Facebook gets serious about 20% rule

A few weeks ago, you may remember we blogged about the Facebook 20% text rule for brand cover photos, promoted posts and sponsored stories.  Put simply, if brands are using such images on Facebook, then only 20% of that image can be taken up by text. We understood that this might not be the easiest thing to gauge, so we were very helpful and included a useful template for everyone to use.

Well, it turns out Facebook is serious about the 20% rule and is enforcing it. However, some big brands still seem to be getting it wrong. Below is another handy tool to help you make sure your cover photos are in line with Facebook’s guidelines.

The team at Ron Sachs have developed a grid-based template to test the amount of text a cover photo contains. The grid is made up of 25 boxes and an image meets the 20% rule if the text appears in no more than five boxes. Below are examples of Coca Cola getting it right, and Monster getting it wrong.

See http://socialfresh.com/facebook-content-new-20-percent-rule for more examples.

Images courtesy of socialfresh.com

To use this tool to test your own cover photos, go to http://coverphoto.paavo.ch/ and type the link of the Facebook page you want to check.

Testing the Fresh Egg Facebook  cover photo reveals it is well under the 20% rule, with just three boxes highlighted as including ‘text’ in orange at the bottom. However, the more observant of you may have noticed the Fresh Egg logo (top right), the website text (top left) and the builder on the left with Fresh Egg on his high-vis jacket could be included as text as well. Dear Facebook, please clarify!

Facebook’s definition of the 20% rule is fairly vague. Further clarification is certainly needed, particularly regarding whether images of text are covered by the 20% rule. However, when referring to logos and slogans, Facebook heavily emphasises that these should be used ‘sparingly’, so this is worth bearing in mind.

Facebook has claimed that “users react negatively to content that they perceive as inauthentic or impersonal”, which includes text in brand images.

They cite the grid-based tool as a way of testing images. However, they also claim that when enforcing this rule, they will “side with clients when borderline,” as long as the client isn’t exploiting policy loopholes. This subjective method is no doubt causing some confusion.

To find out more about Facebook’s guidelines and for details of best practices, have a read here: http://fbrep.com/SMB/News_Feed_Ad_Images_Best_Practices%20.pdf

Has your/your client’s cover photo been rejected because of the 20% rule? Drop us a comment with your experiences or opinions below.