Meta (Facebook) announced that they will be removing specific targeting options relating to sensitive topics on the 19th of January 2022. However, campaigns can continue to deliver on impacted targeting options until the 17th of March 2022.

Health causes, sexual orientation, religious practices, social issues, and political beliefs and figures were among the targeting options outlined for elimination.

Facebook advertisers should ensure that they are not relying on the targeting options mentioned below or any other targeting options that may relate to sensitive topics, as those will likely be deprecated soon.

Campaigns will continue to deliver for about eight weeks after the 19th of January, allowing Facebook advertisers to test alternatives.

“We will be removing some detailed targeting options because they relate to topics people may perceive as sensitive. These include targeting options relating to causes, organisations, or public figures that relate to health, race or ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, or sexual orientation,” Meta said in the announcement. 

Meta further outlined the following examples of targeting options that will be removed:

• Health causes (e.g., “Lung cancer awareness”, “World Diabetes Day”, “Chemotherapy”).
• Sexual orientation (e.g., “same-sex marriage” and “LGBT culture”).
• Religious practices and groups (e.g., “Catholic Church” and “Jewish holidays”).
• Political beliefs, social issues, causes, organisations and figures.

Campaigns can continue to deliver to impacted targeting options until the 17th of March, 2022, “in the vast majority of cases,” Meta said. 

Until the 17th of March, advertisers will be able to make most edits at the campaign level without affecting targeting. However, some changes at the ad set level may update your target audience, for example, changes to placements and targeting options.

After the 17th of March, edits for impacted campaigns will not be possible at the campaign, ad set or ad level.

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If you are running a Facebook campaign and have questions navigating through these updates, we are here to help.