Meta text advice (guide 2025)

Do you work with Facebook ads and found your ad contains too much text? Then you’re in the right place. In this blog post, I explain two important things you need to know when advertising on Facebook, as well as the text recommendations Facebook provides.

Table of contents

• What is Meta’s 20% text recommendation?
• How to avoid breaking Facebook’s text rules
• Guide: setting up the 20% grid in Photoshop
• Example: Same text – different results

IMPORTANT: Whether you’re boosting posts or using Facebook Ads Manager, all recommendations below always apply.

Read more about Facebook advertising in Ads Manager »

What is Meta’s 20% text recommendation?

Before 2020, Facebook had a rule called the “20% rule”. It no longer applies, but it’s still recommended to keep text on images under 20%. Previously, your ad could be rejected directly if your graphic had more than 20% text. The rule wasn’t there to annoy advertisers, but to provide a better user experience. That’s why it’s still wise to follow Meta’s 20% recommendation.

Changes to the 20% rule

At the end of 2020, Facebook removed the 20% rule. This means ad images with more than 20% text are no longer rejected. However, Meta states that ads with less than 20% text are more effective, and delivery may be reduced if you exceed it. Meta thus recommends short, clear, and precise text for best results.

Avoid too much text on your ad images

It can be difficult to shorten your message, but here are three tips for reducing text amount:

• Reduce the number of words and/or make the text smaller on the image. But remember, if the text gets too small, it may become unreadable.
• Place most of the text in the post body, not directly on the image.
• Avoid spreading text across the entire image.

Guide: How to set up Photoshop according to Meta’s text recommendation

• Open Photoshop
• Click “Edit” in the top menu
• Click on Preferences (at the bottom of the Edit menu)
• Open “Guides, Grid & Slices”
• Make the settings as below. NOTE: Select “percent” and enter 20 and 1 in the other fields.

When the grid is enabled, the graphic is divided so you can see the percentage just like Facebook does. It’s a slightly different method.

How to enable grid:

• Go to the top menu under “View”
• Click “Show”
• Enable “Grid”

You can also create a shortcut if you want to turn it on and off quickly.

Check directly in Photoshop if you follow Facebook’s text rules

You might think that text can’t make up more than 20% of the entire image, but Facebook’s assessment is different. Two identical texts positioned differently can make a difference as to whether your ad is approved. This is when you need your grid.

In the two images below I illustrate how Facebook calculates text area.

(Read more about image sizes on Facebook here)

The grid you set up in Photoshop works for all image sizes without having to adjust anything. I don’t know how it works in other programs.

Each box represents 4%. You should keep under a total of 20% text on the ad. The images below show how nearly identical images can be interpreted very differently by Facebook. Both are screenshots from my Photoshop.

20% recommendation followed:

The green squares show text. 5 boxes, 4% each – you’re exactly where Facebook wants.

20% recommendation NOT followed

Note that the text size is the same. The text is just moved 50–80 pixels down. Now suddenly it’s counted as 40% text by Facebook – even though nothing has changed in the text. The lower image risks being downgraded by Meta and could be 2–5 times more expensive per impression. A quick and easy way to save money 😉

Speaking of the cost of Facebook ads – read more here: How much does Facebook advertising cost? You’ll also find savings tips here!

If you don’t use Photoshop, you can instead try Facebook’s own tool: https://www.facebook.com/ads/tools/text_overlay