Simplifying Targeting Categories

As part of our latest efforts to simplify and streamline our targeting options, we’ve identified cases where advertisers - of all sizes and industries - rarely use various targeting options.

Infrequent use may be because some of the targeting options are redundant with others or because they’re too granular to really be useful. So we’re removing some of these options. For example, we’re removing multicultural affinity segments and encouraging advertisers to use other targeting options such as language or culture to reach people that are interested in multicultural content. We continue to support product solutions for multicultural marketing while guarding against their potential for misuse.

We’re also simplifying where there are many options about topics that were rarely used. For example, we’ve combined several options representing military bases or regiments, because the specific interests were rarely used, and instead, advertisers can still reach an audience with an interest in the military. And we’re streamlining our duplicative options by removing ‘Key West’, which mimics ‘Key West, Florida’ that we’ll maintain.

These changes will help streamline advertising for businesses, helping to make sure our tools deliver the most value. Learn more here.

We continually review our tools and products to make them simpler, easier to use and more effective for advertisers and ensure they are consistent with our ad principles. For example, over the past two years, we've removed thousands of categories from exclusion targeting related to potentially sensitive personal attributes, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion.

These changes will not impact the vast majority of advertisers and most targeting options remain available. However, when possible, we will guide advertisers to options that are similar to ones that have been removed and that should provide comparable performance. And, where required, advertisers running housing, employment and credit opportunity ads must continue to identify as a corresponding ‘Special Ad Category’ and use restricted targeting options.

You can learn more about what informs detailed targeting as well as how ads work and the value of personalized advertising to people and businesses. People on Facebook can manage their Interests and what profile information advertisers can use to target them in Ads Preferences.