by sponsor Megan Ronecker of Ruby and Sass Design
Facebook Ads are becoming so popular, you’ve probably considered giving them a try. Chances are, you started looking into it and realized just how daunting a task it is- 20% percent text rule? A/B testing? Conversions? Ugh, so much to learn! And it’s not just running the ad that takes skill, designing the ad does too. But that’s where I come in! To make designing your ad a little less confusing (and a lot less time consuming), you must first understand the 20% Text Rule.
What It Means:
On the surface, the Facebook’s 20% Rule seems pretty self explanatory, and it is. Strictly speaking, your ad cannot contain more than 20% text on the ad image.
BUT- There’s A Catch (a pretty big one!):
And this is what tripped me up big time the first time I designed them for a client. It’s not just 20% surface area text. The text is confined to certain areas, or boxes, if you will. So you can’t just put your text anywhere you want (that would be waaay to easy! Facebook wants you to work hard!)
So, What Does That Mean?
The best way to show you is in an example. See below:
The way Facebook determines how much text you’ve used is by dividing your ad image into rectangles and then determining how many rectangles have text in them. The first time I was designing Facebook Ads I didn’t realize it It doesn’t matter to them how much text is in the rectangle- if there’s any text in the rectangle, it counts is as full. So even though your rectangle is only half filled with text (or even just a tiny bit in the corner), it still counts as full of text. With an ad this size of 1200 x 628 (one of the standard ad sizes), you’re only allowed 5 rectangles to fill. Is that frustrating? Yep. Is it fair? No, probably not. But you and I both know that Facebook probably doesn’t care, they’re just trying to make sure people don’t use a lot of text. 5 rectangles- use them wisely, grasshopper
What The 20% Text Rule Includes:
-Any text added to your ad
-Logos and slogans
-Watermarks
What The 20% Text Rule Doesn’t Includes:
-Pictures of products that include text on the actual product (ex: book covers, album covers, movie posters) Though, they warn against text that has been photoshopped on the product to get around the 20% rule, that’s a No No!
-Cartoons in which the text is part of a cartoon
How Can You Know If You’ve Used Too Much Text?
You can use online grid tools that you upload you photo to:
Facebook’s Grid Tool
20percentrule.info
I actually created my own grid that I overlay on my designs in Illustrator (like shown above) so I don’t have to constantly upload it to these sites. If you’re handy in illustrator or photoshop, that’s an option too!
Want to know more about Facebook Ads?
Get the Ultimate Guide to Facebook Ads here!
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Megan Ronecker, the quick-witted girl behind Ruby and Sass Design, specializes in Branding and Identity Design as well as other graphic design work for small businesses, bloggers and Etsy shop owners. She’s passionate about helping them create an image and a brand that’s completely and 100% authentic to their business. After graduating from college with a degree in business and marketing, she realized that she was longing to get back to her creative roots. She taught herself Illustrator, started designing on the side, and fell in love. Ever since, she’s been overjoyed to use her creative abilities to help businesses stand out in this increasingly visual world. She knows what makes great design work – and also is not ashamed to admit that at least 60% of products she buys are because of a pretty packaging design. When not obsessing over fonts and color palettes, Megan enjoys exploring new restaurants with her husband, Kevin, picking up a good book and winning at board games in their hometown of St. Louis, MO.
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8 Replies to “What Facebook’s 20% Text Rule Really Means for Facebook Ads by @megleeron”
Karen
Great post! My first Facebook ads made me crazy until I had the grid figured out… wish I had this article then 🙂
Alicia
thank you for this! I’ve had such a hard time getting my ad accepted! Now I get it! Lol
Richard
That is a pretty strict rule! Good thing Megan’s here to explain it so well! Thanks a lot, Megan!
Tiff
This is super helpful, Megan! Especially the graphics and that grid. You so smart, gurrrrl.
Brenda Lee
This is a really great post! I remember the first two times I created Facebook ads, I just couldn’t figure out what their deal was! It took several times to get it right but when I did, oh my the traffic it sent!
Passing this along!
Megan
Yes! I know, when I was doing it the first time i was literally measuring out the screen with a ruler and manually figuring out 20%. Once I figured this out, I kind of laughed at myself for doing all that extra work! But yes, Facebook Ads can be so targeted and that makes them super effective.
angela bauter
Useful post! I will say though, I had some ads rejected within the last year that were photographs of cards/magnets/invitations with text on them. I even emailed support, and the person agreed with me that they should be accepted, but when she tried to put them through the system it just kept auto rejecting them. I gave up! Unless it’s a distance photo, I don’t even bother anymore.
Megan
I’ve wondered about that! Good to know. I was skeptical how an automated computer program woudl be able to really tell the difference. Bummer they can’t have a better system 🙁