How to Make a Facebook Cover Photo

Your Facebook cover photo is the first thing people see when they land on your page, acting as a digital billboard for your brand, business, or personality. It’s an opportunity to make a strong first impression and tell your story instantly. This guide breaks down exactly how to create a compelling cover photo, from getting the dimensions right to mastering creative strategies that draw people in.

First Things First: Why Your Facebook Cover Photo Matters

Before we get into the technical details, let’s quickly talk about why this single image is so important. Think of your Facebook page as your digital storefront. Your profile picture is the logo on the door, but your cover photo is the big, beautiful window display. It’s your best chance to:

• Tell Your Brand Story: Are you fun and energetic? Professional and sleek? Community-focused? Your cover photo can communicate this in a split second.
• Promote Your Product or Service: Use this prime real estate to showcase what you sell, highlight a new feature, or announce a special offer.
• Build a Connection: Featuring your team or happy customers can make your brand feel more human and relatable, fostering a sense of community.
• Drive Action: While the image itself isn't clickable, it can visually guide users to the call-to-action button just below it, like “Shop Now” or “Sign Up.”

In short, it’s not just a placeholder image. It’s a powerful, free marketing tool that frames your entire social media presence.

The Nitty Gritty: Perfecting Your Facebook Cover Photo Size

Nothing undermines a great design faster than incorrect sizing. A stretched, blurry, or poorly cropped cover photo looks unprofessional. The trickiest part about Facebook’s cover photo is designing one that looks great on both desktop computers and mobile devices, as they crop the image differently.

Official Dimensions and the "Safe Zone"

Here are the numbers you need to know:

• Displays on Desktop at: 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall.
• Displays on Mobile at: 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall.

See the problem? The aspect ratios are completely different. What looks perfect on your computer might have its sides chopped off on a phone, where most of your audience will see it. The solution is to design for a "mobile-first" safe zone.

The Pro-Tip: Design within an 820px by 462px canvas.

Here’s how to think about it:

1. Start with a canvas that is 820px wide by 462px tall. This is your master design file. All your important elements like logos, text, and main subject matter should be placed within this frame.
2. Horizontally center your main content. Keep everything important squarely in the middle. The desktop view will crop some of the top and bottom off your image, displaying the middle 820x312 portion.
3. Also focus your critical info away from the far left and right edges. The mobile view will crop the sides, showing a taller, narrower image.

Your true "safe zone" - the area guaranteed to be visible on both desktop and mobile - is approximately the central 640px by 312px area of your 820px wide canvas. Anything outside this box (text, logos, faces) is at risk of being cropped on one device or another. Keeping your main message in this central area ensures it will always be seen, no matter how a visitor is viewing your page.

Creative Best Practices: Ideas for a Standout Cover Photo

Once you’ve mastered the dimensions, you can focus on the fun part: the creative. Here are some proven strategies and ideas to make your cover photo work harder for your brand.

1. Solidify Your Brand Identity

Your cover photo should instantly feel like it belongs to your brand. Use your brand colors, fonts, and overall visual style. If you have a physical location like a coffee shop or boutique, a beautiful, high-quality photograph of your space can work wonders. Keep it consistent with the look and feel of your website and other social profiles.

2. Showcase Your Product or Service in Action

Don't just show your product - show it being used and enjoyed. If you sell durable outdoor gear, show someone hiking a mountain with your backpack. If you're a restaurant, a mouth-watering shot of a signature dish being served to happy customers is far more compelling than a static photo of the plate.

3. Announce What’s New

Your cover photo is a fantastic place to promote timely updates. Use it to announce:

• A new product launch
• An upcoming sale or promotion
• A special event or webinar
• Seasonal campaigns (holiday specials, summer collection, etc.)

This keeps your page feeling fresh and gives regular visitors a reason to pay attention.

4. Drive Action and Point to Your CTA Button

Use your cover photo to encourage visitors to take the next step. Simple text like "Shop Our New Collection" or "Sign Up for Your Free Trial" directs attention to the action button just below the image. Some brands even get creative with arrows or other visual cues that point directly to the button.

5. Feature Your Community

Showcase the people who make your brand what it is. This could be a photo collage of your team members or, even better, a montage of user-generated content from happy customers. This type of social proof builds trust and makes your brand feel much more authentic and community-driven.

6. Consider a Video or Slideshow

For an extra touch of engagement, you can use a Facebook cover video or a slideshow of multiple images. A cover video (between 20-90 seconds) can instantly capture attention and tell a more dynamic story. You could show a quick behind-the-scenes look at your workshop, a hyper-lapse of an event, or an animated version of your logo.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Your Cover Photo with an Online Tool

You don't need to be a graphic designer to create a professional-looking cover photo. Free online tools like Canva or Adobe Express are packed with templates that are already set to the right dimensions.

Step 1: Get Started with a Template

Open your design tool of choice and search for "Facebook Cover." You’ll instantly find hundreds of pre-sized templates. Choose one that reflects your brand's style or start with a blank canvas sized to 820 x 462 pixels to build your own.

Step 2: Choose Your Background

Select a high-quality photo, an eye-catching illustration, or a solid color that matches your brand palette. Upload your own photography or browse the tool’s stock library. Look for an image that is relatively simple and won't make your text hard to read.

Step 3: Add Your Text and Logo

This is where you'll add your slogan, a call to action, or any promotional text. Remember the mobile safe zone! Drag guidelines in your tool to mark off the central 640 x 312 area and keep all your main visual elements inside that box. Add your logo for brand recognition, but don't make it too dominant - it's already in your profile picture.

Step 4: Download Your File

Once you’re happy with the design, it’s time to export it. For images with text and crisp logos, downloading as a PNG file format will give you the best quality and prevent annoying compression fuzziness. For photo-heavy designs, a high-quality JPG will also work well.

How to Upload Your New Cover Photo to Facebook

With your masterpiece ready to go, the final step is uploading it to your page. The process is simple:

1. Navigate to your Facebook Page.
2. Hover over your current cover photo and click the "Edit Cover Photo" button that appears in the corner.
3. Select "Upload Photo" from the dropdown menu and choose the file you just created.
4. Once uploaded, Facebook will allow you to drag the image up and down to reposition it. This is where you can see how it will be cropped on desktop. Adjust it until it looks perfect.
5. Click "Save Changes."

One final pro-tip: After you upload your new cover photo, Facebook treats it like a new post. Click on the photo in your timeline and "Edit Post" to add a description. This is a great place to add a clickable link to your website, a promo page, or wherever you want to send people.

Final Thoughts

Creating a Facebook cover photo is more than just an item on your social media setup checklist, it’s a strategic opportunity to define your brand and connect with your audience. By getting the size right for every device, focusing on a clear and compelling message, and aligning the visuals with your brand identity, you can turn that prime real estate into one of your most effective marketing assets.

A great cover photo is your page's first hello, but consistently amazing content is what keeps the conversation going. We created Postbase to make the "what's next?" part easier. After you’ve set the perfect stage with your new cover, our platform helps you visually plan your content calendar, schedule posts across all your profiles with a few clicks, and see exactly what's resonating with your audience. It helps you build on that great first impression, day after day.