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Facebook Repeals its Text in Ads Restrictions

Posted on October 1, 2020
in Social Tools
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This month, Facebook officially removed its 20% text rule in advertising. If you’ve ever wanted to promote a graphic with details and information, this is pretty big news. For years, Facebook penalized advertisers for publishing ads that consisted of more than 20% text, meaning an ad image could not be more than 1/5th text.

If text took up more than 20% of the ad image, Facebook would not allow it to run. But now, that rule is dead. What does this mean for summer camps and schools that want to run Facebook advertising?

It’s worth noting that just because the rule is dead doesn’t mean we should create ads that are more than 20% text. Some professionals in the digital marketing realm agreed with the rule for a few reasons. First, more text does not equal better design. In fact, many successful graphic designers tend to live by the notion that less is more. Take the example from Mailchimp below. There are only three words in the image, which is dominated by a primary color and an illustration of a turtle on a skateboard. Remember that the image should be an attention-grabber, while the primary text gives more details. We want people to click on the link for more information, fill out a form, sign up for a program, etc. Giving it all away in the image is not necessarily the best practice just because it’s an option.

 Mailchimp Facebook advertisement featuring a turtle on a skateboard. It reads "Automate your marketing."

 

Second, some people argue that putting a lot of text in the image is not accessible to people with disabilities. You can add alt text to the ad image so that the phone can describe the image to a person with a visual disability, but it is not convenient for either the creator or consumer.

Also, Facebook believes that their users prefer ads with less text in them, so they’ll be more likely to show those in their algorithm. This is important to consider if you’re launching cost per click campaigns or wanting to reach a larger audience. 

But now that there are not hard restrictions on what advertisers can and can’t do, it will be important to start testing the waters with different types of ads. Testing ads with 10%, 25%, or 30% text to see which ones users respond more positively to will ultimately determine how marketers move forward with this new freedom. 

 

If you have questions about how to start advertising your camp or school on Facebook, the team at Social Summer Camp can help. Contact us online or email Nick Middleton at nick@socialsummercamp.com to see how we can help you sign up more campers and students. We’ll help you navigate Google and Facebook ads, content writing, social media management, and more. 

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