Many marketers had reason to rejoice recently when Facebook lifted a longstanding requirement that Facebook ad images contain no more than 20 percent text. But at True Interactive, we believe marketers need to tread carefully. Just because you can pack more texts into your ads, it doesn’t mean you should.
What Is the 20 Percent Rule?
The “20 percent rule” means that ad images on Facebook can contain no more than 20 percent text. Advertisers who run afoul of the requirement have had their ads penalized or blocked on Facebook. But recently, Facebook began letting advertisers know it was eliminating the rule:
Search Engine Journal confirmed the accuracy of this update.
Why Facebook Is Lifting the 20 Percent Rule
Why is Facebook changing course? As an agency that creates ads for many clients on Facebook, we believe the COVID-19 pandemic has made the Facebook staffed overburdened as it has for Google. Reviewing and flagging advertisements requires human intervention. We have noticed that since COVID-19, the platform was mis-flagging quite a few ads we’ve created that should have been acceptable. Lifting the requirement is probably Facebook’s way of reducing the amount of work on their end.
What Advertisers Should Do
We believe lifting the 20 percent rule is good because advertisers have more flexibility. There are times when a banner ad on Facebook would be better off containing a bit more text than Facebook has allowed. At the same time, advertisers should be very careful about increasing text size. Facebook notes that ads with more images perform better, which should surprise no one. We’re living in a visual age, and advertising is no different. People are more likely to pause their news feed and explore your ad when you lead with visually arresting content.
So, we recommend to our clients that they consider using more text only if they have to. We suggest performing A/B tests, as well: run one image with minimal text against an image with more text and see how it serves on the platform. Let the performance numbers be your guide.
In addition, lifting the restriction might be signs of Facebook relaxing creative constraints in other ways, too, depending on how long the pandemic affects the company’s operations. Stay tuned.
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