Meta is planning to remove and consolidate some of its detailed
ad targeting options due to their limited usage or being related to topics that
may be perceived as sensitive by users. This action, as Meta has announced,
will be implemented starting January 15.
Meta further explains that “existing ad sets with impacted
targeting options will continue to run until March 18”, but users will be
required to update their targeting selections. “After this date, we will stop
delivering ads to the discontinued detailed targeting options, and impacted ad
sets may be paused,” says the social media giant.
Other targeting options that will remain available to advertisers include Broad targeting, Custom audiences, Lookalike audiences, Meta Advantage lookalike, and Meta Advantage detailed targeting.
Impacted advertisers will be informed of the change and will
be prompted to update their campaigns as well. Advertisers can view their affected
campaigns in their Meta Ads Manager account. They can manually replace or
remove the affected targeting options in the Audience section. Additionally, alternative
targeting options will be suggested to the advertisers as needed.
The context of some ads, for instance, links with health, politics,
religion, sexual orientation, race, and/or ethnicity – which can be sensitive
topics. Removing these or other similar categories could have some degree of impact
on advertising processes on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta may also eventually make advertisers on its platforms solely dependent on its own systematic targeting options in the near future. These include broad targeting and Advantage+ options, that are considered by Meta itself as having more potential in driving better ad performance.
