In August, Facebook made two very significant changes to the way we see ads in our mobile news feed. If you weren’t aware, and you’ve noticed a decline in the performance of your ads, this may be the reason behind it.
The first change is to the aspect ratio Facebook allows to be displayed on mobile. Previously, the aspect ratios have been 2:3 which offered a longer image size, similar to Facebook/Instagram stories. The new aspect ratio of 4:5 shortens imagery considerably, making it more streamlined within the mobile newsfeed. Facebook has since clarified that any content above the new ratio will be masked in the mobile news feed, but is still fully visible on desktop. This means that parts of your imagery and videos will not be visible in the news feed unless a user clicks on the post directly.
The second change is to the amount of primary text that is seen above the image or video. In the past, advertisers would be able to showcase up to 7 lines of text, but this has been reduced to just 3 lines, with anything more falling under a ‘see more’ partition.
What should businesses do?
If your brand or business are already using paid social media, these changes require adoption to make the most of the updates. But here is how it could benefit you.
Old ads should be redone
If you’re still running ads that were created before August, we recommend that you update your ads to comply with the updated ratios as soon as you can! Your imagery needs to be resized to the ratio to avoid it being masked or cut off.
There’s ‘less’ to produce
Businesses and brands can now craft an image or video to cater to both Facebook and Instagram at once, reducing creative and ad building time. Less copy also needs to be written, which will help reduce overall time and resources spent on producing ads.
Consumers prefer short text snippets
With an ever more crowded digital landscape, brands need to streamline their advertisements with shorter, more effective text. Over 72% of consumers prefer video or any kind of visual content over text-based information. With shorter text snippets marketers will be forced to create stronger and more effective content into their activity.
If you’re unsure of what to make of the new aspect ratios, get in touch for a chat on how we can help!