Why Vertical is the New Standard

Key Points

• Horizontal video on a phone fills less than a third of the screen, the rest is wasted space
• Vertical video fills the whole screen and matches how people already hold their phones
• Our data shows vertical ads got more than double the clicks of horizontal ones (4.88% vs 2.11%)
• The best ad spots on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts are vertical-only, you can't buy them otherwise ‍  

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Most of Your Ad Is Black Space

Pick up your phone right now. Hold it the way you normally do, straight up and down. That's how 90% of people use their phones.

Now picture a horizontal video ad on that screen. It's a small rectangle in the middle with big black bars on the top and bottom. That ad is only using about 30% of the screen you paid to be on.

A vertical ad fills the whole thing. Top to bottom, edge to edge. No black bars, no wasted space, no reason to scroll past it.

Here's what that means for you: When you run horizontal video on mobile, you're paying for the whole screen and only using a third of it. ‍

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Nobody Turns Their Phone Sideways for an Ad

Think about how you scroll on your phone. One hand. Thumb moving. You're not stopping to rotate the device because an ad came up. You just keep scrolling.

That's the problem with horizontal video on mobile. It asks the viewer to do extra work. Vertical video doesn't ask for anything. It just fits.

When the ad fits the way someone is already holding their phone, they watch longer. They finish more of the video. They click more.

Here's what that means for you: Vertical removes the one thing that makes people scroll past your ad in the first place. ‍ 

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The Numbers: 4.88% vs 2.11%

We ran the same kind of campaign two ways. Same audience. Same message. Different shape.

The vertical version got a 4.88% click-through rate. The horizontal version got 2.11%. More than double the clicks, just from changing the shape of the video.

Why? 

Because vertical ads on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts look like the rest of the content people are already watching. Horizontal ads look like a TV commercial somebody jammed into the wrong slot. People can tell the difference in half a second, and they scroll right past the ones that don't fit.

Here's what that means for you: Same budget, same audience, double the engagement. The only thing that changed was the shape. ‍ 

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The Best Ad Spots Are Vertical-Only

Here's something most dealers don't know. The premium ad spots on TikTok, Reels, and Shorts, the full-screen ones that show up between videos, are only available to vertical creatives.

If you only have horizontal video, you can't even bid on those spots. The ad server has to put you in the leftover placements, the small banner spots and sidebar slots nobody really watches.

Vertical creative unlocks the high-value inventory. Horizontal creative locks you out of it.

Here's what that means for you: Without vertical, you're not just running worse ads. You're competing for the worst placements. ‍ 

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Action Steps

• Ask whether your current video ads are vertical or horizontal, if they're horizontal on mobile, that's the first thing to fix
• Stop cropping horizontal footage into vertical, shoot it vertical from the start so it actually looks right
• Run your vertical ads as their own campaign so they land in the premium full-screen spots instead of the leftovers
• Pair vertical creative with social platforms like TikTok, Reels, and Shorts where the format was built to live

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