Recommended Facebook ad character limits
Meta doesn't stop you writing long text, but it recommends lengths that avoid truncation in most placements. This Facebook ad character counter uses these approximate limits:
- Primary text: about 125 characters before "See more" appears on mobile.
- Headline: 27 characters is the safe length in most placements, and up to 40 is acceptable in some.
- Description: 27 to 30 characters, and it doesn't appear in every placement anyway.
Orange in the counter means you're past the ideal length; red means the text will most likely be cut. The cut point also changes with screen size and line count, so the preview is approximate.
Is long ad copy bad?
No. Long copy sometimes wins for products that need explaining or trust-building. What matters is that the first 125 characters do the job alone: a clear problem, a result, an offer, or a question that makes people read on. Test a short and a long version with the same image and let the numbers decide. Read Facebook Ads A/B Testing: What to Test and How to Read Results Without Fooling Yourself for how to test properly.
How to write stronger first lines
- Start with the customer, not the company: "Campaigns stopped suddenly?" beats "We are a company specialized in…".
- Put the number or offer early: "30% off until Thursday" grabs more than a long description.
- Use emoji sparingly; one or two are enough to separate ideas.
- Write the headline like a button: a benefit or clear action in a few words.
To generate copy ideas fast and then polish them yourself, read Facebook Ad Copy with AI: A Practical Method and Ready-to-Use Prompts. If your ad was rejected over its text, see Facebook Ad Rejected? Common Reasons, How to Appeal, and How to Know Right Away.
How the tool counts characters and emoji
Every letter, space, punctuation mark and emoji counts as one character. A line break counts as one too, but it takes a full line on mobile, so watch how many lines appear before "See more". In Arabic, diacritics also count, so avoid full vowel marks in ads.