Whether you’re an advertiser or a company owner wanting to develop your business through social media advertising, you should be aware of changes to Facebook ad targeting that may affect your approach. Aside from the necessary adjustments brought about by big privacy revisions in 2021, this year brings a few critical changes to Facebook ad targeting possibilities that may compel you to be creative and pivot your strategy.

We’re looking at what’s going away and how it could affect you in 2022 to help you understand how Facebook ad targeting choices will change.

What’s Changing in Facebook Ads Targeting?

Beginning January 19, Facebook will discontinue targeting choices in four major categories and minor sectors that are rarely utilised.

  • Health causes (e.g. breast cancer awareness).
  • Sexual orientation (e.g. LGBT).
  • Religious practices and organisations (e.g. Catholic Church ).
  • Political convictions, social concerns, causes, groups, or individuals (e.g. political party or political candidate).

According to Meta’s update on the planned adjustments, campaigns can continue to deliver to impacted audience targets until late March 2022.

Furthermore, the modifications will not be properly propagated across the Meta ecosystem.

You will be able to make campaign-level modifications, such as budget amounts or campaign names, for ad sets generated before January 19, without affecting targeting until March 17.

However, adjustments at the ad set level will result in audience changes.

Similarly, if an ad set is paused before March 17, the new targeting modifications will take effect when it is revived.

Previous campaigns that use deprecated targeting parameters will no longer be editable after March 17.

You may need to adjust the detailed targeting settings before March 17 in order to make changes at the campaign, ad set, or ad level.

What Does This Mean for Other Social Platforms?

No other social media networks have disclosed modifications to their targeting categories as of yet. They’ve survived while the spotlight has been on Meta and the ethical use of its users’ identifying information. However, this might change. With Facebook’s huge change, others may be under pressure to do the same.

With Meta being the first to implement a change, it’s difficult to forecast what may come next—for Facebook and other sites. Will they continue to limit targeting capabilities as consumers become increasingly wary of being targeted based on personal traits? Time will only tell.

It’s nice to see that even tech behemoths like Meta aren’t too huge to listen to comments and make changes.

This shift in Facebook ad targeting is certain to impact other digital advertising sectors, including programmatic and search advertising. Their accurate targeting relies heavily on demographic and socioeconomic data.

What’s in Store for the Future?

With the loss of targeting categories we’ve used for years, we’re bound to see marketers struggling to find new ad targeting options. While it’s likely we’ll see some innovations in new targeting approaches; the future is uncertain.

One thing is certain, though. The future of Facebook ad targeting is looking a lot more creative. The targeting restrictions are bound to challenge marketers’ abilities to find new approaches to targeting users. It’s likely we’ll see the rise of the creative marketer.

How would you categorise your Facebook audience? Did these changes affect your targeting? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Be sure to share in the comments.

Co Media is a Facebook advertising agency in Melbourne offering digital services to small, medium and large-sized e-commerce and service-based businesses to maximise their online footprint. We offer Facebook Ads, Google Ads, SEO, Websites and Landing Pages that help propel businesses towards success.