Ad Headline Character Limits: Every Network, 2025

Headline limits range from 20 characters (Meta Reels overlay) to 300 (Reddit) — a 15x spread, and no two networks agree. This page is the reference: every limit, what triggers truncation versus rejection, and why the cap exists in the first place.

The numbers, by network (2025):

• Google RSA headlines: 30 characters each, up to 15 headlines per ad. Hard reject at upload.
• Microsoft RSA headlines: 30 characters, up to 15. Mirrors Google.
• Meta Feed (Facebook/Instagram): 40 characters recommended primary text headline; truncates with ellipsis past ~40 on most placements.
• Meta Reels overlay text: 20 characters before it gets pushed off-screen on portrait devices.
• LinkedIn Sponsored Content: 70 characters hard cap, truncates silently.
• LinkedIn Text Ads: 25 characters headline, 75 description.
• TikTok in-feed ad text: 100 characters total for the ad caption (no separate headline field), but the UI overlay covers ~50.
• Reddit Promoted Post title: 300 characters; matches organic post titles.
• X (Twitter) Promoted Tweet: 280 characters; image cards have a separate 70-character title field that truncates at 50 on mobile.
• Pinterest Promoted Pin title: 100 characters; only ~40 show in-grid.
• Snapchat Single Image/Video: 34 characters brand name + 34 headline.
• Spotify Audio Ad companion: 25 characters CTA, 40 characters tagline.

Why the limits exist. Google's 30-character cap is a SERP layout constraint — three headlines have to fit on one desktop result line plus a separator. Snapchat's 34 comes from the bottom-of-screen swipe-up bar in portrait video. Meta Reels' 20 is what fits without colliding with the like/comment rail on a 6.1" phone. These aren't arbitrary; they're pixel math.

What happens when you exceed the limit:

• Hard reject: Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn Text Ads. The upload fails or the field won't accept the input.
• Silent truncation: LinkedIn Sponsored Content, Meta Feed, Pinterest, X cards. Your copy uploads fine — the extra characters just don't render. No warning. This is the dangerous one.
• Ellipsis truncation: Meta primary text past ~125 chars adds "... See More."
• Visual overflow: Reels/Stories overlay text doesn't truncate; it gets cropped by the device frame or covered by UI elements. Looks fine in preview, broken in the wild.

Gotchas that bite:

• Emoji count as 2-4 characters on most networks because they're multi-byte. A 🔥 in a Google headline often consumes 2 of your 30. Test before relying on them.
• Smart quotes and em dashes (', ", —) sometimes count as 3 bytes. Google counts characters, not bytes, but some Meta endpoints reject on byte length for non-Latin scripts.
• RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew): character count is the same, but the visual width is wider. A 30-char Arabic headline often overflows where English wouldn't.
• CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean): each character is roughly 2x the visual width of Latin, so Google's 30-char Chinese headline shows ~15 "slots" worth of meaning. Limits are still 30 but the content density doubles.
• Trailing spaces count. Tab characters get stripped. Line breaks in fields that don't support them cause silent rejection.

Rules for fitting copy in tight limits:

• Front-load the keyword or value prop in the first 20 characters. Assume everything after will be truncated on at least one surface.
• Cut articles ("the," "a," "an") and possessives before cutting nouns or numbers.
• Numerals beat spelled-out numbers: "14-Day Trial" (12 chars) vs. "Fourteen-Day Trial" (18).
• Avoid brand name in the headline if the brand name is already in the URL/profile field — Google penalizes redundant headlines anyway.
• Skip punctuation that the platform strips. Google removes exclamation points from headlines (one allowed, max).

Example

Starting headline: Get 30% Off Your First Year of Premium Today (47 chars). Fits LinkedIn Sponsored (70) and Meta Feed (40, but truncates). Trim for Google/Microsoft RSA at 30: 30% Off First Year — Premium (28 chars). Trim for Meta Reels overlay at 20: 30% Off First Year (18 chars). Three versions, ~5 minutes of work, covers every placement.

Questions