Facebook will be updating its mobile platform’s “look and feel” to improve user experience on mobile devices and align Facebook Feed formats more closely to Instagram.
For Digital Marketers, this means updating Ad Creatives and Copy on Facebook ASAP.
What’s Happening?
Recently, Facebook announced that it will be updating its mobile platforms’s “look and feel” to improve user experience on mobile devices and align Facebook Feed formats more closely to its sister platform Instagram.
For Digital Marketers, this means updating Ad Creatives and Copy on Facebook ASAP.
Beginning on August 19th, 2019, Facebook Ads will be changing its ad specification requirements to accommodate the new Facebook News Feed format. The new ad specs include:
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The aspect ratio for all image creatives must be 4:5.
Why: Facebook is aligning Facebook Feed formats more closely to Instagram Feed formats to improve ads liquidity across platforms and consistency in people’s ad experience.
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The visible primary text for ad copy will be truncated from 7 to 3 lines
Why: Facebook tested and observed that reducing the number of lines in primary text from 7 to 3 lead to better ad performance on average.
This format update is expected to be rolled out to all advertisers by September 2nd, 2019. These updates only apply to mobile News Feed at this time.
Why the Urgency?
On September 19, Facebook will stop the delivery of any ads using media taller than 4:5. Therefore, Marketers, if your company or your client want its ads to continue to show on Facebook, than you will need to edit or create new ads using media with a 4:5 aspect ratio or shorter.
Note: Any existing ads created before roll out and using media taller than a 4:5 aspect ratio will continue running with the media as is until September 19.
Additionally, critical messaging, like an ad's CTA or UVP, may not be immediately visible to Facebook Users when an ads primary text is shortened from 7 lines to 3.
How Will This Impact Performance?
In the short term, from August 19th to September 19th, Facebook’s ad serving algorithms will favor ads tailored to its new mobile-friendly format. As a result, advertisers can expect a decrease in impression share and performance if ads are not updated to 4:5 with less than 4 lines of text, and vice versa. If ad creatives are not updated by September 19th, ad performance will flatline, as Facebook will have stopped serving ads that do not fit its 4:5 ad specifications.
💡 Tip: If you are currently running ads with ad creative aspects greater than 4:5 and/or ad copy with greater than 3 lines of primary text, we recommend updating the ads as soon as possible, keeping the mobile user in mind.
In the long term, we believe these updates will help Facebook gather more accurate insights on what drives ad effectiveness. By creating consistency between Instagram and Facebook Feed formats, Facebook will reduce the amount of dependent variables on performance. This change increases the quality of insight Facebook shares with its advertisers, which can lead to more successful campaigns.
If you have any questions and are looking for help, reach out! Or, if you’re interested in leveraging Seer for your paid social needs, you may find more information here.
