Hooks, headlines and post text

You have three angles. Now each ad needs words. A Meta image ad has three places for text, and each has a different job. Most weak ads put the same sentence in all three.

The three texts and their jobs

1. The hook is the line printed on the image. Its job is to stop the scroll.
2. The post text sits above the image. Its job is to give the reason to buy and say what to do.
3. The headline sits under the image, beside the button. Its job is to carry the offer or the result.

There is also a description, a short line next to the headline. It shows reliably in only a few placements, and the Facebook feed and Reels are not among them. Never put anything important there.

The hook: one line, read in a glance

People decide fast. Meta's own research found people could recall mobile feed content after seeing it for only 0.25 seconds (Meta for Business, 2016). Your hook must work at that speed.

Rules for the hook:

• One idea. "Dinner in 10 minutes." Not "Dinner in 10 minutes with our authentic homemade sambal, now with free delivery."
• Short. A few words, big enough to read on a phone.
• About the buyer, not you. "Dinner in 10 minutes" beats "Ipoh's favourite sambal".
• Matches the picture. The hook and the photo should tell one story.

Five hook shapes that work for small businesses:

The Facebook ad hooks guide has many more patterns with examples.

The post text: the point before See more

On the mobile feed, only about the first 125 characters of the post text show before See more (Letter Counter, 2026). Meta's Ads Guide recommends 50 to 150 characters for the Facebook feed. Most people never tap See more, so the first line has to do the work.

A simple structure:

1. Line 1, the reason to buy. Say the angle in plain words.
2. Line 2, the proof. A number, a review, or how it is made.
3. Line 3, the action. What to do now: order, WhatsApp us, see the menu.

For the sambal business, the speed angle could read:

Hot rice, one spoon of sambal, dinner done in 10 minutes. Made by hand in Ipoh, 40 jars a day. Order on WhatsApp before 3pm for next-day delivery.

That is 146 characters. The reason to buy lands in the first sentence, and the action starts before the cut. Write it the way you would say it to a customer at your stall. Short sentences. Common words.

The headline: the offer or the result

Meta's Ads Guide recommends about 27 characters for a Facebook feed headline. Longer headlines may be cut off on a phone. Meta's recommended maximum is about 40 characters (Sprout Social, 2025).

Good headlines for the sambal ads:

• "3 jars for RM 45" (16 characters)
• "Free delivery in Perak" (22 characters)
• "Dinner done in 10 minutes" (25 characters)

Do not repeat the hook. If the image already says "Dinner in 10 minutes", let the headline say "3 jars for RM 45".

Common mistakes

• The same sentence on the image, in the post text and in the headline.
• The price hidden in line 4 of the post text, after See more.
• A claim you cannot prove ("best sambal in Malaysia"). See Malaysian ad rules.
• Long words and formal phrases. "Experience the authentic taste" says less than "Tastes like home".

Doing it in AdPlay.ai

Every ad the Ad Generator makes comes with post text and a headline written for its angle. You check and change them on the ad's page:

1. On the Ads page, click the ad, then Open ad. The ad page shows it as a Facebook post, with the post text cut at See more where a phone would cut it.
2. Click the post text or the headline to edit it in place. Under the field, a counter shows how many characters you have used, for example "98 of 125 characters before See more." Click Save.
3. Or ask for options in Ask AI, beside the ad: "Write 3 headlines for under the image" or "Make the first line of the post text about free delivery". Say "under the image" or "post text": a bare "headline" means the words printed on the image. Flip through the options on the ad, then keep the one you like (for example Keep 2), or click Keep old.
4. Check the Ad check on the preview. It runs by itself and again after every change. If the headline is over 40 characters, it shows "The headline may be cut off" with Write 3 shorter ones.

An ad needs both post text and a headline before it can launch. Writing with Ask AI works on the free trial too, and uses a few credits. See Polish an ad with Ask AI for the full guide.

Checklist

• The hook is one short idea, about the buyer.
• The post text gives the reason to buy and the action in the first 125 characters.
• The headline carries the offer or result, near 27 characters.
• Nothing important sits in the description.
• No two texts repeat each other.

Your homework

Open one of your ads in AdPlay.ai. Rewrite the first line of the post text with the three-line structure, and give the headline the offer or the result. Check the counter shows the reason to buy before See more and the headline stays near 27 characters. Then ask Ask AI to "Write 3 headlines for under the image" and keep the best one.