202. Changes To Your Ad Audiences You Must Pay Attention To NOW

The Launch Lounge Podcast

Why Audience Targeting is Changing And What You Need to Do Now to Ensure Your Ads Reach the Righ Audience

In This Episode: In today’s episode, we dive into the evolving landscape of audience targeting in Facebook and Instagram ads. Over the past 6-7 years, we've seen dramatic shifts in how we can target audiences, and these changes are significantly impacting how advertisers approach their campaigns.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• The Golden Days of Audience Targeting:

• A few years ago, Facebook and Instagram ads offered incredible precision. Advertisers could create retargeting audiences as small as a few hundred people and deliver highly specific messages, such as reminding users to complete a webinar registration. This level of precision gave Facebook and Instagram a competitive edge that other platforms couldn’t match.

• The Impact of iOS Privacy Changes:

• The introduction of iOS privacy protections in 2021 dealt a significant blow to this precision. Pixels, which were once the eyes and ears of ad campaigns, could no longer track user activity effectively. This blindfolded the algorithms, hampering their ability to optimize campaigns and skewing the data reported to advertisers.

• The Rise of Broader Audience Targeting:

• Meta’s shift toward Advantage+ targeting is pushing advertisers to use much broader audiences. While this can increase exposure, it also reduces control over who exactly sees your ads, making it challenging to ensure ads reach the most relevant users.

• The Shift in Strategy:

• With the new automated targeting, traditional funnel strategies (Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, Bottom of Funnel) are being disrupted. Advertisers are now forced to rethink their approach, relying more on email marketing for tasks that ads used to handle effectively.

• Challenges with Advantage+ Targeting:

• Meta’s push toward Advantage+ targeting is not without its issues. Many advertisers have found that despite opting out, Meta still switches to Advantage+ without notice, broadening the audience beyond their intended scope. This can lead to ads being shown to irrelevant demographics, which is problematic for targeting specific audiences.

• How to Take Back Control:

• There are ways to regain some control over your audience targeting, such as setting up Account Controls in Advertising Settings. This helps keep your ads within the right countries and ensures the appropriate age range is targeted. However, gender targeting remains a challenge under Advantage+.

• The Silver Lining - TikTok’s Influence:

• TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) has shifted user expectations, making them more open to seeing content from creators they’re not following. This trend has opened up new real estate on Facebook and Instagram, allowing for cheaper ad impressions in the newsfeeds of cold audiences.

• Practical Steps to Optimize Your Ad Campaigns:

• Set up Account Controls to ensure your ads reach the right people.

• Test Advantage+ audiences against cold audiences to compare cost and lead quality.

• Be vigilant with your ad setups to ensure Meta hasn’t automatically switched to Advantage+ without your knowledge.

• Capitalize on the low costs of Top of Funnel campaigns to build your email list and supercharge your upcoming launches.

Final Takeaways:

• Privacy changes have made audience targeting more challenging, but AI-driven broader targeting can open new opportunities.

• It’s crucial to adapt your strategy, focusing more on Top of Funnel campaigns while taking advantage of Meta’s new tools.

• Now is the best time to start building your email list with cost-effective ads and setting yourself up for a successful launch.

For more detailed steps on setting up your audience controls, visit thelaunchlounge.com/advantage_audience.

Listen Now and Get Ahead of the Changes!