Marketers Take Note: Facebook is Changing Its Ad Format Next Month
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What’s happening?
Beginning August 19th, Facebook will begin to compress their Mobile News Feed ads to “match the look and feel” of this year’s Facebook app redesign, ‘FB5.’ Changes to mobile news feed post and ad layouts will go from a 2:3 aspect ratio to 4:5.
Key Changes:
- Less lines of text will appear on mobile News Feed: Instead of various lines of text, there will now only appear to be three lines of primary text, where users will then be directed to a button where they have the option to click “see more” to view additional text
- The new maximum media height for photos and videos will now be 4:5 on mobile News Feed: the height supported aspect ratio for photos w/o links and for videos is now vertical (4:5). Creatives/posts that are taller than 4:5 will be automatically masked on Facebook mobile News Feed.
Why does this matter to us?
Facebook hopes that these new changes will drive increased ad traffic/effectiveness and make it simpler to use the same creatives on both the Facebook News Feed and Instagram feed. This major change is mainly being implemented to create a consistent presentation over both Facebook and Instagram apps. This will help the idea of cross-promotion reach its highest potential.
Susan Wenograd, VP of marketing strategy at Aimclear, first noticed the coming changes on Twitter and says that the overall change is pointing to the larger needs of social media marketing: less is more.
“Less text, so it’s skimmable. Imagery that gets to the focal point quicker. These two things force marketers to synthesize their message into something instantly understandable,” said Wenograd, “It makes sense given the insane amount of content we are now seeing on a day-to-day basis.”
Tips:
- If a user is aiming to maximize their Facebook ads, it is crucial that they make the first three lines of primary text extremely eye-catching.
- Users also needs to keep the 4:5 ratio in mind when choosing an image to make sure that its presentation is ideal and appropriate
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