New Character Limits for Facebook Posts on Mobile
Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms, making it useful for businesses to grow brand awareness, drive website traffic, share important information and updates to the public, etc. Facebook used to allow lengthy posts, which were advantageous for marketers who wanted the capability of fitting all major points of information in a post for viewers to see. However, our digital marketing specialists at Blue Compass recently discovered that Facebook posts displayed on mobile devices are being cut off.
Why Are My Mobile Facebook Posts Getting Cut Off?
One of the main reasons social media platforms place character limits on posts and their displays is to maintain consistency throughout a user’s feed, making posts easy to view. Users can quickly scroll through their feed, skim a post and still receive all of the information they need to decide whether they want to take further action or not. If the length of a post is too long to be fully displayed within Facebook’s new template, a portion of it is replaced with an ellipsis followed by a “see more” option, which the user must click in order to see the remainder of the post. These posts are often overlooked and scrolled past due to the inconvenience, which can significantly decrease the effectiveness of the post. For this reason, it is essential for marketers to fit all of their major points and call-to-action in the visible part of the post. This increases the likelihood of a user following that CTA, visiting your website and taking a favorable action on the site.
Is There a Character Limit for Facebook Posts on Mobile Devices?
In today’s society where convenience is king, the vast majority of users aren’t sitting down at a desktop or laptop when viewing social media, it’s much more likely they are using mobile devices. Because there isn’t any data released on an exact Facebook post character limit for mobile display, our digital marketing specialists decided to do some research to find out.
The Results: Discover How Many Characters a Facebook Post Can Have
To be sure they were finding the character limit for Facebook posts on all mobile devices, our experts looked at how they are displayed on an Android, standard iPhone and an iPhone+. Below are the results of three different posts.
Examples of Cut Off Facebook Posts
Interestingly, the screen-size of the phone being used has an effect on how Facebook posts are displayed. As the examples show, the ellipsis appears at the same number of characters for all Android examples. From this, our experts determined that although the number of characters included in a Facebook post affects when that post is cut off, so does the amount of space being taken up by the post. Both of the Android screenshots show the ellipsis toward the beginning of the fourth line, while the iPhone screenshots show it at the end of the third line. To be safe, our specialists decided to test this with an iPhone +. This time, the posts were getting cut off at the end of the third line. This is the same result we found in the regular iPhone screenshots. However, since the iPhone + has a bigger screen, more characters can fit in those first three lines of text. This proves that Facebook is trying to create a consistent look throughout the user’s feed. Therefore, if a post doesn’t reach the recommended character limit and is still being cut off, the reason could be that the post still filled out three lines of text. Our experts wanted to find a safe range of characters to stay within when creating Facebook posts to ensure the full post is being displayed every time.
Examples of Cut Off Facebook Ads
Placing ad spend on a Facebook post, as opposed to posting organically, also has an effect on the mobile display cut off point. Our specialists tested this out with the three posts below.
As you may be able to notice without looking at the character count labels above the screenshots, all of these posts seem much shorter than the organic examples. In fact, they are much shorter, each being cut off around 120 characters. For marketers that rarely post organically, it can be very challenging to fit an entire post in the mobile template for Facebook ads. Our specialists suggest limiting Facebook posts to 120 characters or less when placing ad spend on them. However, if you are a marketer posting organically, save yourself some time and effort by taking advantage of those extra characters mobile display will show.
The Ideal Length of a Facebook Post
Android proved to be consistent with each post being cut off at 150 characters. The iPhone and iPhone+, on the other hand, were inconsistent. The first iPhone screenshot shows the post getting cut off at 150 characters like the Android, but the second screenshot shows the post getting cut off at 132 characters and the third screenshot at 146 characters. Our digital marketing experts recommend keeping Facebook posts with ad spend at 120 characters or less, and organic Facebook posts within 140 characters - 150 characters to help ensure that all major points are being included within the post.
Staying Up-to-Date with Social Media
By maintaining a consistent social presence and keeping up with the latest updates for social platforms, your business will stand out, increasing site visits and conversion rate.
Reach out to our social media marketing experts at Blue Compass if you have any questions about the different social platforms or want to improve your business’ social media presence. For more tips and information to help your business online, check out a few of our other social media blogs:
Kevin McMurray
Kevin McMurray is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Blue Compass. He enjoys spending time with his family, cheering on Cyclones sports and leisure sports.