Last updated: January 30, 2024

One of the easiest ways to connect your friends, family or fans is through an event. And on Facebook, it’s simple to create an event, send invites and keep the conversation going. With all the noise on social, you need to make sure your Facebook event photo stands out and is memorable to invitees.

If your Facebook event photo size is incorrect, missing or just plain boring, you limit how much interest you can draw.

That’s why we’re here to help you add an image to your Facebook event, choose the right image and correctly size it to fit Facebook’s dimensions. If you’re looking for other Facebook photo sizes, check out our social media image size guide.

Add a unique Facebook event photo

Creating the perfect Facebook event doesn’t have to be a strenuous task. But for marketers using Facebook, the last thing you want is to have your page look sloppy or quickly made.

Adding a Facebook Event Cover Image Options

Once you get started with your event details, you have two options to upload images:

  1. Choose Illustration: Facebook provides a set of themes and illustrations to use that range in topics such as birthdays, holidays, parties and more. These options replace the need for an event image, but there’s only so many preset illustrations to choose from, and these can look pretty generic.
  2. Upload Cover Photo: Facebook also allows you to upload your own personal image (following Facebook content guidelines). Here you can adjust the size of the image to fit your event dimensions.

While the pre-set theme photos may be alright for small private gatherings, if you’re hosting a professional event, you definitely want to highlight your brand style and story as well as convey all the essential event details with a fantastic Facebook event cover photo.

Facebook event cover photo size guidelines

Selecting the correct Facebook event photo size and dimensions means the key parts of your image will be centered correctly without unexpected cropping and will display crisply on every device.

The current Facebook event photo size guidelines are:

  • Recommended image size: 1920 x 1005 pixels
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Facebook will scale down to minimum dimensions: 400×150 pixels
  • Facebook recommends for best results, choose photos that are 400×150 pixels.

Facebook scales down to the minimum dimensions in the feed, but uploading the larger size ensures you’ll get an image that displays well on any format. If you upload an image that’s too small, it could appear stretched in some formats.

Just ensure the most essential elements of your image, like text details, are centered to avoid cropping and our recommended size of a 16:9 image should help you get a crisp image every time.

Where your Facebook event image appears

Facebook has made several changes to the event photo over the last few years. Now the event photo has three different locations, but the recommended event photo size of 1920 x 1005 will scale to work for all three.

  • Upcoming Events: Displayed as a thumbnail, you can see the Facebook event photo in your upcoming events. This means you want to choose an image that stands out both as a thumbnail and in full size.
  • Event Page: This is the main resource for the event’s specific details, comments and updates.
  • Newsfeed: Event images within your Newsfeed display at nearly the same dimensions shown on the actual Facebook event page.

Learn more about Facebook image sizes

Working on the rest of your Facebook presence? Check out these resources for ensuring your images are optimized:

How to choose the best Facebook event photo

The image you choose could be the difference in who decides to attend. Additionally, if you don’t put much thought into your image, it can seem spammy or unprofessional. Follow these tips to choose the best Facebook event photo:

Make your image stand out

Plain and simple, we remember images better than text.

Since Facebook event cover images can show up in different locations at different sizes, you don’t want to pack your image with text that could be unreadable at different sizes. Focus on visual storytelling instead.

If you’re creating a recurring Facebook event, use recurring elements like a logo or a consistent visual style to boost brand recognition as it shows up in users’ feeds.

Use relevant images

If you’re a business hosting an event and plan to send out Facebook invites, make sure your image is true to the occasion and appeals to your target audience.

You can get a few ideas by looking at past events and what’s worked before. Other sources for image inspiration can come from your brand’s current visual language, such as recurring illustration styles used across your marketing. If you’re using specific colors and imagery for a product launch or initiative, be sure to pull those in for instant recognition.

If you have a people-centric industry event, mine your past event images to find photos that show off how much your audience took away from the previous occasion. This is a great strategy for recurring events such as yearly conferences.

Use a photo editing tool

Before you hit publish on your Facebook event, take a second look at your image to make sure it’s as professional looking as possible. Using an image straight from your iPhone shouldn’t be the extent of your editing.

Try out Sprout Social’s free image resizing tool, Landscape, which lets you easily fit the same or multiple images to the correct dimensions across all social networks.

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If you’re still stuck on the correct dimensions and sizes of other popular social network images, check out our always up-to-date social media image sizes guide!