Instagram Feed 1:1 and 4:5 ads: keep bottom and sides clear

Meta's safe-zone page gives two rules. For 9:16 ads in Stories, Reels, Feed and Facebook in-stream reels, keep the top, bottom and sides free of key elements, text and logos. For Instagram Feed ads in non-9:16 ratios such as 1:1 or 4:5, keep the bottom and the side edges free, which leaves the top available.

Two rules, one table

The page defines the safe zone as the area where important elements like text overlays and logos will not be cropped out or covered by the interface. It also says 9:16 video ads in Instagram Feed use the same guidance as Reels and Stories. So the ratio, not the placement name, decides which rule applies.

What it changes for captions

In a 1:1 or 4:5 Feed ad, a caption centered around 0.15 to 0.25 of the frame height, in the upper part, is allowed by the page. In a 9:16 ad that same position falls in the top margin, which should be clear.

Sume's caption job places a line by anchor_ratio, the center of the line as a fraction of the frame height. Because it is a fraction, one request body can be reused for a 1:1 and a 4:5 render, and a separate value is only needed when the safe-zone rule changes.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-captions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: feed-1x1-captions-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/square.mp4",
    "style": "slam",
    "design": { "placement": { "anchor_ratio": 0.25 } }
  }'

A caution on the top edge

The page does not say the top is guaranteed free of interface in non-9:16 Feed ads. It only does not list it among the edges to keep clear. Leave a small margin anyway, and use the Safe zone guardrail in Ads Manager, the yellow overlay, to confirm.

One caption pass or two

If you serve the same creative as 9:16 and as 1:1, the safest single position is the one that sits inside both zones: well below the top edge and well above the bottom band. Otherwise burn the captions twice, once per ratio, at $0.20 per standalone job for a clip up to 60 seconds.