Ads and organic posts

Social ads are one of the quickest and most effective ways to connect with the audience. The ads should feel bold and simple with clear and concise messaging.

The templates below demonstrate how the SFU brand elements can be used expressively in different layouts.

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Text only

Our brand colours, typefaces and title bars can be used together creatively to create expressive social ads when photography is not available. The examples below show some layouts to accommodate different lengths of content using a white or SFU light red background.

Copy should not be sized below 16px to follow web best practices and accessibility standards. Text-only versions should not be used for paid ads, as too much text (over 20 per cent of image) decreases performance per Facebook’s ad standards.

Short headline, large text with a description

Short headline, medium text with a word patterm

Short headline, large text with a URL

Long headline, small text with a URL

Medium headline, small text with a URL

Medium headline, medium text

Image only

Photography for social ads should be in black and white with a photo journalistic style. Images shown on below are a few examples of what the social ads can portray.

Learning opportunities.

Unique projects.

Faculties creating an impact in the world.

People engaging in real activities.

Candid and authentic.

Text and image

The 20 per cent rule applies to all promoted ads on Facebook and Instagram. The amount of text cannot exceed 20 per cent of the total area of the ad. Failure to comply may lead to a decrease in ad performance.

Black and white photography should be used for ads. The images should have dynamic composition. Quiet space allows copy and logo to be easily placed over them.

Short headline, medium text with a URL

Short headline, large text with a URL

Short headline, medium text with a description

Long headline, small text with description

Medium headline, small text with emphasis

Facebook image text guidelines

When creating new paid social ads that contain text, use Facebook’s tool to check if the post will run normally. Simply upload the image. Facebook will give you the results.

For the example below we’ve uploaded an image containing a logo, a headline and a CTA. The current reach for this ad would be much lower than desired since our reach would be Medium. Some ways to improve this ad: reduce the amount of copy or remove either the logo or URL. Try removing one element at a time and re-uploading the image to test until you achieve better results.

For the improved example on the bottom right, we removed the logo and URL from the original test image. The results are now much better, achieving an OK from Facebook for the ad to run normally.

Test your paid social ad for every image containing text. Knowing how your ad will perform can improve your audience reach, ensuring the SFU brand achieves the attention it deserves.

Examples

Test image for paid social ad.

New test image for improving
audience reach with logo and
URL removed

Video

The video thumbnail should contain no more than 20 per cent text, otherwise it may decrease the ad performance. Social videos look best at 1:1 ratio, but are accepted at 9:16 and 16:9 ratios as well.

Copy on videos should not be sized below 16px, and should use either a container or a glow on captions to help with accessibility when necessary—use only one style per video.

Logos can be placed on either the upper right corner or lower left corner of the video. This allows layout flexibility if captions are included at the bottom of the video.

Centred title, with black background

Primary image style in black and white

Lower thirds caption with no effect

Short title, right-justified

Medium length headline, left-justified, with a description

Lower thirds caption with glow effect

Carousel

Carousels can feature a mixture of images and videos, each with their own title and call to action. The video thumbnail should contain no more than 20 per cent text, otherwise it may decrease ad performance.

Fonts on images and videos should not be sized below 16px, and should use either a container or a glow on captions (use only one style per video) to help with accessibility when necessary. To maintain continuity, use the same typographic layout throughout the carousel.