Those who are familiar with advertising on Facebook will be aware of the rule that any images accompanying adverts or boosted posts must not have more than 20% of their area covered by text. Marketers can find this restricting, as they want to get as much information across in the image as possible, in order to capture the attention of users who may not read the post itself.
The good news?
The 20% restriction has been lifted! The ‘Grid Tool’ used to check the amount of copy on your image is gone, and now it’s up to you how much text you use (this is being rolled out gradually from 22nd March 2016, so may not be available to all users just yet).
The bad news?
Cover your ad image with text and you may be paying for an ad that hardly anyone will see.
The New System
Now when you submit an ad, Facebook will rate it based on the amount of text overlay, placing it in one of four categories: OK, low, medium or high. Ads that fall into the high category are less likely to receive impressions on the site. Instead, ads that have little or no text on their images will be prioritised by Facebook, who say this style of ad should ‘cost less and have better delivery’. In other words, more people will see these ads for the price you’re paying, compared to text-heavy ads.
So will the frustration of limited text on ad images continue? Possibly. But it is worth noting that Facebook only imposes these limitations because it sees that its users do not respond as well to text-heavy ads. So there’s really no motivation to plaster your ad images with graphics, prices and product information if this isn’t going to result in a satisfactory response.
Our advice?
Include all the important information in the text part of your ad, keeping it concise but interesting enough to grab the attention of your target audience. Match this with an eye-catching picture and, if relevant, include your brand or company logo – then leave it at that. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words,
