Social media has been a haven for brands and businesses. It is where they build communities and segment target audiences for their ads and campaigns. At Facebook, targeting the right audience is one of the platform’s winning features. As the platform moves to streamline its targeting options, Facebook announces the removal of “Detailed Targeting.”
Detailed targeting options will no longer be available by 19 January 2022. Such a feature is based on the following users’ insights:
- Activities people engage on Facebook
- Ads they click
- Demographics like age, gender, and location
- Pages they engage with
- The mobile device they use
- The speed of their network connection
Facebook notes that they heard experts noting that detailed targeting results in negative experiences. It is because they may show sensitive information relating to health, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, and sexual orientation.
In exchange, Facebook encourages brands and businesses to use the Engagement Custom Audiences feature. They can be used in location targeting and to build lookalike audiences in boosting reach.
Facebook announces the removal of “Detailed Targeting” on 10 November 2021. Existing Facebook ads will not be impacted until the 17 of March 2022.
Implications for Marketers:
As Facebook removes detailed targeting, it is encouraging marketers to rely on 1st party data collection. With the implementation of Apple’s IDFA, Facebook’s targeting option has been greatly affected. To counteract such effects, Facebook has been working on new ad features and tools.
