Should you put text over an image on Facebook?

This question comes up A LOT in our industry and seems to be up for debate frequently. The fact of the matter is, Facebook has has already done the research for you. In their policies they require that if you are going to advertise on Facebook, text cannot occupy more than 20 percent of the image and ad specs. In most cases, if you have text over the image your ad will not be approved.

Some food for thought…

If Facebook won’t approve an ad with more than 20% of text, because it won’t perform well, why would you want to have a photo in a post or cover with a bunch of text? It seems pretty straight forward to me, if they don’t like it and they have spent the money on the research then why try it?

Not to mention how busy it looks and your image looses impact. I know personally when I am scrolling through Facebook, I will stop at a clear beautiful photo over one that has a bunch of text. You have the opportunity to tell your story in the text field.

Our recommendation: Stay away from text over images.