Meta Looks to Get More Advertisers Utilizing Targeting Automation With Latest Marketing API Update

Meta’s looking to lean further into AI for ad targeting, with the expansion of its automated “Advantage” targeting to all campaign objectives and optimizations.

The update comes as part of Meta’s Marketing API v.19 update, which also includes various revisions and changes designed to improve campaign performance.

As explained by Meta:

“As of January 23rd, campaigns that are optimized for Impressions, Video views, Reach, Engagement or ad recall lift will now have the option to opt-in to Advantage detailed targeting. Campaigns that are optimized for Leads will have Advantage detailed targeting automatically applied with the option to opt-out, while campaigns that are optimized for Link clicks or Landing page views will have Advantage detailed targeting automatically applied with no option to opt-out.”

Meta has been developing its Advantage automated targeting system over the past two years, as part of a broader focus to help marketers maximize ad performance, despite the loss of user data insights.

The main impact in this respect was Apple’s iOS 14 update, which included new prompts asking users if they wanted to keep letting Meta’s apps track their off-platform activity.

Given Meta’s not-so-great reputation on data privacy, many users have now used this feature to block Meta’s tracking, which, in 2022, saw the company report a $10 billion annual loss in ad revenue as a direct result of this change.

But Meta’s ad business has recovered, with its steadily improving targeting automation processes playing a key role in helping brands maximize their ad spend.

As explained by Meta:

“Advantage detailed targeting leverages advanced automation and machine learning technology to help improve advertiser campaign performance. Specifically, Advantage detailed targeting can help improve campaign performance by allowing our system to reach a broader group of people than are defined in an advertiser’s initial detailed targeting selections, if our system predicts it’s likely to improve performance.”

These improvements have been so significant, that Meta’s now pushing more advertisers to utilize its automated options, by removing detailed ad targeting categories and lesser-used ad features as a means to drive more adoption of its systematic tools.

This new API update is another step in that direction. Which could eventually see the removal of detailed targeting altogether, with Meta’s system actually becoming better at ad targeting than manual selection.

Essentially, Meta’s ad systems are now better at showcasing your promotions to users that are likely to take action, and often, those are users you wouldn’t have identified yourself.

And with AI systems improving, this is becoming a more relevant consideration, which is why Meta is now exploring more ways to encourage brands to test it out.

Could be worth considering for your campaigns.

You can read more about Meta’s latest Marketing API update here, while you can read more about Meta’s Advantage targeting process here.