Facebook is the wild, wild, west, y’all. There have been so many updates recently, it’s definitely kept us on our toes. They decreased the default attribution window from 28 days to 7 — in addition, they have implemented ad limits for each page and have eliminated the text in image ad rule!
Whether or not you agree with or are excited about these changes, they’re coming fast — and you should be prepared to pivot your strategies and react! We’re breaking down the updates for you here.
Update #1: Facebook Enacting Ad Limits
The Breakdown
Starting in February 2021 — which is a lot closer than you might think — Facebook is going to roll out ad limits that can be run by each page. It’s important to note that these numbers count towards ads and boosted posts.
They’ve created four different tiers to indicate how many ads a page can run simultaneously. The lowest tier encompasses pages that advertised under $100,000 in their highest spending month in the past 12 months. Pages that fall under this tier can only run 250 ads at one time. From there, the tiers increase — the largest being pages that advertised over $10 million in a month in the past year. Those pages can run 20,000 ads at once.
Why Facebook Is Doing This
Facebook is trying to cut down on the amount of ads running in an account, as this can lead to poor performance. As Facebook states on their business page, running too many ads can decrease performance because the platform can’t optimize as effectively. Running fewer ads allows Facebook’s ad delivery system to find the best places and people to show the ad to, without your ads competing against one another and resulting in lower results.
Bottom line: Bost brands won’t be affected by this change, but it will force brands to become more cognizant of what ads they are running to make sure the algorithm isn’t swamped with creative choices.
What It Means for You
Realistically, this is only going to affect a small fraction of advertisers. The majority of brands will fall into this smallest tier, meaning they will be able to run 250 ads at a time, which won’t be an issue for most.
Bottom line: If you’ve never run more than 250 ads at any given time, you likely won’t be affected by this change.
What to Do Next
Facebook has offered a few key action items to tackle before February 2021 arrives. You can read their top four tips at the bottom of this page..
Even if you won’t be drastically affected by this new update, the tips that Facebook lays out are still good for everyone to keep in mind! Take this opportunity to make sure you’re following these best practices.
Update #2: Facebook Removes Text in Image Ad Rule
The Breakdown
Facebook also recently announced that they are removing their rule that limits text in ad images. Previously, if your ad image had too much text, Facebook would limit its delivery because they thought the ad was too ‘spammy’.
This, of course, frustrated many advertisers, as the guidelines determining whether your ad was okay or not seemed arbitrary and all over the place. And, as ads have evolved, large amounts of text have been used in very effective, sophisticated ways.
Why Facebook is Doing This
It’s not immediately clear why Facebook is doing this, but it certainly comes at the relief of many advertisers. Perhaps that’s one reason — to appease advertisers.
This change also opens the door to more diverse ads, which could encourage advertisers to invest more money to A/B test different types of creative.
What to Do Next
TEST! Start by outlining a test and learn plan, and perform a series of A/B tests to see how text-over-image ads perform for your brand with various audiences. Just because this rule is no longer in effect doesn’t mean that it will provide immediate returns. We recommend running at least a few tests on this variable alone to see whether or not your audience engages with text-heavy images.
Why All These Updates?
You may find yourself wondering — why is Facebook making so many updates to their ad platform at once? These three changes that occurred in the past few weeks have really shifted the conversation around advertising on the platform.
At least some of these updates — namely the 28-day attribution window and the ad limits — seem to be encouraging more accurate and sustainable reporting. While seasoned advertisers might already abide by a 7-day attribution window and expertly limit their ads, others might not. In the long run, these changes will help advertisers get a better sense of how their ads are actually performing.
