Facebook ad creative
in Malta.
Ads people stop for.

Design for the phone, because that is where most people in Malta see your ads. For Facebook and Instagram feeds, Meta’s ads guide recommends a vertical 4:5 image or video at 1440 × 1800 pixels; 1080 × 1350 also works well. For Stories and Reels, use full-screen 9:16 at 1440 × 2560 or 1080 × 1920. Carousels take 2 to 10 cards, each 1:1 or 4:5.

In 9:16 placements, Meta’s own interface sits on top of your ad: the profile name at the top, and the caption, the button and the like and comment icons at the bottom. Meta asks you to keep text, logos and anything important out of the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side. A price or a phone number placed at the bottom of a Reel is usually hidden behind the button.

Text needs the same care. Only the first line or two of the primary text shows before “See more”, roughly 125 characters on a phone, so put the offer and the place there. Headlines get cut too, so keep them short; Meta recommends about 27 characters in the Facebook feed. The old rule that limited text on images to 20% was dropped years ago, but an image with a few bold words still usually beats a crowded flyer. Put the detail in the text, not on the picture.

Each format has a job. A single image suits one clear offer or one strong photo: a new dish, a finished job, a product on a plain background with the price. A short vertical video suits anything that needs showing or explaining: how a service works, what the venue feels like, the team behind the business. It also feels natural in Reels, where people already expect video.

A carousel suits a range or a sequence: five bestsellers, three steps of a service, a before, during and after of a renovation, or a menu. For online shops, catalogue ads build the cards automatically from your product feed and show each person products they are likely to want, which makes them one of the strongest formats for retargeting.

You do not need a studio. Clear phone video of the real thing, filmed in good light and edited simply, often beats polished footage that looks like a television advert, because it looks like the content people chose to follow. What does matter is quality you can see: sharp, bright, steady and in the right shape for the placement.

A restaurant in Valletta shows a dish being plated, then the table with the view, then a line about booking on WhatsApp for tonight. A tour operator runs English-language videos of the actual boat and route for tourists already on the island, and a separate set in Maltese or English for residents planning a weekend in Gozo. An online shop shows the product in use, in a real home, with delivery times to Malta and Gozo in the text.

A trades business shows a finished job and the same room before it, with the locality and a button to send a photo for a quote. A clinic or salon explains what happens at a first appointment, calmly, within Meta’s health and beauty ad rules. A property agency uses a carousel of one listing, room by room, with the area and a viewing request. None of these needs a celebrity or a big budget, only real material from the business itself.

Two Malta details are worth planning for. Tourists and residents respond to different things, so separate them when you can, by language, by location or by the offer. And the year here has strong seasons, from summer and the festa weekends to Christmas, so prepare creative for each one ahead of time instead of reusing the same ad all year.

Every ad wears out. As the same people see it again and again, frequency climbs, fewer people click and the cost of each lead or sale goes up. In a small market like Malta this can happen sooner than in big countries, because your audience is smaller and sees your ad more often. When frequency keeps rising and cost per result has been climbing for a couple of weeks, it is time for something new.

Refresh the idea, not just the colours. A new hook, a new angle or new footage brings back attention; the same photo with a different filter does not. Keep your best performers running while you test the next ones alongside them, so results do not drop while you look for a winner.

The easiest way to keep up is a simple monthly routine. Film a few short clips and take a few photos every month: a new product, a finished job, a busy evening, a team member answering a common question. With a small library of real material ready, fresh creative becomes an hour of editing instead of a crisis when results fall.

One landscape image stretched across every placement, so it is cropped in Reels and tiny in the feed. Key text placed where Meta’s buttons cover it. A print flyer reused as an ad, full of small text nobody can read on a phone. A slow video intro. Stock photos that could be from any country. And ten ads that are really the same ad with small changes.

The costliest mistake is leaving a winning ad running until it stops working and having nothing ready to replace it. Results drop, the reaction is to change the targeting or the budget, and the real problem, a tired ad, is never fixed. Plan the next round of creative while the current one is still doing well.