The advertising targeting feature on Facebook has changed as with every new platform. Earlier this year, Facebook announced that certain targeting options would be phased out in the early 2020s. What impact will this have on Facebook advertising companies?
Find your target audience on Facebook, the implications of the new targeting changes, and other ways to reach your target audience.
How Will Facebook Change its targeting?
An overview of Facebook’s targeting changes follows:
-As Facebook reports, “starting January 19, 2022, they will remove Detailed Targeting options related to sensitive topics, such as those that refer to health, political affiliations, races or ethnicities, religion, or sexual orientation.”
-Many popular social media platforms have provided example posts, including “World Diabetes Day,” “Lung Cancer Awareness,” and “Chemotherapy” for health causes. For example, they mentioned “LGBT culture” and “same-sex marriage.” They also mentioned “Jewish holidays” and “Catholic Church” as examples. The list includes political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures.
Why did this decision happen?
This announcement led to increasing public scrutiny, FTC antitrust charges, and growing customer privacy concerns. As part of the rebranding, Facebook is now known as Meta.
Experts raised concerns with Facebook concerning the potential for targeting tools like these to be used in ways that negatively impact underrepresented groups. However, while this might present a problem for advertisers who responsibly use these deep targeting capabilities, it also reduces the chances of being exploited.
Facebook’s decision to priorities limiting the chance of perceived poor experiences is understandable, especially during this period of increased scrutiny. It is in the interests of advertisers as well to keep Facebook as an attractive option for social media users.
What are the implications for online advertisers?
In an industry that is already evolving rapidly, some marketers are concerned about this shift’s impact on businesses that use this form of targeting. Political parties, healthcare companies, and some other organizations will have to change how they interact with their constituents.
As part of this effort, Facebook is also working on more Ad Controls so users can see fewer advertisements related to gambling, weight loss, and other categories that are not disclosed. Marketers were informed that political, parenting, alcohol, and pet advertisements would be fewer.
Are Advertisers Adapting to the New Targeting Rules?
Facebook offered several suggestions to advertisers to reach their target audiences. Facebook is using Engagement Custom Audiences to gather relevant intent on its properties. Two examples are the users who liked your page or watched a video in your news feed right now. They can also be used as seeds to build lookalike audiences.
Website Custom Audiences still allow companies to target customers who visit their website. As a seed list for Lookalike Audiences, they can also serve as a useful tool. According to Facebook, brick-and-mortar retailers can reach their local clients using location targeting.
Last but not least, if you have your clients’ permission, customer lists are an excellent method to stay in touch with them. Try segmenting your customer lists and customizing your messaging to get the most out of them.
Final thoughts
These changes might be too much for you to handle, so you might want to hire an agency that performs full-service ad campaigns on Facebook and Google. A standard digital marketing agency should be able to provide everything you’d expect-from ad production to campaign management. Social media platforms are always changing, so digital marketing agencies stay up-to-date with new updates, so you know your ads will reach your target audience.
