Meta is removing some detailed ad targeting options starting January 19

As of January 19, 2024, Meta is removing specific detailed targeting options, citing reasons such as their infrequent usage, redundancy alongside other options, granularity, or associations with sensitive topics like health, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation. 

Meta has not disclosed explicit details about the categories slated for removal, making it challenging to gauge the potential impact and comprehend the comprehensive extent of the implemented changes. 

Meta said, existing ad sets utilizing these affected targeting options will run until March 17, 2024, with the possibility of requiring updates to targeting selections during this period. After March 17, ad sets with impacted targeting options used for exclusion purposes may be paused to prevent misdelivery, while those used for inclusion purposes will be automatically removed. 

Meta Ads Manager will offer alternative targeting recommendations where feasible. Advertisers can check their Meta Ads Manager account from January 19, 2024, onward to assess the impact on their campaigns, noting that affected ad sets and targeting options may no longer be available for new campaigns.

Despite the removal of certain detailed targeting options, advertisers can still leverage alternative targeting products. This includes: 

• Broad targeting, which includes gender, age and location. Targeting broadly essentially means that you’re mostly relying on our delivery system to find the desired audience to show your ad to. 
• Custom audiences, which lets you find your existing audiences among people who are on Instagram and Facebook. You can use sources such as customer lists, website or app traffic or engagement on Facebook and Instagram, to create custom audiences of people who already know your business.
• Lookalike Audiences, which are created from an existing audience and can help optimise audience reach,
• Meta Advantage lookalike is when Meta may deliver ads beyond the selected 1-10% lookalike range. You control the audience used to create the Lookalike Audience, Meta Advantage lookalike will be automatically applied for some objectives.
• Meta Advantage detailed targeting is when Meta may deliver ads beyond your detailed targeting selections if the system predicts that it’s likely to improve performance. You will be automatically opted in to Advantage detailed targeting when using some objectives.