Advertisers could soon lose the ability to exclude ad placements from apps, devices, and operating systems from their campaigns.
Meta may soon remove the option for marketers to exclude platforms, placements, devices, and operating systems from their ad sets.
A select number of advertisers on Meta have been sent a notice within their accounts confirming the upcoming changes.
The message, shared by Meta ads experts Jon Loomer on LinkedIn and across other social media sites, reads:
Changes to placement settings are coming soon
Excluding placements, platforms, devices and operating systems will no longer be available for your ad sets. You’ll still have options to manage how and where your ads appear:
- Increase or decrease your bid for placements in placement value rules
- Customise your creative for each placement in ad creative
- Manage account-level placement exclusions in account controls
This has sparked some backlash from online advertising communities, with one Reddit user writing: “They [Meta/ Google] don’t want you to control things manually. they [sic] don’t want you be picking the meat out of the soup, they want you to take it by the bowl.”
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by u/LogicIsRelevant from discussion
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This reported update means advertisers on Meta will no longer be able to choose which platform their ad is shown through – meaning they can no longer opt-out of reels, Facebook search results, in-game ads, Instagram or Threads.
Going forward, Meta’s algorithm will determine where the ad is best placed.
This seems to be a step toward the full automation of ad campaigns, in which Meta’s AI ad system will undertake the entire ad creation and placement process – meaning advertisers will simply enter a URL and launch their campaigns.
As it stands, 85% of beginner advertisers choose AI-powered placement selection, according to Ryze data. Traditionally, larger advertisers with professional marketing departments will choose their placements manually to see higher ROI.
Advertisers are concerned this lack of control could lead to ads being shown on lower quality, less relevant verticals.
Reddit user CrewBulky9868 wrote: “They can show our ads to even more places that never have once converted for me and waste more money!”
This especially applies to marketers for a niche or specialist subject – where a large section of Meta’s audience would not be relevant to target. Another user expressed concern because their geographical region has a historically low Facebook user base, but the latest update would force them to advertise on Facebook and Messenger through Meta’s algorithm.
Others have reported that age and gender controls have moved from their placement controls and are now situated in ‘value rules’, which only allows an advertiser to allocate a maximum of 90% of their budget away from the age or gender they do not wish to target.
For context, this means a pregnancy health firm could allocate 90% of their advertising to women, but the remaining 10% would go wherever Meta’s algorithm saw fit, which could result in a significant amount of wasted adspend.
Affiliate Leaders has reached out to Meta to confirm the changes and to determine if all users will be affected. Meta is yet to respond.
