12 Apr How to Get Around Facebook’s 20% Rule With This Neat Trick
Are you a content creator and frequently challenged by Facebook’s 20% rule for promoted content (or ads as Facebook calls them)?
Images in your ads can include text that meets our general Advertising Guidelines, but may not include more than 20% text in the image to ensure people only see high-quality content. This includes logos and slogans in images. We recommend that you use the text field in the ad to get your message across.
While I understand there’s a lot of back and forth talk about this rule and that the rule may evolve over time, here’s a suggestion that could work for you.
USE VIDEO POSTS!
If you merely just make portions of the layout move via a simple animation program, making copy facts fade or dissolve into the visual you’re good to throw-away the shackles of the 20% copy rule! Just make sure your the thumbnail of your video isn’t breaking the 20% copy rule and show a key frame that is safe.
Somehow, right now I picture you like Andy Dufresne in the 1994 movie, Shawshank Redemption when he emerged out of the prison sewer pipe and outstretched his arms to the raining sky – metaphorically cleansing his falsely-accused past. You, too, are now free!
There are some great programs out there that allow you to animate graphics that are fairly simple to learn – Adobe Premiere being my favorite. Yes, you’ll have to concept your layout in terms of what animates when – along with dissecting your ad into a few parts that will eventually be used in your editing software to plan what appears at what time, but this will not only be worth the extra time to create your content – it will also most-likely be VIEWED since video performs way better than static visuals.
Here’s an example that I put together to illustrate what a solution would be for a post with too much copy. You may have this ad you want to post, but it clearly is composed of a lot of copy – and will never pass the 20% rule:
Here’s a video solution to the above post’s dilemma. This is the way the new video post should show up when posted (as a thumbnail), and this clearly passes the 20% rule:
Here’s how the post plays:
Not convinced? Here’s an official statement on Facebook’s forum page when this question was asked regarding video not being held to the 20% rule.
So go – get your content in motion!
You’re welcome.
(No really. Send money to David Ryan c.o Ignite Social Media……..JK.)
P.S.
If you just HAVE to use a static image and need to know if your promoted ad/image meets the 20% requirements, here’s the link to test your image (note: Facebook still ultimately decides if your visual meets the guidelines or not). Also, here’s an article packed with some good experiences regarding the 20% rule.
