I’ve completely come to terms with the fact that most of us with business Pages need to pay to get our posts into Facebook’s news feed in any kind of a significant way. That’s just the way it is!
The reality is Facebook Pages are no longer really free, and haven’t been for some time, not if you are intentional about using your Page to build your brand’s reach. This may not be true for all businesses but it’s true for most.
But the logic behind Facebook’s ‘Policy’ for Promoted Posts, or as they call it ‘Ad Images’ in News Feeds, escapes me.
This one in particular, “Policy: Ads and sponsored stories in News Feed may not include images comprised of more than 20% text.” (emphasis mine)
Under the heading ‘How are we enforcing?’ Facebook goes on to say this “We have created a new grid-based detection tool that is the standard for determining the percentage of text that appears in any image. This tool should ensure consistent and objective enforcement of the policy”.
Facebook then uses sample images of what is ‘acceptable’ and what is ‘unacceptable’.
I have to say, I feel like I’m dealing with a government bureaucracy when I see the terminology and the policy they’re using!
Having bumped up against the ad enforcement arm of Facebook recently I can’t help but wonder as to the rationale behind this policy.
Here’s part of what I received via email when a Promoted Post didn’t quite fit the grid system:
“The content of your Ad or Sponsored Story violates our Ad Guidelines (emphasis mine). Ads and sponsored stories in News Feed may not include images with more than 20% text. We’ve created a deck that clarifies this new policy for ad images. Download the deck here: http://fbrep.com//SMB/TextPolicy.pdf“
I agree people seem to love photos in their news feed, but they also seem to like inspirational quotes. Ooops, too bad, inspirational quotes are mainly text.
To be accurate, Facebook does make an exception to text if it is part of the product. For instance, they mention that a can of Red Bull that says Red Bull on it is okay. Phew!
But, they go on to say, a “Photo of a product where the image is zoomed in just to promote the logo or brand or is not a clear product shot must meet the 20% rule.” Sheesh!!
The language and the policy leave a lot to be desired.
In fact, maybe they’re not really looking to increase their profitability, because this type of policy certainly won’t help them in that regard.
Does anyone else out there think this is crazy?