Your Cover Photo is not only the first thing people see on your Facebook page, it’s also the most customizable area of your page. Taking advantage of this prime real estate will allow you to quickly catch visitors’ attention with your products, deals, CTAs, etc.
Here are some best practices for optimizing your Facebook Cover Photo designs.
1. Start with the right image dimensions.
Facebook displays all cover photos at 851px x 315px. We’re talking 851 x315 at 72ppi. Don’t bother designing it at a higher resolution because it won’t be displayed any larger. Designing it at the final size and resolution also makes it easier to align everything perfectly, because there isn’t any scaling involved.
2. Profile Picture.
Don’t forget that it overlaps your cover photo. Rather than designing your cover photo as a separate piece, think about how you can integrate the image elements with your profile picture. You can really get creative here. Depending on the tone of your business personality and corporate style, try anything from arrows pointing to tabs/content below, or even displaying the profile picture as a cut-out of part of your cover photo. It’s a good idea to update your profile picture at the same time as your cover photo if you’re going to have different themes or colors involved.
3. Include CTAs.
Although you can’t actually make your cover photo a clickable link, you can create visual “links” and add the link text to the photo description. That way, when people click on your cover photo, the link is displayed to the right in the description text. This is a great way to guide your Facebook fans to specific landing pages.
4. Remember…It’s a Cover PHOTO.
Yes, Facebook has removed the 20% text limit that used to govern how much text you could include in your cover photo. But that doesn’t mean you should use that space to tell your life story. The whole idea of a cover photo is to attract the attention of your visitors. Don’t bore them; excite them! Use appealing imagery and strategic text to make your point and either educate or direct your fans to something meaningful to them.
In conclusion, it all comes down to UX (User Experience). That’s what you’re trying to create on your Facebook Page. People liked your page for a reason. If they haven’t yet, you need to give them a reason. Don’t try to force them to like; that contradicts the whole idea of “liking”. Just be genuine and provide meaningful and relevant content so people will want to come back for more. The Cover Photo is the first piece of content people will see…don’t blow it.
