Facebook Makes Changes to Ad Platform and Data
And so it begins. An email received in the office today shows that Facebook is beginning to change what we, as advertisers, can access via its ad platform.
The email reads as follows:
Facebook is committed to protecting the integrity of our platform and building for people first. After identifying a new technical issue with reach estimation for Custom Audiences that could potentially allow misuse of the functionality, Facebook is removing the ability to see reach estimates for all Custom Audiences across all of our interfaces to fix it.
Given the identification of this issue, reach estimates for all types of Custom Audiences will no longer be available in the following tools:
- Create Flow in Ads Manager (removing reach estimates)
- Ads Manager App (removing reach estimates)
- Campaign Planner (removing reach estimates)
- Delivery Insights (removing audience reach ratio)
- Audience Insights (removing insights for Custom Audiences)
- Reach and Frequency (removing total audience size and % function for all CAs)
- Audience Manager (removing audience sizes for Saved Audiences containing Custom Audiences)
- Ads API (advertisers leveraging API will have all of the same restrictions as above)
You will still be able to create or edit ads using any type of Custom Audiences on Facebook. To prevent misuse of our systems, there will be a limit to the amount of audiences created or edited in a day. You’ll be notified if you hit your daily limit, but will still be able to make changes the next day. Ads delivery and reporting will remain unaffected by this change.
We understand this solution may affect your campaign planning, and Facebook is continuing to investigate ways to ensure minimal disruption to your advertising efforts. We appreciate your partnership in keeping Facebook safe.
In light of the recent Cambridge Analytica fall out, it is not surprising that Facebook is implementing this change to its ad platform. With this and the restriction of developer app access, we are seeing a lockdown of Facebook and the user data it holds. This should be seen as a good thing for users, and for us as marketers – a revised space in which we can work, ethically.
Here at HoneyBe Creative, we don’t believe in using personal data for the gains that have recently been displayed in the press. We see a lot of good in Facebook and what it offers users, and we will continue to work with Facebook and its ad platform, within its guidelines and best practice, and encourage our clients to do the same.