Over the years, Facebook groups have become the go-to social media platforms/channels for user-generated content and marketing. No matter what you’re using your group for, a lot goes into creating one. One of them is getting the Facebook group cover photo size right.
The very first thing a visitor will see after landing on your group page is the group cover photo. Hence, it’s crucial that it stands out.
A cover photo is more than “just a picture” – it captures the essence of your group’s purpose and tone. On that note, a Facebook group page cover photo should be captivating, clear, and most importantly – the right image size.
Whether you’re a marketer, blogger, or business owner doing social media marketing yourself, keep reading.
In this article, I’ll share key information about all of the above, including the ideal Facebook group cover photo size, along with some useful tips on how you can design impressive group covers.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is the Recommended Facebook Group Cover Photo Size?
The ideal Facebook group cover photo size is 1,640 x 856 pixels. This recommended size gives an aspect ratio of 1.91:1, which ensures that your group cover photo will be fully visible.
In other words, by sticking to these cover photo dimensions, you won’t have to deal with Facebook cropping out any copy or other elements you include in your photo.
Here’s an example of what your group cover photo may end up looking like if you don’t choose the right size dimensions, leaving it to Facebook to crop the image to the allowed specifications.
That’s not the result we’re looking for.
Picking the optimal group cover photo size is crucial if you want to make a positive impression on your audience and create something new from scratch.
In the past, Facebook has had the frequent itch of changing its group cover photo size specification every year. However, this year they’ve modified it to a ratio that functions as a one-size-fits-all feature.
Uploading a Facebook group cover photo with the dimensions mentioned above will display the design as you made it, on any device.
Why It’s Important to Get the Facebook Group Cover Photo Size Right
What’s the big deal about Facebook group covers anyway? Why bother making sure it fits right when everyone knows Facebook has the habit of cropping images beyond repair?
A Facebook group cover image is the first thing viewers see when they land on your group page. If you’re hoping to make a good impression on potential clients/leads/users and you’re looking for more members to join in – it’s pretty important. It’s a bit different from the cover photo on your personal Facebook profile.
Furthermore, it can help you stand out from competitor groups on the social network.
When people see you put in efforts towards making your Facebook business page or group, it shows that you’re dedicated and professional. And if designed right, the group cover photo can act as a visual summary of your group.
Anyone who can tell what your group is about by simply looking at your group cover photo is more likely to join, than someone who has to dig for any information that was potentially cropped off (or not even included in the first place).
How to Design an Awesome Facebook Group Cover Photo?
Creating an original cover photo that accurately represents the essence and purpose of your Facebook group (or Facebook page, for that matter), is an excellent way to increase the number of members, drive engagement, and connect with your audience.
However, it can be a bit challenging, especially for those with little or no experience with graphic designing.
Luckily, there’s a solution – Pixelied, a great alternative to Photoshop and sites like Canva.
By using simple drag-and-drop features, you can whip up high-quality designs with minimal effort.
Here’s a quick 3-step tutorial:
Step 1: Open the Editor and Select a Template
Head over to our free editor where you can begin designing your Facebook group cover photo.
If you follow the link above, you’ll see that the canvas is automatically set to the recommended Facebook group cover photo size (1,640 x 856 px).
Furthermore, Pixelied has a wide variety of free Facebook group cover templates to choose from, which you can access from the menu bar on the left.
The editor link above already has Facebook cover photo templates locked and loaded.
Select any of the ready-to-use templates you’d like to start off with.
Step 2: Start Designing
Once you’ve selected the template of your choice, you can start designing the perfect Facebook group cover photo.
Pixelied is a highly flexible and intuitive tool. You’ve got the reigns and you make the decisions.
For this demonstration, let’s begin our design by working with this template.
We offer a variety of tools that you can use to really elevate your design.
On the toolbar to the left-hand side of your workspace, you can access features such as the Text tool, Images (stock photos sourced from Unsplash and Pixabay), Illustrations, Elements, and social media icons.
The toolbar above the canvas also has a bunch of free tools that you can use. These include size adjustment/resize, color, and element/layer reposition feature.
Add-on graphics may seem insignificant but can add personality to a flat image that you’ve designed. Here’s exhibit-A:
Remember, this is your cover photo, and you decide how it looks.
One thing we’ll suggest you do is to keep your design simple and clean. Avoid clutter, so your viewers can concentrate on the prime subject of your group.
Step 3: Download
Once you feel your design is good to go, it’s time to download it.
Move your cursor to the Download button on the corner right of the free editor, and click it.
Here, you decide the format you want to download your image in (PNG or JPG). Additionally, you can also specify the file size.
It is recommended to download graphics as PNG files. This allows the image to maintain its quality and resolution even after Facebook compresses it whilst being uploaded as your group cover photo.
And that’s it.
It’s that simple to design your own Facebook group cover photo from scratch. Try it yourself!
Tips for Designing a Captivating Facebook Group Cover Photo
In this section, we’ll share some different design/platform-specific tips to create an awesome Facebook group cover photo:
1. Maintain the Overall Theme of the Group
This group theme feature lets you select a primary color for the background and buttons of your group.
This may sound insignificant, but smartly pairing a group theme with the group cover photo really pulls the look of the group together.
It’s good practice to design a Facebook group cover photo while bearing in the mind the overall theme you want your group to have.
You can select your group theme by following these steps:
- After selecting your group from your News Feed, click Settings in the left menu.
- Next to Group Color, click the downwards-facing arrow.
- Select the color of your liking (or click your cover photo image to get a custom color).
- Click Save/Apply Color.
It’s as simple as that.
Only group admins can change the Facebook group color theme.
2. Take Mobile into Account
The layout you see on a desktop screen will naturally differ from that on a mobile screen.
Because of this difference, it’s vital to keep the mobile layout into account when designing your group cover photo. The image will be slightly cut off more on mobile devices.
The emphasis on the mobile layout is massive, given that in 2020, 98% of all active user accounts worldwide accessed Facebook on their mobile devices.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of uploading a separate group cover photo on a mobile than that on the Facebook desktop browser.
Cover photos have a wider aspect ratio on the desktop, while they’re taller on a mobile device.
This helpful image shows you how Facebook crops its group cover photos on different devices.
Keeping this in mind, it’s smart not to let important text, logos, or social media handles trail onto the extreme sides of your cover photos. Try moving these a bit toward the centre of the image. Think of it as the safe zone.
Other elements, like patterns and shapes can be situated near the edges.
3. Ensure Everything is Visible
When designing a Facebook group cover photo, it can be easy to misjudge the appropriate size of all the elements present in your image.
When you’re designing a group cover photo, you are being shown the full-sized image on the large screen you are working on.
But viewers see the Facebook group cover photo in a smaller size, as it only takes up a small, horizontal section of the group page.
It is important to remember this change in size when you choose how to size each element in your cover image. This includes the copy and its font and smaller elements, like any social media icons and decorative shapes. Here’s a good example:
To ensure all these elements are appropriately sized, pay attention to how their size compares to other elements on the image, and how much space they take up.
You can try zooming out in the Editor to see how the cover photo would look when scaled down.
4. Leave Ample Whitespace
Design isn’t just about what you add. It’s equally (if not more) about what you leave out.
Whitespace is the area between design elements in any graphic or image.
To design a group cover photo that effectively encompasses the purpose of your group, leaving sufficient whitespace brings focus to what’s really important in the image.
This is a great example of what leaving whitespace can do for your image. Your eyes are immediately directed to the header, and what the brand vision is.
Don’t be afraid to leave out empty space – in fact, we encourage that you do leave it out.
Clear, concise, and clean is the way to go.
If your Facebook group cover photo has too much going on, you give viewers the impression of having trouble identifying the key concept, tone, and brand of your group.
Here’s another example of a Facebook group cover photo done right:
It’s clean. It’s minimal. It looks awesome!
5. Align Your Group Cover Photo with the Content
As mentioned above, a Facebook group cover photo acts as a visual representation of what your group is all about.
In the cover photo examples above, we can tell just by looking at the image what the purpose of the group is.
The tutoring cover photo probably belongs to an academic group, where tutors interact with students or share extra resources to help facilitate their learning.
Here’s another example of a cover photo for a Facebook group called “Women of Impact,” which shows women from different ethnicities:
Similarly, it wouldn’t make much sense to use an image of someone kayaking as a group cover photo for a travel agency that specifically focuses on trekking trips in mountainous regions.
Keep in mind exactly what you’re offering and who your target audience is when you’re designing your Facebook group cover photo.
It also helps to establish your group’s tone of voice – whether you want to come across as passionate, scientific, helpful, or relatable is reflected in the way you address your audience in captions, comment replies, and inbox inquires.
Your tone of voice should reflect in your group cover photo, as it will help your audience learn more about the group.
Ending Note
Your Facebook group cover photo is the first thing viewers will notice, so it is imperative that is captivating and clear. In fact, this applies to all forms of social media design.
This is especially important if you’re running a Facebook group that’s tied with your business. The cover photo will form your potential customers’ and clients’ first impressions of your brand.
We’ve laid out the technicalities for you and explained what you can do to avoid rookie mistakes. You know the ideal Facebook group cover photo size, and what you should keep in mind when crafting one from scratch.
But when it comes to the actual design – that’s on you.
Spend time understanding what your Facebook group’s purpose is, how you want to it to be seen as, and think of some key attributes you want viewers to remember about it.
Then use that condensed information and reflect it in your design.
And remember – with Pixelied, the actual designing process is a piece of cake!
