A new era of digital advertising is beginning as we speak. Meta is at the forefront of this change with its latest targeting update. The company has now implemented a feature that enables businesses advertising on Facebook and Instagram to “Describe Your Audience,” rather than having to manually select interests, demographics and behaviours for each audience you want to target, which is a much more streamlined process than previously available.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into the advertising process, marketers and agencies looking to run digital ads on Facebook and Instagram must understand the new targeting feature in order to remain competitive within an ecosystem that will continue to be driven by artificial intelligence.
What is Meta’s new targeting feature?
Meta’s new targeting update simplifies the way you define your target audiences by allowing you to describe your ideal audience in a more natural manner using the written word instead of selecting multiple interests, demographics, and behaviours individually.
For example, instead of building a complex targeting stack with multiple options that fit your audience goals based on the list of available interests, you can simply write:
- People interested in digital marketing services
- Small business owners looking for a website to develop
- Fitness enthusiasts focused on living a healthy lifestyle
Meta’s system will then analyze your description and determine which Facebook or Instagram users fit the profile you have described based on the intent behind your description. As a result, targeting is more obvious than ever before and there is no longer friction from looking through hundreds of individual interests to find what you’re trying to create your new audience.
Why Meta has Introduced This Update
The transition to prompt-based targeting is not coincidental. It’s actually part of a greater effort that’s underway in AI-driven campaign management.
Traditional targeting has had its limitations, which include:
- A significant amount of manual time and effort.
- Many categories of interest were outdated and hidden from advertisers.
- Advertisers had to guess about potential leads.
Meta implemented this function to allow advertisers to set up campaigns more easily while improving the quality of the target audience. By using machine learning, the platform is able to more efficiently analyze past user behaviour, engagement history, as well as intent data vs. just manual inputs.
This is also aligned with Meta’s overall goal to provide more automation features like Advantage+, whereby using the platform, an advertiser has the ability to complete the process of targeting, placing, and optimizing an ad campaign with little to no manual input.
How the New Targeting Process Works
There are three primary processes that comprise the new targeting method.
- Input Description of Audience
The advertiser starts by providing a simple description of their target audience. The description given will serve as a signal rather than strictly limiting the users to a very narrow set of criteria.
- Growing Audience through AI
The Meta algorithm analyzes a variety of factors including:
- User’s actions and behaviour
- Engagement with content
- Interests and browsing habits
The AI then uses this information to identify a wider audience besides the original audience’s characteristics and reach out to those already using the Meta platform.
- Better and steadier learning and optimizing techniques
With the start of a new campaign, the system will start to check on the performance of the ad and will keep continuing to make changes and to make it a better campaign that gives improved results and this needs no human hands to do this.
Boon for Advertisers
Easier Campaign Setup
One of the most obvious advantages is a simplified process. Advertisers do not spend days or weeks trying to create hundreds of combinations of targeting to describe the audience. With this update, they can simply describe what they want and get it as they want.
More accurate than approximate
With AI, advertisers can stay one step ahead as AI can identify patterns, ongoing and upcoming trends and incorporate them into the campaigns.
Thus, campaigns will now have access to larger audiences that have a higher potential for conversion and are not typically available with the standard targeting process.
Less Time Spent on Campaign Setup
Marketers can be more strategic with their time, shifting their focus from the technical setup of their campaigns to developing strategies for messaging and creative development.
How Will This Update Impact Advertising Strategy
This update significantly alters the way that advertisers will be using Meta Advertising. It is now more about sending the algorithm a clear signal, rather than micromanaging audience settings.
The new areas of focus are:
- Audience descriptions should be clear and intent-based
- Relevant and strong creative
- Compelling messaging
- Landing page optimization
In summary, success will now depend more on the ability to communicate your audience and value proposition than on who you select as your audience.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The new system offers simplified targeting, but it poses new challenges.
Vagueness
If, for example, the audience description is too vague for the algorithm to interpret their intent, this will create challenges in targeting the audience properly. Providing specific but not overly restrictive audience descriptions has proven to work best.
Reliance on Automation
While artificial intelligence is very powerful, it is not meant to replace your advertising strategy. You still need to monitor your ad performance, test different creatives, and optimize your campaigns.
Creative Quality
Due to a significant increase in audience targeting, the quality of the creative will become one of the most significant differentiators in advertising performance. Advertising with weak visuals and/or weak messaging will produce poor results regardless of your target audience.
Coming to an end, the primary result from the Meta advertising platform’s recent launch of new targeting features signals an important milestone for all digital marketers. Rather than relying on the largely manual selection process of who they want to reach, at least initially, advertisers now can use a description of their audience to target and Facebook’s algorithms can use this information to help improve their buying/inventory experience, thus simplifying the process of setting up a new campaign while improving ad performance through the use of artificial intelligence.
The most important key feature is that Targeting is now more about signaling to AI via appropriate signals than selecting interests alone. That said, with automating advertising and related services continuing to change rapidly, advertisers will need to shift their focus toward clear audience intent, higher-quality creative work, and continuous testing. Those who make use of AI as part of their digital marketing strategy will be better prepared for success in the world of Meta Advertising in the future than those who do not. If you are an advertiser finding it difficult to keep up with the changes, feel free to contact us, we will be happy to help you out.
