Unless you have spent the last few months off the grid, traveling the world and taking amazing Instagram photos, like everyone’s favorite social media friend “Myspace Tom”, you have heard about the Facebook data breech. After testifying before the US Congress, Mark Zuckerberg and his team over at Facebook decided to make some drastic changes to the platform, to ensure that users’ privacy would not be compromised again. While these changes are great security measures, they will affect your business’ Facebook advertising strategy.
What type of changes will occur?
Kiss Facebook Partner Categories Goodbye
One of the first major changes Facebook announced was the end of Partner Categories. These categories made it possible for brands to target a specific type of customer, based on what they do offline. In a statement released shortly after the data breech, Facebook officials said they plan to spend the next six months phasing out the ability for third – party data providers, such as Experian and Acxiom to share their targeting directly on the platform.
Longer Wait Times for Ad Approvals
Prior to the data scandal, the approval process for most Facebook ads took about an hour. Because the Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation and placed some restrictions on the kinds of ads that can be placed on the social media platform, business can expect to wait a few days before their ads can go live and start being delivered. This can make it difficult to promote time sensitive information.
How should your business adjust its Facebook advertising strategy?
Use Custom Audiences
When building an ad of Facebook, you can create custom audiences, using information customers have provided your business directly. While this kind of targeting may not be as powerful as using partner categories, these types of audiences come in handy, because you can target people who have already expressed an interest in your products or services.
Try Other Platforms
The good thing about social media is there are various platforms you can use to reach your target audience. If your business does most of its social media advertising on Facebook, now may be the perfect time to explore other platforms, like Instagram or Snapchat.
If you have questions on how you should adjust your Facebook advertising strategy, send us a note. We are happy to help!
Stream Companies is an Oracle Elite Data Marketer partner. All ads managed by Stream Companies will not be impacted by this data removal.