ADVERTISE
Social
Amplify your brand and reach the right audience on social via dark posts, targeting, and sponsorships from The Athletic’s social handles
- Dark posts
- Sponsored social carousel
- Sponsored posts and videos
- Targeting and paid promotion available
Amplify your brand and reach the right people on social
The Athletic offers social media amplification for brands via dark posts from The Athletic handles, allowing brands to target specific audiences with brand messaging and assets.
Dark Posts
Sponsored posts on Instagram and Facebook are targeted only to selected audiences during your flight, so they are not visible in the main feed.
Want to learn more?
Want to learn more?
Make an impact at scale with organic stories on Instagram
New in 2025, organic Instagram Stories allow brands to reach our entire following for 24 hours alongside editorial content.
Part of the Story
- Ads are integrated directly alongside story slides from our newsroom, allowing users to seamlessly interact with your creative as they scroll.
High Visibility
- Organic stories are visible to anyone who follows or views the account, ensuring that your campaign reaches the maximum number of users.
Your Message, Your Way
- Clients can submit their own assets and copy or tap our in-house creative studio to create beautiful custom visuals and narratives.
Sponsored Social Carousel
The Athletic's new social carousel product allows brands to align with major sports moments on social. Your brand creative appears as an interstitial between editorial assets, posted organically on Instagram Stories, Twitter/X, and TikTok.
Social Specs
Facebook In-Feed Static
(source: Meta specs)
- Advertiser handle for branded sponsor tag
- Required by Meta
- Advertiser must whitelist TA handle prior to going live
- Target audience
- Image asset
- Design Recommendations
- File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1.91:1 to 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Technical Requirements
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 600 pixels
- Minimum Height: 600 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 3%
-
- Social Post caption copy
- FB Text Recommendations
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
-
- Clickthrough URL
Facebook In-Feed Video
(source: Meta specs)
- Video asset
- Design Recommendations
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 1:1 (for desktop or mobile) or 4:5 (for mobile only)
- Video Settings: H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Videos should not contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.
- Technical Requirements
- Video Duration: 1 second to 241 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 120 pixels
- Minimum Height: 120 pixels
-
- Social Post caption copy
- FB Text Recommendations
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Headline: 27 characters
- Description: 27 characters
-
- Clickthrough URL
Instagram In-Feed Video
(source: Meta specs)
- Video asset
- Design Recommendations
- File Type: MP4, MOV or GIF
- Ratio: 4:5
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Video Captions: Optional, but recommended
- Video Sound: Optional, but recommended
- Videos should not contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.
- Technical Requirements
- Video Duration: 1 second to 60 minutes
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Minimum Width: 500 pixels
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 1%
-
- Social Post caption copy
- IG Text Recommendations
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Maximum Number of Hashtags: 30
-
- Clickthrough URL
Instagram In-Feed Static
(source: Meta specs)
- Image asset
- Design Recommendations
- Image File Type: JPG or PNG
- Ratio: 1:1
- Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
- Technical Requirements
- Maximum File Size: 30MB
- Minimum Width: 500 pixels
- Minimum Aspect Ratio: 400 x 500
- Maximum Aspect Ratio: 191 x 100
- Aspect Ratio Tolerance: 1%
-
- Social Post caption copy
- IG Text Recommendations
- Primary Text: 125 characters
- Maximum Number of Hashtags: 30
-
- Clickthrough URL