Facebook Removes Targeting Options

Facebook previously announced plans to remove targeting options for certain demographic groups such as political belief or religion starting January 19.

Until now, Facebook did not disclose the exact targeting options that would be removed.

Now that Facebook has officially started enforcing this new rule, we are able to see the extent of how this affects targeting, specifically for religious institutions.

We are seeing the removal of all interests related to religion from specific religious institutions to general interests such as:

  • Bible Study
  • Christian Church
  • Christian Theology
  • Bible Study
  • C.S. Lewis & other religious authors
  • Christian Books
  • Christian Devotional
  • Christian Denominations

While Facebook is allowing ads currently using these targeting options to continue running until March 17 2022, Dunham+Company recommends pausing any remaining audiences using these interests to allow ad campaigns to begin optimizing and re-learning.

If your ad set is using any targeting that is being removed, you will receive a notice identical to the one below:

Screen Shot 2022 01 19 At 3.21.28 Pm

Despite the discontinuation of these targeting options, there is still a plethora of ways both on Facebook and on other platforms to reach your target audience including lookalikes and retargeting.

Retargeting warm audiences based on pages visited, time spent on site, and past events allows you to re-engage your audience that already has a form of brand awareness but may not be further down the funnel just yet. Uploading your customer lists also allows you to retarget your audiences such as your email subscribers and past donors.

Lookalike audiences use machine learning to create a new audience that is completely new to your brand but has similar online behavior to your audience. Uploaded lists like email subscribers and past donors make great base audiences as Facebook can then find new users that behave similarly to those lists.

We will monitor the situation and keep you informed so you can continue to reach new audiences for greater impact!


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Ready to take the next step? Dunham+Company is here to help your organization have more impact and establish deeper relationships with your donors and supporters.