For a long time, Custom Audiences have been a defining characteristic of Facebook ads. This feature allows businesses to reach specific groups within Facebook’s vast user base, no matter their connection, based on their relationship to the business. When combined with the right ad format, offer, and messaging, Custom Audiences become invaluable.
However, things are changing. Due to negative publicity and growing privacy concerns, Facebook has decided it’s time to be more responsible regarding how they, and their advertisers, target potential customers. Over the coming months (with a current deadline of October 1), Facebook’s most powerful feature will see substantial changes that will likely affect your online advertising approach. This doesn’t mean you should abandon Facebook ads or cut budgets for successful campaigns. Instead, it requires more ingenuity in how you re-engage potential customers. Before exploring the changes and their timeline, let’s understand why Facebook is modifying Custom Audiences.
The Changes to Custom Audiences (and the Reasons)
Since Cambridge Analytica—an alleged analytics firm, definitely not a group of shadowy, politically motivated tech guys who significantly damaged DemocracyTM—accessed data of roughly 50 million Facebook users, Zuckerberg and his team have faced criticism. In response to the public’s reaction to being manipulated by political entities, Facebook has chosen to restrict some aspects of Custom Audience creation and add safeguards to prevent the misuse of remaining tools. The first and potentially most significant change is removing Partner Categories.
Partner Categories
If you haven’t experienced the luxury of using third-party data without a hefty price tag, now’s not the time to start! Partner Categories are segments within Facebook’s detailed targeting that leverage third-party data.
They enable you to target prospects based on various intriguing details like their car, income bracket, or workplace. You know, crucial personal information that can be incredibly time-saving and help build highly effective audiences. This data comes from major partners like Oracle and Experian; sadly for advertisers, it’s being removed to protect user privacy. While you can still use Partner Categories to create ad sets today, this feature will be phased out in the next few months.
Audiences in the EU
According to Facebook, creating or editing EU-based custom audiences using Partner Categories will be impossible after May 11, with ad delivery ending on May 25. Remember, this also includes advertiser-requested Partner Categories (specialized targeting options not standard in Facebook’s Partner Categories, but obtainable by nicely asking—and likely paying—a third-party data provider).
The Rest of the World
For everyone else, creating and editing ad sets based on Partner Categories will stop on July 1, and ad delivery will cease on October 1. *** If, after Partner Categories are gone, you choose to supplement audience creation with first or third-party data (uploaded hashed lists), be prepared for additional steps due to the…
Custom Audience Permission Tool
Yay! Currently, creating list-based Custom Audiences using external data is simple. You upload a list, check a few boxes, and start using it in Ads Manager.
Starting sometime in May, there will be a new step: authentication. Facebook states that the Custom Audiences Permissions Tool “guarantees that advertisers confirm and assure proper consent for information uploaded to Business Manager for creating Custom Audiences and allows them to grant appropriate permissions to service providers.” Sounds exciting, right? In reality, this should’ve been implemented long ago. The Custom Audiences Permissions Tool won’t complicate things if you’re already following the rules. You, not Facebook, are responsible for obtaining consent to advertise to someone. While the exact form of the tool is still unknown, we’ll find out in the coming weeks. Curious to see whose lists you’re on? Want to know which lovely individuals have added your contact information to their Audience Manager? Go to your Facebook’s Ad Preferences tab and scroll down to “Advertisers you’ve interacted with.” The first tab, “who have added their contact lists to Facebook”, reveals businesses (and politicians) authorized to advertise to you because you “shared your email address with them or another business they’ve partnered with.” Here’s a small sample of mine:
Darn you, Bryan Slaton! With the Custom Audiences Permissions Tool, if these individuals want to target me with a carousel ad on a Wednesday afternoon, they’ll need proof.
A Glimmer of Hope
While these removed features and added bureaucracy might be frustrating for some, the increased regulation could build trust with an increasingly skeptical public. Remember, Core Audience targeting (based on information shared directly with Facebook and in-app activity) remains unaffected, and you can still create lookalikes of your most valuable audiences. You simply can’t buy a dubious list from a shady source or target me because I drive a Prius and have decent credit. That’s not so bad, folks.