This blog is about Facebook's tightened ad policy and increasing transparency
Facebook has recently been making increasing efforts to regain user trust after all the privacy scandals. In doing so, the social media giant is going further and further in providing transparency to users, and that also affects advertisers. Advertising policies are being tightened further; ratings are tighter and users can see almost all the activities of advertisers. What is and is not allowed and what the possible consequences of violation are, you can read in this blog.
Privacy first: direct questions out of the question
We have noticed recently that ads that ask direct questions to the target audience are frowned upon. This is because, according to Facebook, this can come across as violating someone's privacy, which is exactly what they want to protect. Also, you are not allowed to make assumptions or play on personal characteristics of the target group. Health topics are especially sensitive in this regard. With this, Facebook wants to prevent stigmatizing and discriminatory ads.
The line between what is allowed and what is not is sometimes wafer thin. To give an example: "Do you recognize the signs of dementia?" was suddenly no longer allowed. Facebook accepted 'Do you know what the signs of dementia are? These are sometimes subtle text differences that can cause an ad to be approved or not.
Suitable for all ages
But Facebook is not just looking at the text; the language used in videos is under scrutiny. Sexually explicit or suggestive images or videos are also banned.
Special ad categories to combat discrimination
Facebook has started rolling out policies in the U.S. as well as in Europe and the Netherlands on employment, loans and housing designated as special advertising categories that must meet strict requirements. Advertisers in these categories may not discriminate based on certain personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, age, sex, orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability or medical/genetic condition. This affects the options available for targeting. Age is fixed at 18-65 and cannot be changed. Also, you can only target all genders. In addition, most interest targeting is not available and location targeting is limited.
Facebook is doing this as a tightening of their ad policies. They themselves say that discrimination is prohibited, but they do allow you to target ads to a particular audience based on known interests that match the product or service you are advertising.
These tightened requirements are expected to be rolled out to other regions over time. From an ethical standpoint, it's nice that Facebook wants to protect users, but for well-intentioned advertisers, it presents new challenges.
Transparency about sender of political and social ads
In addition, pages that want to advertise about social issues, elections or politics must be verified by Facebook. This is to prevent undue influence. Ads about social issues, elections or politics displayed on Facebook or Instagram must include a disclaimer from the advertiser stating which person or organization paid for the ad.
Facebook defines ads about social issues, elections or politics as follows:
- Was made by, on behalf of or about a current or former political candidate, political party, political action committee or supporters of the outcome of a political election; or
- Content related to an election, referendum or ballot initiative, including campaigns to encourage people to vote or election information campaigns; or
- Content that deals with social issues such as immigration, civil and social rights, security and foreign policy, economics and environmental politics at any location where the ad is displayed; or
- Will be regulated as a political advertisement.
Transparency first
The Big Blue is also going further and further in providing transparency to users. Making almost all advertisers' activities transparent. The question, of course, is to what extent people actually use these options.
For example, Facebook is allowing users to see which advertisers have uploaded their email address to target them with ads on the ad preferences page for Facebook users. The ad preferences page for Facebook users will be expanded to include a tab showing which companies and organizations have taken advantage of this feature.
In addition, Facebook is rolling out a tool in the coming months that will allow people to see what data other apps and websites are sharing with Facebook through the Facebook pixel on websites and SDK in apps. If people block use of this data, it will further limit targeting and especially retargeting opportunities for advertisers. After all, once people block use of their data, you can no longer reach them based on that data and pools for custom audiences and retargeting will become even smaller.
For the European Elections, Facebook already created an ad library in which the ads and spending of political advertisers were made public. They have now extended the visibility of the ads to all advertisers. In this ad library, anyone (including your competitors) can see what ads you have running on Facebook. Not what you spend.