What Is a Carousel Ad on Facebook and Instagram?

A carousel packs several swipeable cards into a single ad unit. Each card is its own image or video with a separate headline, description, link and button, so one ad can send people to different product pages or walk them through a sequence. Carousels run across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Meta Audience Network, and you can build them in Ads Manager or from your Facebook Page.

What can you use a carousel ad for?

Meta lists these uses for the format:

• Feature several products, each linking to its own landing page
• Show different angles or features of one product
• Tell a story across images and videos in sequence
• Explain a process step by step
• Split one large image across all cards as a wider canvas

What are the carousel ad specs?

Meta’s carousel design page and its Ads Guide give these specs for Facebook:

Spec	Value Meta lists
Number of cards	2 to 10
Aspect ratio (Facebook)	1:1 or 9:16; 4:5 only for Advantage+ catalog carousels using catalog images
Resolution (1:1, Ads Guide)	At least 1,080 × 1,080 px
Image file and size	JPG or PNG, up to 30 MB
Video size and length	Up to 4 GB; up to 240 minutes

For Instagram Feed, the design page lists 1:1 or 4:5 and video up to 2 minutes. Meta’s pages disagree on Instagram Stories: the design page lists a maximum of 3 cards there, while the separate Stories carousel article says up to 10 cards, with 1 to 5 shown before people tap Expand story.

Videos in a carousel autoplay as people swipe. Meta says videos under 30 seconds loop for about 90 seconds, longer ones do not loop, and sound is off by default.

How do you create a carousel ad in Ads Manager?

For the Awareness, Traffic or Engagement objectives, Meta gives these steps:

1. Go to Ads Manager and click + Create.
2. Select Awareness, Traffic or Engagement, then click Continue.
3. Choose a conversion location at the ad set level; “On your ad” and “Facebook Page” do not work with carousel.
4. Select Manual upload or Advantage+ catalog ads in the ad setup section.
5. Select Carousel as your ad format.
6. Click + Add cards to upload images or videos.
7. Enter each card’s headline, description and website URL, or apply one set to all cards.

For Leads, App promotion and Sales, the flow starts with Advantage+ campaign setup; you toggle off Advantage+ catalog ads at the campaign level if you want to upload cards by hand.

Which carousel optimizations can Meta apply?

When you set up the cards, you may see these options: show cards as a video in Facebook Feed when it may improve performance, automatically show the best-performing cards first, add a closing card with your Page’s profile picture, add music, and add a map card with your nearest stores.

How do you see results for each card?

1. Go to Ads Manager and open the Columns menu.
2. Choose Carousel engagement.
3. Open Breakdown, select By action, then Carousel card.

FAQ

Can one carousel link each card to a different page?

Yes. Meta describes each carousel card as having its own headline, description, link and call to action. That is why Meta suggests carousels for featuring several products that each point to a different landing page. You can also apply one link to every card if you prefer.

Can a carousel mix images and videos?

Yes. Meta’s about page describes the format as showing 2 or more images and videos in a single ad. One exception: when you build a carousel inside an ad set using dynamic creative, Meta’s setup page says you can only add images to the carousel.

Why did my carousel run as a video?

Meta says a carousel ad may appear as a slideshow video automatically when that is likely to improve performance. Its setup steps also list a separate “display carousel cards as a video” option for Facebook Feed. Review that option when you set up the cards, and check the ad preview before you publish.