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Thursday, September 15, 2016

New Facebook Ads Text Rule: A Case Study

Facebook lifted the 20% maximum text in images for Facebook Ads and there was much rejoicing. But what does that really mean for marketers? Should your images be filled with text now?

Facebook still gives you a warning that your ad may have “less reach” due to having too much text when you are creating an ad. But is that really true? I decided to do some experimenting to find out.

In this article you'll find out what has changed with the new Facebook Text Rule for ads, how it may or may not affect ads, and what you should change in your strategy.

What is New with Facebook's Text Rule for Ads

Previously Facebook would not let ads run if they had more than 20% text according to their Grid Tool.

The Facebook Grid Tool is still available but it has changed. It now gives you an Image Text Rating

Image Text: OK

Your ad will run normally.

Image Text: Low

Your ad's reach may be slightly lower.

Image Text: Medium

Your ad's reach may be much lower.

Image Text: High

Your ad may not run.

So I did some experiments to find out if a high text image truly would get less reach or no reach or cost more to reach people.

Case Study – Low, Medium, and High Text in Facebook Ads

I ran two short experiments with different images to see how the text affected the reach and cost of the ad.

First I created different images with different levels of text.

I spent $50 on each ad and ran them for just a day so it was a quick experiment. I kept the text and targeting of the ads exactly the same so the only difference was in the images.

I watched the Reach of the ads as well as the CPM (cost to reach 1000 people) which would be affected if the ads did get lower reach. And I got very interesting results!

So the ad with the highest text got better reach and lower CPM!

In general, I don't really care about reach. That's not the true goal of this ad – it was to get optins to the Free Webinar on News Feed Changes (feel free to sign up for the replay if you are interested).

So I looked at how each ad did in terms of optins. In this case the ad with text OK (one step up from the low text) showed the best conversion rate but something was a little funky with these results since there were 18 conversions and 13 link clicks which doesn't make sense.

Since this was a small test, I decided to do a second test with the images a little more “standardized” since each image had a different look and feel.

For my second test, I created images that all used a basic blue background and my image but varying levels of text.

I again ran the experiment for 1 day with the same text and target for the ads at $50/each.

In this case the medium text and high text ads got the best reach and the best CPM.

But again, I don't really care about reach. How did they convert? (I use the Facebook Pixel to measure conversions)

What I found was the high text image converted the best! Again, the results are slightly off because one ad is showing more conversions than link clicks but that sometimes happens with Facebook's reporting.

And obviously these were smaller experiments so more testing is always needed. But I find this encouraging because Facebook isn't completely restricting an image just because it might have higher text.

Facebook Ad Text Experiment Conclusions

In both this more formal text and in other ads I'm running for clients, I'm not seeing a decline in reach or higher expenses for any ads I'm running with higher text.

With any ad, the responsiveness and effectiveness of different tactics sometimes depend on the niche and the audience. That's why you must do your OWN experiments and testing to find out what works best for you.

So many variables go into the conversion to a lead – landing page, images, message, targeting – so make sure you know what works best for you.

And as always, I share all kinds of tips like this and teaching in my online course: Facebook Advertising Secrets. You get lifetime access to the course material and updates when you join!