Meta ad video length by placement: 15 s to 240 min

Meta's chart gives each placement its own ratio range and length: Facebook Feed 16:9 to 9:16 up to 240 minutes, Facebook Stories and Instagram Feed and Stories 1 to 120 seconds, Audience Network in-stream 5 to 30 seconds, Messenger Stories 15 seconds. The shortest allowed length across the set is the one that decides how many cuts you render.

Use the table below to choose lengths, then render only what the placements you buy can use.

The placement chart

The chart is a one-sheeter and Meta revises these pages. The Instagram Feed row here lists a 4:5 upper bound, while a separate Meta Instagram Feed ad page lists 9:16, so confirm the exact ratio in the Ads Manager preview before you commit a batch.

What that means for render lengths

A single 15-second cut fits every row, including Messenger Stories at exactly 15 seconds. A 30-second cut fits Audience Network's ceiling. Anything longer than 30 seconds stops being usable in Audience Network in-stream, and anything over 120 seconds stops fitting the Stories and Instagram placements.

The Sume video API takes duration in whole seconds on POST /v1/videos. Limits differ by model, and the docs say most catalog models top out at 15 seconds, while seedance-2.5 accepts 4 to 30 seconds. So a 15-second master is the portable length, and 30 seconds needs a model that lists it in supported_durations.

Cutting down instead of regenerating

To make a shorter version of an existing clip, use video trim rather than generating again. It takes start and either end or duration, returns a new MP4 and leaves the source untouched. The docs list $0.02 per job and a frame-accurate default (precision: exact).

Trim removes seconds from the end, so write the story so the key beat lands in the first 5 to 6 seconds. That one structural choice makes the 15 and 30 second cuts of the same piece work.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: placement-cut-15s-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/master.mp4",
    "start": 0,
    "duration": 15
  }'

A buying-to-render checklist

Collect many jobs at once with the batch wait described in jobs and results.

• List the placements in the campaign, not the full chart.
• Pick the shortest upper limit among them as the master length.
• Check each placement's ratio before you render, not after.
• Name each file with its placement, ratio and length.

Common length plans

Most campaigns need three lengths. A 6 to 15 second cut covers the tightest placements, a 15 to 30 second cut covers most paid social and Audience Network, and a longer cut belongs only where you have chosen a placement that allows it.

Write each length as its own story rather than as a squeezed version of the long one. A 15-second cut needs one idea and one call to action. A 30-second cut can add a proof point. Longer than that, you are making a different asset.

Keep a table of placement, ratio, length and file name per campaign so the render list is a direct copy of what you bought, not of Meta's full chart.