Facebook to reduce image sizes, lower character count for body copy in ads

New Facebook ad specs reduce the maximum size of images and number of characters of body copy, according to a Facebook document uploaded by a number of Scribd users. Marketplace ads -- which are traditional self-serve Facebook ads, not Sponsored Stories or page-post ads -- will now allow a 99x72-pixel image and 90 characters of body copy. Previously, ads could have a 110x80-pixel image and 135 characters of body copy. Even though existing documentation on Facebook still refers to the 110x80 dimensions, the site seems to have already begun resizing images to 99x72 automatically. According to the document, copy changes will go into effect March 31. The company has not done anything to notify advertisers of this through its business pages or ad dashboard. We did not find anything about the change in the Help Center or API documentation. The latest ad specs make Sponsored Stories and page-post ads more appealing to advertisers. Facebook wants to promote these new ad units and push traditional ads (headline, image and body copy) out of favor. Last month, Facebook made it mandatory for premium homepage ads to begin as page posts, but it hasn’t done so for its self-serve marketplace ads. Instead, it’s giving more real estate to its newer offerings. With images in traditional ads now 19 percent smaller, it is harder to catch users' eyes. The reduction of body copy is not likely to hurt advertisers, as ads with fewer words tend to outperform those that use the maximum character count. Reducing the overall size of ads by making images smaller and text shorter allows Facebook to fit more ads in the same amount of space. The social network recently increased the maximum number of ads per page to seven, which means some ads are not visible unless a user scrolls down. Difference in image size, body copy Old: New: Ads that originate from page posts, however, get up to 90 characters of text, a 118x90-pixel image and a page thumbnail. Premium homepage ads, which are only bought directly through Facebook representatives, can have 90 characters of page-post copy, a 168x128-pixel image, as well as thumbnails and names of friends that Like the page. For a further breakdown of Facebook ad types, see the document here.

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Facebook to reduce image sizes, lower character count for body copy in ads

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Brittany Darwell