By Ben Dyer | Head of Growth, Webtopia

More than 60% of time spent on Facebook and Instagram is now on video. Meta's April 2026 platform data shows that ad sets where at least 20% of creative assets are 9:16 video with audio deliver 7% lower cost per acquisition compared to those that do not meet this threshold. For DTC brands still running primarily static image ads, this is the single most actionable creative change available to them right now. This guide covers the format data, what the safe zone changes mean for production, and how to use Meta's Product Video Generation Tool if your catalogue does not yet have video assets.

Why Video Is No Longer Optional on Meta

The shift in how people use Facebook and Instagram has made video the dominant format on the platform. Meta's own data confirms that more than 60% of total time spent on Facebook and Instagram happens with video content. The feed, Stories, and Reels surfaces have all moved in the same direction: video is what users engage with, which means it is what Meta's algorithm has the most data on, and therefore what it can deliver most efficiently.

For DTC advertisers, this creates a compound problem if they have not shifted their creative mix accordingly. Running static images against competitors and creators who are publishing video means competing for attention in a context where attention has already moved on. The users most valuable to a DTC brand, those who are engaged, browsing actively, and in a discovery mindset, are disproportionately watching video. If your ad inventory does not include it, you are ceding reach to the formats they are already consuming.

The performance data backs this up. But the more important question is not whether video outperforms static in the abstract. It is whether your specific creative mix is structured in the way that Meta's delivery system can use most efficiently. That is a more specific and more actionable question, and the answer to it is in the asset proportion data Meta published in April 2026.

The 9:16 Data: What Meta's Numbers Actually Show

Meta's updated guidance from April 2026 provides two specific data points that every DTC brand running paid social should understand.

The first is about ad set composition. Ad sets where at least 20% of creative assets are 9:16 video with audio showed 7% lower cost per acquisition compared to ad sets where this proportion was not met. This is a comparison at the ad set level, not the individual ad level, which means the improvement comes from having the right mix of assets available, not from any single video outperforming any single image.

The second is about the asset hierarchy within the mix. Ad sets that included 9:16 video with audio as their highest-volume asset, followed by images, followed by other video formats, showed 3% lower cost per acquisition compared to ad sets that did not follow this ordering. The mechanism here is Meta's AI delivery system: when it has a rich variety of assets with the right format priorities, it can more precisely match each creative to the person and placement most likely to respond to it. That matching efficiency is what produces the CPA improvement.

There is also placement-specific data for Instagram Feed specifically: video ads using 9:16 aspect ratio see on average 7% higher click-through rate and 4% higher offsite conversion rate compared to other formats. Single image ads in 4:5 format (the recommended ratio for Feed image ads) see a 1% increase in click-through rate and offsite conversion rate compared to other aspect ratios. These are incremental improvements rather than transformational ones at the individual ad level, but at the scale of a DTC media budget, they compound meaningfully.

What 'With Audio' Means for Your Creative Brief

The 9:16 specification from Meta is specifically 9:16 video with audio. This distinction matters for how you brief your creative team and how you structure production.

A 9:16 video without sound, or with audio only as an afterthought, does not carry the same weight in Meta's delivery data. The audio component is part of how the format is defined and measured. This does not mean your video needs a professional voiceover or a complex sound design. It means the video should be produced with the assumption that sound is on, with audio that reinforces the message rather than competing with or ignoring it.

For DTC brands in fashion, beauty, and wellness, this often means product videos with authentic ambient sound, music that matches the brand tone, or a direct-to-camera founder or testimonial clip where the audio is the content. The format is unforgiving about one thing: if you mute your video and the message still works perfectly, you have not produced a video for sound-on environments. You have produced a graphic with motion.

The practical brief is straightforward. Design the video for a viewer who has sound on. Include a hook in the first three seconds that makes sense with audio engaged. Make sure the sound adds to the message rather than being a background track that could be swapped for any other song. That level of audio intentionality is what the 9:16 with audio specification is asking for.

The Safe Zone Changes and What They Mean for Production

Meta introduced unified safe zone guidance across Stories and Reels in March 2026. Facebook Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels now all share the same safe zone. For creative teams producing 9:16 content, this simplification removes one of the production complexities that previously made cross-placement video more resource-intensive.

Previously, the safe zones for Stories and Reels were slightly different, which meant a video built to be safe on Stories might have key text or product visuals cropped differently on Reels. The unified standard means a single 9:16 master with all critical elements within the safe zone can be deployed across all four surfaces without adjustment. That is a real production efficiency for brands managing creative at scale.

There is one nuance with Reels specifically. On devices with screens taller than the standard 9:16 aspect ratio, Meta may either zoom the creative to fill the screen (which can crop areas outside the safe zone) or show the creative in its original 9:16 ratio with a black background to fill the extra space. The safe zone guidance protects against the first case: keep critical text, product shots, and calls to action well within the safe zone and they will survive both rendering outcomes.

For Instagram Feed video ads, Meta's recommended aspect ratio has been updated to 9:16. These will continue to be cropped at the top and bottom for the Feed display, with the account handle overlaid at the top. The implication for production is to keep the most important visual information in the central portion of the frame, away from the edges where cropping and overlay will affect what is visible.

Meta's Product Video Generation Tool: Video Without a Production Budget

One of the most common objections to the 9:16 guidance from smaller DTC brands is straightforward: we do not have video assets. Producing video for every product in a catalogue is expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to maintain as the range changes.

Meta's Product Video Generation Tool (previously in beta as GenCPV) is designed to address this directly. It allows advertisers to generate catalogue product videos at scale by combining existing product images with customisable templates, overlays, and background assets from Meta's own library. The output is 9:16 and 4:5 videos created directly within the tool, without the need for external production.

The April 2026 update to the tool added four meaningful improvements. Overlays are now customisable, allowing brands to add text, motion elements, or brand assets to different segments of the generated video. An asset library provides a range of intro videos and background options for brands that do not have their own footage. Distinct 9:16 and 4:5 templates allow different aspect ratios to be customised separately rather than cropped from a single master. In-product guidance gives creative direction on what generates high-performing videos within the tool.

For catalogue-heavy DTC brands in fashion, beauty, or home, this tool represents the most accessible path to meeting the 9:16 video threshold without a production investment. The output will not replace fully produced brand films, but it does not need to. It needs to be good enough to improve the asset mix in your ad sets, and for most product catalogue videos, the tool's output is sufficient to achieve that.

How to Build a Creative Mix That Performs

Taken together, the guidance points to a specific asset structure that Meta's AI delivery system can use most efficiently. The priority order is 9:16 video with audio as the dominant asset type, followed by images in the appropriate ratios for each placement (4:5 for Feed, 1:1 or 9:16 for other surfaces), followed by other video formats.

The threshold of 20% 9:16 video with audio in the ad set is a minimum floor, not an aspiration. Brands that can move significantly beyond that threshold while maintaining creative quality will have more material for the delivery system to work with across the full range of placements, particularly as Reels and Stories continue to grow as share of Meta inventory.

At Webtopia, the DTC brands we see transitioning to this creative structure most successfully are those that treat video as a category of assets with a production process, rather than occasional campaign-level pieces. That means maintaining a pipeline of short-form video content, typically 15 to 30 seconds, that can be cycled through ad sets continuously. The brands that do this well do not produce fewer videos. They produce simpler ones, more frequently, built specifically for the platform rather than adapted from other channels.

The creative diversity that the 9:16 guidance is building toward connects directly to how Meta's AI delivery system works at a fundamental level. Our piece on Meta Andromeda explains how creative diversity across your ad sets unlocks new audience reach by giving the algorithm genuinely distinct options to match to different people, rather than variations of the same creative competing for the same audience.

If you are building a more systematic approach to testing which video directions perform best, Meta Creative Testing covers how to run structured creative tests within your existing campaigns while keeping delivery learnings intact, which allows you to identify winning video concepts without paying a learning phase penalty each time.