Facebook changes text rule for ads images: A Report

A big relief for all the advertisers who were struggling with Facebook’s 20% rule as the rule no longer applies to text on Facebook ad images as announced by the social networking giant. Although liking the 20% rule was a bit difficult but you could define it easily. You were also provided with a basic grid tool enabling you check how much of your image was covered by text. However, without intimation & notification to their advertisers, Facebook very silently dropped the rule. Now, there would be no any grid tool however Facebook has provided a rough visual guide explaining about the impact of too much text on the reach of your advert. No rule is imposed on you but it’s in your hand and you need to make your own judgment now as to whether you have over used text in your ads or not. Of course the social player must have an algorithm behind the scenes, but they have not disclosed clearly as to what the scale is.

There are now 4 categories of text overlay

• Image Text: OK: No text other than a company logo
• Image Text: Low: Some text with the image
• Image Text: Medium: Some text and company logo with the image
• Image Text: High: High volume of text

Image Text: OK: Ads will display just fine

Image Text: Low: Ads to have a restricted reach

Image Text: Medium: Ads to fewer people than optimal

Image Text: High: Ads unlikely to display at all

However!

There are still a few exceptions of text that will not have effect on your ads such as:

• Movie Posters
• Book Covers
• Album Covers
• Product Images – in case an entire product can be seen and not just a zoomed in image of the product.
• Posters for concerts/music Festivals, Comedy Shows or Sporting Events
• Text-based Businesses Calligraphy, cartoon/comic strips, etc.
• App & game screenshots
• Legal text
• Infographics

The Limitations:

You should keep the following to a minimum as they count as text:

• Logos
• Watermark
• Numbers

So!

Save all your text for the post itself and make sure your images have little or no text to stand out in both and have maximum reach on Facebook as the social outlet has already made it clear that they prefer images to have little or no text.