Facebook Ad Copy Examples: What 262 Long-Running Meta Ads Put in the Text, Headline and Button (2026)
68% of 260 long-running Meta ads write past the 125-character cut. What matters is what shows before See more: real examples and where the offer goes.
Facebook ad copy is three fields: primary text above the creative, a headline beside the button, and the button. Meta recommends 125 characters of primary text, but of 260 ads we measured that had run 60+ days, 68% wrote past that, with a median of 198.5. Length isn't the thing to fix. The part that matters is what a reader sees before See more cuts the text, and the ads worth copying put the hook and the offer there, or in the headline.
Upload an ad image to AdMakeAI's free ad copy generator and get up to five sets of headline, primary text, description and button, previewed in a feed card that cuts at 125 characters.
Write ad copyMeta's 125 characters is where the cut falls, not a limit
Meta's help page on text in ads recommends 125 characters of primary text, 40 for the headline and 25 for the description, and says primary text "should span 1-3 lines at most." Longer text still runs; it gets folded behind See more. A few placements ask for less:
| Placement | Primary text | Headline | Desc.Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most placements | 125 | 40 | 25 |
| Facebook Feed | 50-150 | 27 | - |
| Facebook Feed carousel cards | 80 | 20 | 18 |
| Facebook Reels | 40 | 55 (image ads) | - |
| Instagram Reels | 44 | - | - |
Characters. First row from Meta's help center, the rest from its Ads Guide placement pages. A dash means Meta lists no figure.
Those are Meta's numbers. To see what advertisers actually write, we pulled 262 ads from Meta's Ad Library that had been live 60 days or more, one per advertiser, and measured every text field.
260 ads running 60+ days
How long their primary text runs, one dot per ad
Fits in 125
82 (32%)
Cut behind See more
178 (68%)
Characters of primary text. Hover or tap a column.
Two thirds run past the cut, and the tail is long: 39 texts go past 600 characters, and Meta doesn't publish a maximum. Format moves it (multi-asset ads had a median of 123 characters, single images 288). Days running isn't a result, so none of this says long copy sells. It says long text didn't stop these ads from running for months, so write what the product needs and spend your effort on the first 125 characters.
The first 125 characters are the ad
If most text gets folded, the question becomes what sits above the fold. Here are four of those ads with their real text cut at 125, and where each keeps its offer.
The first 125 characters
What a reader sees before tapping See more
Dog food should be food, not burnt brown balls. Switch to a smarter, healthy pet food today and get 50% off your first box.
All 123 characters show. The offer is in the text and again in the headline.
Behind See more
Nothing. There is no See more on this ad.
The Farmer's Dog and Ollie get there from opposite ends: one writes 123 characters and stops, the other writes 348 and opens on "FETCH 50% OFF". KURU has a good hook, then leaves Free Shipping in the fourth bullet, past the cut, with a headline that doesn't repeat it.
Treat 125 as the most you get. Meta says text "may be further truncated across various placements and devices", and a line break can end the visible part sooner. So the habit to copy is a first line that works alone; in 70% of the texts we measured, the first line was 125 characters or fewer. For those first lines, customer reviews are the quickest source we know.
The headline is the second window
The headline is the bold line beside the button, and it shows whether or not anyone taps See more. That makes it the other place an offer can live. 60 of the 262 ads had a discount in their copy, and this is where a reader first sees it.
60 ads with a discount in the copy
Where a reader first sees the discount
Sorted by where the discount shows
43 of the 60 show the discount without a tap, and the headline does more of that work than the text: 31 of the 60 put the discount there, often repeating it. SAINT Eyewear's "BUY 1, GET 1 FREE!" is the only place its deal appears in words. In the other 17, a reader finds the deal only after tapping, if at all.
Headlines in the sample were short, a median of 29 characters, though 53% ran past the 27 Meta recommends for Facebook Feed. We'd write to 27 and put the offer in the first few words. Video ads follow the same split: the discount goes in the headline, not the script. As for the button, Shop now (43%) and Learn more (26%) covered most of the sample.
Four ads that fill the window well
Each of these uses the first 125 characters differently, and each has run for months. That says the advertiser kept paying for it, not that it converted.
Beddy's
If you hate making your bed… you’re going to LOVE Beddy’s. 💕 One zip = done. 🛏️ Looks neat, feels amazing, and takes seconds.
Headline: Don’t Like Bed-Making? Zip It.
Exactly 125 characters on three lines. Meta's 1-3 lines taken literally, so nothing is cut.
Started November 5, 2025; 339 days running. Ad Library
USAA
Members who switched saved an average of $840 on their car insurance.
Headline: USAA Auto Insurance
69 characters and one number. A 99-character version runs beside it as a second text option.
Started May 21, 2026; 142 days running. Ad Library
Remi Wellness
The dog ate your $600 night guard. 🐕 Just… chewed it up like a toy. [...] Remi makes the exact same thing for under $100. 🦷
Headline: Replace It For Under $100
862 characters of story, but line one is the hook and the headline carries the price.
Started April 6, 2026; 187 days running. Ad Library
Nuvia Dental Implant Center
Patients often ask us: “How much do dental implants cost?” “How is Nuvia able to provide their permanent teeth in only 24 hours?” [...] Click the button below to see our free guide where we answer all of these questions (and many more!)
Headline: The Ultimate Guide To Dental Implant Prices
No discount at all. The questions patients ask are the hook, and the free guide is the offer.
Started November 3, 2025; 341 days running. Ad Library
Facebook ad copy FAQ
How long should Facebook ad copy be?
Meta recommends 125 characters of primary text. In the 260 long-running ads we measured, the median was 198.5, so write what the product needs and put the hook and the offer in the first 125.
What is the Facebook ad headline character limit?
Meta recommends 27 characters for Facebook Feed, 40 for most other placements and 20 for carousel cards. Longer headlines run, but they can be clipped.
How many characters show before See more on Facebook ads?
Meta doesn't publish a fixed number. 125 is its recommendation, and placement, device or a line break can cut the text sooner.
What is the difference between primary text, headline and description?
Primary text sits above the image or video, the headline is the bold line beside the button, and the description is a smaller line under it that many placements don't show. Only 42% of the ads we checked filled one in.
Can one Meta ad have several primary texts?
Yes. You can enter several text options per field and Meta picks one per person, but reporting doesn't break results out by variant.
Should you use emojis in Facebook ad copy?
47% of the texts we measured had at least one, and 24% used them as bullets. Meta has no rule against them.
Before you publish your copy
- 1Hook and offer on the first line, inside 125 characters.
- 2The rest at whatever length the product needs. It sits behind See more, so nothing essential goes there.
- 3Headline: the offer in 27 characters or fewer, the Facebook Feed figure.
- 4For Reels, a 40-44 character version through placement asset customization.
- 5Fill in the headline and description yourself. Blank fields can be filled from your website, and you may not be able to edit that text.
- 6Button: Shop now for a product page, Learn more for anything people need to read first.
- 7A second, shorter primary text as a text option.
The ad copy generator writes these fields from your ad image and shows them at the 125-character cut.
How we got this
30 product and service searches in Meta's Ad Library on October 10, 2026 (US, active ads, first results page each) returned 731 unique ads. Without catalog ads, non-English ads, ads under 60 days and repeat advertisers, 262 remained, one per advertiser, median 221 days running. We measured text as entered: the first text option for multi-asset ads, card 1 for carousels. Meta can rearrange text (optimize text per person), so this isn't always what a viewer saw. Lengths are Unicode code points. One reviewer labelled offers from the text; offers printed on the image weren't counted. We didn't test the See more cut on devices; 125 is Meta's recommendation. Days running isn't a measure of results, and stopped ads aren't in the sample. Meta's figures checked October 10, 2026.
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