New Facebook Ad Changes Copywriters Need to Know About

If you provide Facebook ad writing services to clients (which you should really consider, because it’s a highly sought-after service), you know that Facebook likes to keep you on your toes.

First of all, as you may or may not know, Facebook already has some pretty strict rules about what can and can’t go into its ads.

You can’t write an ad that makes it clear that you’re targeting people by calling out personal attributes (“As a toddler mom, you might..”), you can’t write ads that might in some way make people feel bad about themselves, you can’t you can’t make sensational claims or use a sensational tone (“3 Shocking Tips to Lose All Your Belly Fat”)… (Here’s the full list of Facebook’s rules.) Breaking these rules can get ads disapproved and even, in some cases, get an entire ad account permanently shut down.

So, as a writer of Facebook ads, you need to already be well-versed in all of Facebook’s regulations or customs.

(Incidentally, an ad getting disapproved isn’t the end of the world. Sometimes ads are flagged by their system when they should be: Case in my point, my ads have been disapproved for promoting a “get rich quick” mentality. When I appealed that disapproval and explained that the ads are for legitimate, professional copywriting training, the ads are always turned back on.)

But you also have to keep abreast of changes that Facebook makes to its systems—and even its designs—that may affect your ad. The most recent change is a prime example of one of those.

In July, Facebook announced that it was changing the layout of page posts and ads on mobile to match the Facebook design they rolled out earlier this year. No big deal, right?

Well, kind of a big deal: Because, in addition to changing the aspect ratio of images (essentially, the size of images), it’s also decreasing the lines of copy that will be shown before that “See More” button that expands the ad.

Let’s make that even clearer: When you’re writing an ad for Facebook (and now for both desktop AND mobile), instead of getting seven lines of text to get people engaged and interested, you only get three lines.

Here’s what that looks like:

(Here’s the origin of the graphic and Facebook’s official write-up of the changes.)

So what does that mean? Well, it means that the first three lines of your ad have to be REALLY good. They need to catch your target audience’s attention, they need to connect with that target audience out of the entire Facebook audience, and they need to entice them to either immediately either click to read more or take the primary action of the ad (click to go somewhere else, watch a video, sign up for something, etc.)

Now, that’s definitely not impossible—but it is tricky. It requires an exceptional understanding of your clients’ target audiences, their desires and pain points, and exactly how they’ll benefit from what the ad wants them to do.

It requires creativity and thinking out of the box.

And it also requires testing. As a Facebook ads copywriter, you’d never deliver just one Facebook ad. (Or, to be clear, sign on for a project where you deliver just one ad.) There are so many factors that go into whether ads are successful that it’s essential for your clients to test their ads, and test them regularly. For each project, the minimum number of ads you should plan to deliver is three.

This new change adds another challenge to writing copy for Facebook ads…but it’s also certainly not impossible to do. Skilled writers are creating amazing, interesting ads even with that “three lines” constraint and helping their clients see massive success. You can do that, too.

And, after all, isn’t that combination of challenge and creativity part of what we love about copywriting? Thanks to Facebook for a fresh little reminder. 🙂

Your turn! Did you notice the difference on Facebook? How will this change how you concept your Facebook ad projects? Let me know in the comments below.