A Facebook Ad Image Rejected for Too Much Text

A poster that cannot be promoted

A charity designs a poster for its fundraising dinner, with the date, venue, ticket price and sponsor logos over a photograph of last year's room. It goes on the Facebook Page as well.

The organiser then presses Boost Post, picks an audience and a budget, and waits. A notice comes back: the ad was not approved, because the image contains too much text.

The post itself stays on the Page. Only the paid version was refused.

The poster was designed for paper, where a reader stands in front of it. A News Feed ad gets a glance on a phone.

How Facebook measures text

Facebook lays a grid of 25 squares, five across and five down, over every image used in an ad, boosted posts included. Any square with writing in it counts.

If text touches more than five of the 25 squares, the ad is rejected. Small writing spread across the image touches more squares than one large line kept in a corner.

Words inside logos can count too. So can a web address in a corner or a date along the bottom.

The rule applies only to ads. The same image posted normally, without paying to promote it, is never measured.

What usually trips the grid

Event posters gather text in predictable places:

• Dates and times set along the bottom edge.
• A headline running the full width of the image.
• Sponsor logos in a row, each with its name.
• Ticket prices and a web address tucked into the corners.
• A border of small print, such as a charity number or booking details.

Each is reasonable on a printed poster. On the grid, each one touches a row or a corner of squares, and together they pass five long before the poster looks busy.

Checking an image before boosting

Facebook offers a grid tool in its advertising help pages. Upload the image, and it shows the 25 squares over it, so you can see which ones contain text.

Run every ad image through it before boosting, not after a rejection. Treat five squares as the limit, not the target, since anything close is a judgement call.

When an image fails, move text out of it and check again. Taking the date off the bottom edge and putting it in the post can be enough on its own.

Moving the details into the post

The words above the image are not measured. The date, the time, the place, the price and how to buy tickets can all go there, in full sentences.

Put the most important line first, since longer posts are cut short in the News Feed. Then link to a page on your own site, or a Facebook event, where the rest is set out.

A short post reads well: the event name, the date and time, the place and the price, then the link.

Words in the post can be read by every follower, including those using screen readers, and they can be copied, searched and shared in a way that writing inside an image cannot.

Designing event graphics that work as ads

Plan an ad version of the graphic from the start, alongside the printed poster. It shares the photograph and the colours, and leaves almost all the words out.

Choose a photograph that tells the story on its own: last year's room full of guests, the food, the people the event helps. Faces and activity say what the event is without a word.

A charity dinner can show last year's guests at the tables; a sale can show the shop's busiest corner on its busiest day.

If a line of text is needed, keep it short and in one corner, and keep the logo small. Sponsors can be thanked by name in the post instead.

Keep the poster's layered design file, so the ad version can be made in minutes from the same parts.

A worked example

A professional organiser who works with households in a suburban area runs a Saturday workshop each January on clearing out a home before a move.

Her poster had a headline, the date and time, the hall, the price, what to bring, a registration address and two partner logos, all over a photograph of a tidy pantry.

The boosted post was rejected. Laid over the poster, Facebook's grid showed writing in about half of the squares.

The ad image is now the pantry photograph alone, with two words in one corner. The date, hall, price and how to register moved into the post, with a link to the workshop page.

She ran the new image through the grid tool before boosting again, and it touched two squares.

The printed poster stayed as it was, on the community centre's board and on the workshop page, where text is welcome.

When an ad is turned down

A rejected boost leaves the original post in place, and nothing is charged. A published post's photograph cannot be swapped, so make a new post with the new image and boost that.

Before boosting the new post, check that its words carry everything the old poster said, since the image no longer does.

Keep the rejected version for print, where it belongs, and keep the ad version on file for next year's event.

The counter-case

A post that will never be boosted is never measured, and a poster image can be shared as it is, alongside words that carry the details.

Some organisations never pay to promote posts, and for them the grid does not matter.

But the reasons behind the rule apply to every post. A photograph with few words reads quickly in a busy feed, and the details are better served in text anyway.

Before pressing boost

1. Pick a photograph instead of the poster.
2. Keep any words to one short line in a corner.
3. Shrink the logo and drop the row of sponsors.
4. Run the image through Facebook's grid tool.
5. Write the date, time and place in the post.
6. Add the price and how to buy tickets.
7. Link to the event page for everything else.

Step four saves the most frustration. A minute with the grid tool shows exactly which squares carry text, before any money or time goes into a boost that will be refused.

Moving the details into the words of the post also serves followers who use screen readers, as social posts that are only a picture of words explains.

Frequently asked questions

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