When it comes to using text on images in your Facebook advertisements, I recommend staying away from it all together.
I’ve tested all sorts of different types of images, and the images without text always outperformed the one’s with text. In general, Facebook doesn’t like it when you put text on images.
However, Facebook recently made an update that “punishes” advertisers for using too much text on their images. In the past, you could have a maximum of 20% text on your images and you were fine. But now Facebook might also reduce your ad reach.
With these recent changes, Facebook has made a clear statement that they don’t like text on images in ads. And by limiting the reach of your ads, you will pay more if you want a lot of text on your images.
Anyway – The good news is that there’s nothing to worry about.
Here’s why.
In my experience and most tests I’ve run in the past, ads without text on the images always outperformed the one’s with text. I tend to get more clicks, engagement and conversions with plain images.
Images aren’t the best place for your ad copy.
Your images should grab people’s attention in a relevant way. It should have an emotional impact on them and stand out.
My favorite place to get images is on Flickr.com.
On Flickr you can sort the search results by “Creative Commons”, which means you’re allowed to use the images as long as you credit the photographer. On Flickr you’ll find plenty of emotionally impactful and artistic images that do really well for Facebook ads.
I’ve tested the more corporate stock-image look as well, and those usually convert significantly worse than the artistic images.
But there’s definitively one thing in common:
Images without text always did better.
So I guess the easy way to not be affected by Facebook’s recent changes is to simply not use text on your images anymore. Put your copy where it belongs, in the headline, description and post area.
Of course there’s some exceptions where you have to use text. For example, if you’re running a “viral” ride-along campaign with a quote image or a meme. But in most cases the easiest solution is to simply stay away from using any sort of text on your images all together.
Everyone is going to be happier:
1) Facebook is happier
2) In most cases the user is happier
3) You are happier because it converts better
So it’s no big deal 🙂
All Posts
Website
