What to do now that Facebook has restrictions on political ads
If you're looking for information on how to stay ahead of Facebook's changes, you've come to the right place. Facebook has made several announcements that have digital directors and campaign managers concerned. The company has begun restricting how political campaigns can use its platform in the lead-up to the 2022 election.
At the end of 2021, NPR reported that Meta, “the parent company of Facebook will no longer let advertisers target people based on how interested the social network thinks they are in "sensitive" topics including health, race and ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, and sexual orientation.”
These changes are a response to Facebook and other social media platforms coming under fire in recent years for their handling of political ads. Meta, which also owns Instagram, has implemented a number of restrictions on how such ads can be targeted. However, these restrictions have had the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for political campaigns to reach their target audiences.
The problem has had a major impact on civil engagement but there is a simple solution. By building your audiences in advance you are allowed to upload them to any social media platforms as first-party data. This is where VoteMAP comes in. We use mobile data and advanced micro-targeting to create specialized audiences that you can target with Facebook ads. The audience could be a household list from your voter file, attendees of a political rally, or other locations where you are able to reach the people who are most likely to engage with your message. For more information on how you can leverage VoteMAP’s geofencing technology visit here. By targeting mobile devices we maximize your reach in more places including to hard-to-reach audiences that rely solely on their mobile device for internet access.
Additionally, VoteMAP improves your match rates on Facebook and other social sites. Meaning, you no longer need to rely on incomplete and outdated phone numbers or email addresses from the voter file to try and find a match on social media. If the mobile devices we find have Facebook or other social media apps installed we will find a 1:1 match.
If new targeting restrictions are preventing you from effectively serving your political ads or you want to improve your engagement with hard-to-reach audiences, our team is here to assist you. We have years of experience crafting effective and compliant social media campaigns for our clients, and we would be happy to put that expertise to work for you. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you maximize the reach and efficiency of your social media ad budget.