Welcome to my blog! Today we will learn how to create a Facebook page cover photo for free using Canva.
If you don’t already have an account at Canva please look in the description of this video there will be a link to another video I did on how to sign up for Canva for free.
You can also go to https://www.canva.com as you can see in the upper lefthand corner is the website name if you want. For detailed instructions on how to sign up to Canva for free just go look below the video description in the Youtube video located somewhere included here in this post or you can go to it by clicking right here..
As I said, located in the description you will find a link to that other tutorial so once you have signed into your Canva account it will look something like this:
As you can see this is my account. Here you can see in the upper right-hand corner your initials if your name is Jane Smith it’ll be JS.
You can click on that and you can sign in and sign out here, you can locate and use the apps located here as well.
As you can see this is a personal account and it’s a free account. There’s always the pro option but right now I’m showing you how to use Canva for free, so it is a free account that we’re using here for this example..
What you’re going to do since we are looking to make a Facebook cover photo for a Facebook page is we’re going to go to the middle of the page on the Canva dashboard. Please look at the picture above this here in the post for reference. I have circled where you can locate the social media templates for this build out.
You can do a search function or you can just go down here to this icon that says “social media” directly in the middle of the page. Click on that. This will, in turn, bring you to popular social media covers. Canva has Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn designs below. You’re going to click on “Facebook” and then you’re going to look for “Facebook cover”.
We’re going to start with “create blank” so you’re going to click on that and it’ll take you to a blank template. The first step is going to be picking an eye-catching background which can be a texture a color, an image, or whatever you find that you like and will look good for your brand or business.
I will take you over to the Facebook page that we’re working on in this example. As you can see here this Facebook cover photo is a bit dark and I had a website up here that I no longer want up there so I am going to be changing the background on this particular Facebook page.
You’re going to go and you’re going to pick a background you’re going to type in “background” into the search function in Canva then hit “return”.
Then you’re going to go look through for a background that you like. If you have business colors, or brand colors, or anything of that nature you always want to make sure that your colors go well with your brand, they match your brand, and they show your business or brand, or an opportunity or whatever you’re promoting in a positive light and professional manner.
I’d suggest you do a simple background. Canva will give you suggestions in the search box.
You can choose from many colors and styles- black background, white background, watercolor background, pastel background, or a plain background.
For this one, we are going to click on “gradient” just to see what we have. Since that other Facebook cover photo was dark I’m going to do something to lighten it up.
You can search through any of the pictures that you see. As far as the background goes, if it has a little crown on it those are reserved for Canva Pro members. So unfortunately we can’t be using those for examples today. Not all of these designs available to you are only for Pro members. You will just have to be diligent and find out which ones are available to you.
As you’ll see, some of them have the crown when you hover over it it says Pro, and some of them do not.
We are going to pick a light image for this example. Here you’re going to do an abstract background there we go I’m going to try this:
Looks like that’s a lot going on. I don’t think that one will work for this example. That’s too much so that’s a little too rambunctious, a little too busy of a background.
One of the things that is great about Canva is the arrows at the top where you can undo what you have just done. I’m going to undo it and then it’s back to the blank background.
Don’t worry about making a mistake when you are designing in Canva because you can undo whatever you do. You’re going to look for a template-not too light not too dark. I’d suggest looking for that pre-done template finding the background that you like and clicking on it.
It’ll populate to the right.
Now this looks very very clean, the letters are easy to read. You can modify any things you don’t particularly care for in this design.
You can take any shapes and designs that are in a pre-done Canva template and as you see it’s surrounded if you were to click on that you can get rid of them. Many many different layers to this have already been done for you.
The first thing I’d suggest doing is to take out the particular name or whatever you do not want in this particular design (because you don’t want to infringe on anybody’s copyright). This is actually a great place for a website name so you can leave that as shown in the example if you plan on including a website on your cover photo.
You can expand it to the size that you need. You want that big enough so folks can read it. If you don’t have a website, don’t worry, you can always add it later. For right now, if you don’t have a website all you do is click on it, and then you can hit the trash can icon and completely get rid of it.
You can delete what you don’t want out of the design. Options are that you can put in your website you can also put in a photo if you like. Adding your own photo is something we’ll be going over later.
For right now since I have this new Facebook page cover photo I’m going to modify it to match mine so if you look over here this is the old cover photo it’s too busy it’s got too much in it.
I have branded myself here using a photo of me. You may want to do the same depending on your Facebook group. Depending on your cover photo you may also want to have yourself in here then or you may not.
Take a look at the first cover photo shown here:
As you can see this is too dark for what I want going forward, and it was too busy of a design. I liked it when I created it but now it’s it’s too dark and it’s time for a new one.
We’re going to, for this example, go back to my Facebook page which is called Affiliate Army. You’re going to make the design a bit bigger because you’re going to find there’s going to be a bit of a size discrepancy between what it looks like here in Canva and then what it starts to look like when you go to put it into your Facebook page cover photo.
You’re going to have to be doing some editing once you do get it up on your Facebook page. I would suggest making sure that your text and the website name (if you have one are) centered in the Canva editor and are well away from the upper and lower edge because once you get your design into your Facebook cover photo it will look and behave a little differently. One of the things that you will be dealing with is to make sure that the text is visible past your Facebook photo which is usually located in the middle of your page.
What this means is that you are going to want to go more in the middle because what you’re going to find with these Facebook cover photos is that things at the edge like the top edge or at the very bottom edge sometimes, depending on how Facebook behaves, you can have parts of the photo get cut off.
If you put the title too high only half of the title may show. If you put it too low it may be obscured by your photo. So I’m trying to leave it towards the center.
I like that little button I like the look of the buttons here but they are visually distracting taking away from the website and taking away from the title so I’m going to hit delete and get rid of those.
Once you get everything lined up the way you want you have the title of your Facebook page on there and it’s looking the way you want it and then you have your related website if you have one. If you don’t, don’t worry.
Now what you have here is you have a great Facebook cover photo for your Facebook page.
Once you are finished with your design, click off it and then you’re going to come up to the top right where you’re going to put the name of your photo.
You want to name the picture something you can easily remember and that will allow you to find it easily on your computer. The name of this one is going to be, “How to create a Facebook cover photo for free using Canva” and this is going to be the file name. There’s a little bit of magic in here and you want to make sure everything looks right how to create a Facebook page cover photo for free using Canva there we have it in here so now I’ll know what the title is when I download it and go to upload it to my Facebook page in my cover photo I’ll know what it’s called
Once you have everything in order and you have everything that you like and it looks the way that you want it keeps everything kind of towards the center as I said because sometimes you have to drag this image around on your Facebook page.
Once everything is done with your Canva design you’re going to come to the upper right-hand corner on your Canva dashboard and you’re going to click “share”. Once you click share the drop-down menu will be there and you can go down and you’re going to click “download”.
Once it has downloaded successfully to your computer, go over to Facebook, and you’re going to go to your Facebook page cover photo Hit “edit cover photo”. This option is located in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover photo itself.
It will give you the option to remove your current cover photo. Once you click on that option you will have a blank background to start with.
Then you’re going to click “add cover photo” and then you’re going to click “upload photo”. Now in the recent downloads section of your computer, you should see where it says the title that you have chosen for your design.
In this example here, the title says, “How to create a Facebook page cover photo for free using Canva”. It’s a memorable name that’s easily picked out of my downloads. That is why I named it that way and I suggest you do the same with what you name yours.
Once you find your design name on your computer, you’re going to click “open” and that’s going to populate it to your Facebook page and is going to give you an idea of how it looks.
The Facebook page cover can be dragged around up and down and it is too big so the domain name and the website address are obscured by the Facebook photo.
If this happens to you do not worry. It is simple to fix.
Just click cancel, go back to Canva, and once you are back into Canva mess with that design and change it a little bit. You can reduce the size of these letters. You can edit to be sure the text on the bottom is up higher so that the website is prominently featured.
You’re going to have the same title whatever you made and if you already have it saved on your computer what you’re going to do is you’re going to get rid of that file first.
So whatever file you have if it says a title like this it’s easily recognizable for you to pick out of your downloads what you’re going to want to do is you want to go back to your downloads and get rid of that file name.
You’re going to click on downloads you’re going to go up and you’re going to find your photo. Please note the date and time and the title of your photo that you downloaded to your computer from Canva so that you can tell you’re on the right one. Click on this and once you’ve highlighted your title go up to the top bar (on a Windows computer) and you can delete it using the trash can icon.
Now what you’re going to do is you’re going to go back to your design in Canva and you’re simply going to go through the steps again you’re going to hit share you’re going to hit download then you’re going to hit the purple download button one it’s done. You’re going to want to save this PNG format just leave it at the defaults.
Once it is downloaded again we’re simply going to hop back over to Facebook we’re going to add a cover photo and hit upload cover photo. It’s going to take us to our downloads and then it is going to have your revamped copy. Once you have found your corrected photo, hit open.
In this finished example, you can see where it says Affiliate Army across the top and then it has the website right there. It’s fairly “techy” looking and congruent with what I wanted for my branding. It is not too light, not too dark, and easy to read.
Once you’re done you’re going to click “save changes” and then you’re going to look at what it looks like on your page.
Once you have a Facebook page, if you want a different cover photo, or you want to create a cover photo for the first time just follow these steps above. Make sure it’s congruent with the title of your Facebook page and your brand or business colors.
Congratulations my friend, you now know how to create a Facebook page cover photo for free using Canva!
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