Meta have previously announced that they will remove certain detailed targeting options that relate to topics that people may perceive as sensitive; options referencing causes, organizations, or public figures that relate to health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation. Examples include:
- Health causes (e.g., “Lung cancer awareness”, “World Diabetes Day”, “Chemotherapy”)
- Sexual orientation (e.g., “same-sex marriage” and “LGBT culture”)
- Religious practices and groups (e.g., “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays”)
- Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organizations, and figures
Although this has been removed on January 19th 2022, campaigns will be able to deliver until March 17th 2022, allowing advertisers time to test alternatives. Meta “strongly believe that the best advertising experiences are personalized”.
Continue Reaching Your Audience:
Meta’s new audience update doesn’t mean that advertisers can’t target people on the platforms at all, but committing to helping small businesses, non-profits, and advocacy groups to reach their audiences. Below are some of Meta’s top tips for advertisers to better reach their audience:
- Engagement Custom Audiences to reach people who have already liked their page or watched their content. These people have shown interest in and engaged with the brand or ad.
- Entities can also use Engagement Custom Audiences to create a lookalike audience. These are audiences that share similar characteristics to your core audience and will help drive further reach.
- Location, gender and age targeting, and additional customer data such as email lists, once permission is granted.
Ad Controls:
In addition, Meta will also be expanding the level of control users can have over the ads they see about specific types of content. This feature will allow users to opt to see fewer ads and giving people control of more options – such as ads related to politics, parenting, alcohol, and pets. Early next year, Meta will also add more types of content to this list, allowing users to opt-out of being served ads about topics such as gambling and weight loss, among others.
To ensure advertisers are still reaching the right audience, Meta will provide partners with the tools they need to reach their customers and increase their performance on the platform.
For an informal chat about how we can help you with your digital advertising challenges, contact kim.mclellan@hunterlodge.co.uk
