How Builders can Use the change in 20% Text Rule to Attract More Buyers

A Texas based luxury real estate brokerage in Texas was looking for more attendees to their open house events. They decided to use Facebook Ads and target people aged 27 – 65+ in Austin area, with interests like real estate, interior design, and luxury cars.
The Ad reached almost 16,000 people in just 3 days.
Result?
The open house event received 3.5X the number of visitors as compared to the previous events.
This is just one of many examples when builders and developers have used Facebook Ads with amazing results. A Facebook ad will usually cost less than $1 dollar per engagement. You can target people based on their age, location, marital status, and income level. Do you know of any other platform that offers this kind of targeting at such a low cost?
Make no mistake about it.
You are leaving money on the table if you are not utilizing the power of Facebook to announce a new phase or development, attract buyers for quick movie in homes, and so on.
Know Thy Rules:
Facebook makes it incredibly easy to target the right people at the right time. However, you need to know the ins and outs before expecting a good return on ad spend.
Facebook has a very strict set of rules. Violating any of these will result in rejection, limited reach, or higher costs. Facebook reviews the image, text, targeting, positioning, and even the landing page before an Ad goes live.
They keep making changes every once in a while. For example, they have recently added Gif support in their adverts. New metrics have been introduced in the video ads reports and they are testing business ads on messenger home screen.
Ad Text Rule  
Facebook encourages little or no text in your Ad creative. Reason being, photos get 53% more likes and 84% more click-through.
Earlier, the Ad will be rejected straightaway if it had more than 20% text. Recently, Facebook has relaxed the rules. Does that mean you can use as much text as you want?
The answer is a big No.
Facebook doesn’t want its feed to be cluttered with click-bait posts and low quality images with a lot of text. So while the excessive text will not result in disapproval, they have other means to discourage the use of text.
  • Your Ads will cost a lot more compared to the ones with no text
  • Your Ads will not produce good enough results due to a limited reach
Facebook divides the Images into four categories based on the amount of text.
  1. OK
  2. Low
  • Medium
  1. High
You can determine the level of text in your images by using the Image Text Check tool.
Let’s have a look at some examples.
Image text: OK
Images with very little or no text will fall into the “OK” category. Ads with images from this category will run normally.
Here’s an example:
Image Text: Low
Try adding a little more text and your Ad will get into the danger zone. The “Low” category means that your Ad will run but it will reach fewer people.
Image Text: Medium
If your text is covering almost half of the image, it will fall into “Medium” category. The Ads with these images will run but reach a very limited set of audience.
Image Text: High
The “High” category is for images full of text and in most cases, the Ad may not run at all.
Note the key message in all those results by Facebook Text check tool. It says that Facebook prefers advert images with little or no text.
 And that makes sense.
Have another look at these images and see how adding more text results in the images becoming less and less attractive. Remember that these Ads will also run on Instagram (optional) which is primarily a photo-sharing platform. Images with lots of text will make it complicated and spoil the user’s experience on Facebook and Instagram.
You can add all that text in the description. It will not be as noticeable as the text on images but at the end of the day, you will get better results due to higher reach and low cost.
Isn’t that what you want?
So, what has changed?
Earlier, crossing the 20% limit will get you rejected. Now, you can add some more text and see the results.
Do you really need more text?
It depends on what you are trying to achieve. For certain types of Ads like special offers, new phase release, or coming soon announcement, adding more text can result in more engagement. You can also add a call-to-action or attention grabbing words like “Free” or “Discount” (when applicable).
It will cost a little more but you shouldn’t really mind if it brings in leads and potential buyers to your doorstep. If you are looking to try ads with higher text ratio, just ignore the warning while creating advert.
If you are looking to create awareness and reach as many people as possible, going with little or no text will be the best option. You can also reduce the size of font to make it more compliant with Facebook rules.
What about Carousal Ads or Videos?
If you want your Ads to have something more than the image and description, you may consider using carousal ads or videos in your campaign. For example, use a video of your new development and give your contacts or other details in the subtitles.
However, the rule will apply on carousal Ads as well. If one of those images has more than 20% text, it will affect the reach and delivery. In case of videos, your thumbnail must comply with the rule.
Facebook text rule is there for your own benefits. Facebook suggests that their research has shown that people prefer ads with minimal image text. However, the new rule allows the builders and developers to check slightly different variation and see which one works the best.
Soon you’ll have it figured.