Meta says that they are discontinuing some detailed targeting options because they’re redundant, too granular, relate to sensitive topics (like health, race, or ethnicity), or due to legal or regulatory requirements.
[Related Post: Meta’s Removal of Detailed Targeting is a Reminder of What’s to Come]
They’re doing this starting on January 15, and you’ll see a warning banner at the top of your Ads Manager campaignsThe campaign is the foundation of your Facebook ad. This is where you'll set an advertising objective, which defines what you want your ad to achieve. More page if any of your advertising is impacted. Your existing ad setsAn ad set is a Facebook ads grouping where settings like targeting, scheduling, optimization, and placement are determined. More that use this targeting can continue to run until March 18. After that, delivery to those interests will stop and your ad sets may be paused.
This kind of announcement isn’t new. Almost two years ago, Meta announced the exact same thing. What’s weird is that you’d think these detailed targeting options would have been cleaned up already.
But here we are.
Meta doesn’t provide a list of the impacted targeting options, so it’s difficult to measure just how big of a deal this is. You likely won’t know whether you’re using any of these interests until January 15th.
But, I keep saying it. Prepare yourself for a day when interests are eliminated. Don’t become too attached or reliant on granular interest-based targeting options. The trend is moving away from your targeting inputs and towards algorithmic targeting.
