The text overlay formula to optimize ads

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📝 Context

Topic: Social Media | Ads
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: February 2025
Universities: University of Bologna, Vrije Universiteit, Babson College 

You’re preparing a TikTok campaign to announce your upcoming 25% off annual sale and you’re wondering:

• How much text should I overlay on the video? How much is too much?

• Where should I position it? And how large should it be?

New research gives us the answer.

P.S.: Mentioning a rival brand in your posts can also lead to up to 197% more likes on your posts.

📈 Recommendation

Overlay text on social media videos or GIFs following these rules:

• Away from the center of the frame (e.g. below, to the side)

• On Instagram, it should be 11% of the total frame size but can go up to 44% of the total frame size

• On X, it should be up to 46% of the frame

For static images (e.g. pictures), place the text in the center and generally use a larger text size. 

Pro tip: Use this tool, developed by the researchers, to check that you’re doing it correctly.

🎓 Findings

• Short videos and GIFs on social media receive more clicks, comments and likes when they have text overlays, and even more if the text is optimally placed.

• As part of 4 experiments and an analysis of more than 8,200 posts from top brands, researchers found that for videos or GIFs:

  • Clicks on X posts were maximized when the text overlay took up 24% of the total frame.

  • Ads with medium size text on Facebook resulted in:

    • 27% higher CTRs than ads with larger text

    • 127% higher CTRs than ads with small-sized text

  • Ads with a text overlay on the edges of the frame received between 19.4% and 23.3% higher clicks on Facebook and were preferred 11% more than ads with text in the center of the frame.

  • Instagram posts receive the most likes and comments when a text overlay covered 11% of the frame.

• The effect differs for static images. These images usually perform best when:

  • Text is placed in the center of the image

  • The text size is larger

🧠 Why it works

• Visual factors like color, complexity, and the presence of people drive whether and how we engage with social media posts.

• When we see a post with text overlaid on an image, the text becomes part of how we see the image.

• Our attention is attracted to a post if there is a balanced distribution between the overlaid text and the image. This makes us more likely to engage with the post.

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✋ Limitations

• The research looked at both dynamic (GIFs and videos) and static (images) visuals, but focused predominantly on dynamic visuals. Based on the limited findings done on static images, it appears the effect works slightly differently for these.

• The study only looked at single text overlays, so it’s unknown if multiple overlays (e.g. a headline at the top and CTA at the bottom) would have the same impact.

• The experiments focused on single posts. It’s unknown if this would carry over for formats like carousels, stories, or interactive posts (e.g. polls).

• The research focused on paid and organic social media only. The effect likely works for websites and apps as well, but hasn’t been studied.

👀 Real-life example

Bedding company Brooklinen regularly include text overlays on their instagram content.

❌ Issue: Though they include a text overlay, its small size makes it hardly noticeable. They’ve also centered their overlay, which is less effective. 

✅ Solution: To increase engagement and clicks on their posts, Brooklinen could try to:

• Increase the size of their text overlay, to cover about 11% of the image frame.

• Move the text away from the center of the frame, towards the top to ensure a clear view of the bedding.

• Vary their posting schedule, with informative content in the morning (e.g. educating about bedding, healthy sleep habits) and posting fun content in the evenings (e.g. memes).

• Talk about customer habits related to sleep in a teasing or funny way (e.g. having a pillow for their phone to sleep next to them) to increase people’s connection to the brand.

• Highlight the community of their users with posts about shared experiences about sleeping. Video ads with social messages like these are more likely to be shared.

🔍 Study type

Online experiments, field experiment (Meta ads campaigns with 258,918 impressions), and market observation (analysis of 8,275 tweets from various top brands and likes/comments on 8,467 Instagram posts)

📖 Research

Standing Out While Fitting In: Visual Design of Text Overlays in Social Media Communication. Journal of Marketing (February 2025). 

🏫 Researchers

• Stefania Farace. University of Bologna

• Francisco Villarroel Ordenes. University of Bologna

• Dennis Herhausen. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Dhruv Grewal. Babson College

• Ko de Ruyter. King’s Business School

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus: Trivia

Check your knowledge from previous insights.

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