Most of us are aware of Facebook as an outlet to advertise and reach niche target markets. As a user, you may notice that there is so much advertising on Facebook and likewise, it is hard to imagine having any rules about advertising at all. For a while Facebook didn’t have much in the way of regulations on advertising.
Once 2016 happened with the mass spread of fake news, Facebook had to crack down a bit on their advertising policies. These changes and frequency of enforcement has been tricky for marketers on Facebook. Many of these rules are not new but were never enforced before and are just now hitting people who have been advertising on Facebook for years.
With the growing influence of social recruiting on sites like Facebook, it is important to be aware of these rule changes and what ones are being enforced more often now than before. Here are a few that it is probably a good idea to be aware of as a social recruiter.
1. Text Size Rule
When recruiting on Facebook, it is likely you will use an image with text on it. Facebook once had a “20%” text rule. This rule was that an image ad with text on it must not be covered more than 20% by the text. Now technically this rule is gone, but only the 20% part. Facebook still has a text size rule but they do not specify exactly how much. Fortunately, there are multiple online tools to help you determine if you are using too big of text. It is important to do this because, if not, your ad could get taken down.
2. Facebook Ad Score
When advertising on Facebook you get a score. This score tells Facebook not only how often you advertise but how relevant and how trustworthy of an advertiser you are. When you post an ad that violates Facebook rules, your score goes down. The more your score goes down the more often Facebook will look harder at the ads you are posting, and it is likely more ads will get taken down. Now, nobody seems to know exactly what else Facebook uses this score for, but it is possible that they also use this score to determine who gets to see your ad. The better the score, the better the audience. So always obey the Facebook rules when you can or else your recruitment ads will be hurt.
3. Multiple IP address log-in
This one can be tricky for some people as many companies have people who post to one account from multiple locations. As a recruiter, it is likely that you will post your social media job ads from multiple locations. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, Facebook could flag your account. Reports of this happening are low, but considering these new changes to the Facebook rules, you are better off playing it safe. If you must use more than one IP address do not worry, but just be aware in case you randomly get flagged and need to know why so you can dispute it with Facebook.
4. No Fake Play Buttons
If you are a recruiter who is using video job ads, then you will probably want your ad to have a play button on it, so people not only know it is a video, but because people are more likely to click on a video than text. Unfortunately, if you can’t post the video player directly into Facebook, you will not see a play button appear. This might tempt you to place a fake one on the image that way people will know and click it. Facebook prohibits this behavior though. Do not try placing a fake one no matter how well you think you will fool Facebook as they learn over time and you will get flagged. The best bet is to just include “VIDEO” in the headline or somewhere at the front of the text body so people know you are posting a video.
5. Bad Grammar
Grammar on Facebook is obviously important. You don’t want your ads to use the wrong forms of their, there, or they’re. You never want someone to be able to look at your ad and think the person who wrote it didn’t take it seriously, because then they won’t take you seriously. But according to Facebook, bad grammar can mean a whole bunch of other things. It is not just the normal ideas of bad grammar that Facebook doesn’t like. If you use multiple exclamation points or multiple question marks simply to add emphasis, Facebook might flag you for it. Facebook does not give much detail or information about this, but they do discuss these things as something that could get you flagged.
If you are going to be advertising your jobs on social media sites like Facebook, you should always be aware of what the advertising rules are. While many of these Facebook rules may seem questionable, there isn’t much we can do about it. Always make sure your post is ad compliant before posting and always be searching for any updates as Facebook is constantly updating their rules, especially right now.
