1280 and read the returned width and height for each still to confirm.

Use seek: precise (the default) so the still is the instant you named. fast can land up to a GOP earlier, which would hand you the wrong face.

Limits

Stills are billed by compute, per the docs, and the probe-only call is free. Look up the rate in the catalog before a batch.

The docs do not say a still will be under 2 MB, so check the file. Neither the Sume docs nor Google's page gives a size for a typical still, so verify with your own frame.