In the past few years alone, social media marketing and advertisements have garnered much recognition in terms of the online growth of a business. This also resulted in the demand for Social Media Marketing Agency and their services. Online marketing leapt almost instantly, and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter became the flagbearers of the phenomenon.ย
As Facebook ads started mainstream, most online businesses gravitated towards the rising trend. Today, Facebook ads are considered to be highly significant to many sectors. They provide an unconventional opportunity for the lesser-known business ventures to make a brand reputation out of it.ย ย
Social Media Marketing Companies renewed their focus on Facebook and other social media ads. Coupled with the recent Coronavirus outbreak, Facebook ads reached their peak in the last two years. In 2022, this is expected to swell even further. Adding to the situation, The Meta has announced its new Facebook ads campaigns with a new twist in which audience targeting changes across four categories.ย
The previous version of Facebook ads offered a more personalized experience indeed. However, this also led to biased categorization, which could be sensitive to many. That's why Meta has decided, on behalf of Facebook, to limit the advertising options, especially around sensitive parameters.ย
What Should You Expect To Change?ย
Every Social Media Marketing Services worldwide should be aware of the changes Facebook is bringing to its ads section. As mentioned before, there will be a few changes in the targeting options for advertisers. The most important among these segments are health causes, race, religious groups, political beliefs, and sexual orientation. Among other things, lung cancer awareness, Jewish holidays, social issues will no longer be able to use these target-based interests from January 19th 2022.ย
These changes are not applied to the entire Meta, and any existing campaign on the target audience is still provided with the opportunity to carry on until late March 2022. Any ad sets that were created before the announcement by Meta, are allowed to make a few campaign-level edits with a chance of triggering audience changes.ย
A Media Buying Agency should also know that any ad set that has been discontinued before the announcement and only renewed after March will adhere to the new targeting changes made by the parent company. Any target audience campaign must be revised before March 17th 2022. Otherwise, the advertiser will have no remaining possibility of changing the ad sets, ad level, or other parts of the campaigns, for that matter.ย
How Will It Impact Social Advertisers?ย
All these changes are intricately dependent on the actions of social advertisers. There is no way to ensure that advertisers will fall in line with this new set of rules. Meta has received much pressure compared to other social media platforms, which resulted in this recent change. The challenge will be to witness all advertisers adjusting their targeting capabilities and the norms.ย
When the changes become official, and advertisers follow suit, it also holds a massive chance to change the entire social media outlook. Every Social Media Marketing Agency will also have to get in line with the new model of Facebook advertising. It can also be catapulted to other platforms, risking them to go under scrutiny based upon similar sensitive criteria. Hence reviewing has become essential for preventing reduced targeting granularity over other platforms.ย
However, this change is expected to scale down targeting factors anyway on other platforms. This is also likely to be concentrated around the personal characteristics of the targeting criteria.ย
Whether it will be implemented or not, the acknowledgement of the situation by Meta can surely be applauded! Social Media Marketing Companies are also expecting Meta to take notice of other concerns. And this announcement provides hope for advertisers who are expecting a change on other forums.ย
What About The Removed Targeting Options?ย
After the changes are implemented, any removed targeting option will be accompanied by an error message. This message is your indication for updating your targeting options. This news comes when Facebook is putting its focus on the metaverse, and this has been noted by many to be a step forward on the course.ย
Social Media Marketing Services soon will be adapting to the changes. Facebook will also allow suggestions, which can, in turn, help advertisers reach their audiences with updated skill sets and campaigns for the new times.ย
In A Nut-Shellย
A marketerโs primary job is to seamlessly blend with a platform targeting criteria and adapt to the changes that come along the way. As Facebook ads introduce changes to the users, any Media Buying Agency should be hyped about the news. However, the endgame can only be presumed after this change has been widely implemented. The upcoming time is surely going to witness a shift in the ways Facebook ad campaigns worked and are performed.
