Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and many other platforms has recently updated its user location targeting option in its latest updates related to the Meta Ads. This update comes at a time when most advertising platforms are automating most of their tools, either by upgrading or incorporating the advanced artificial intelligence feature into their products.
What’s the latest update and what does it mean for advertisers?
Until now, advertisers could not only target users living in a certain location but also was made available several alterations to this location targeting. For example:
- People either living or recently in a particular location
- People living in a particular location
- People recently in a location
- People travelling to a location
The above options meant for advertisers was an easy way to capture many of the overlapping attributes of consumers when it comes to Geo specific behavioural targeting. However, with the latest update, Meta has removed the extra layers of Geo targeting making “People Living in or Recently in this location” the default option for location targeting.
How does it reflect on the Ads manager?
The earlier location targeting had a drop down wherein you could select one or multiple options. However, with the latest update, an advertiser can only select a default option of “People living in or Recently in this location” which signifies the elimination of other earlier options available.
Here’s a snapshot of the updated ads manager settings for location targeting:
How does it change the campaign optimisation and the its benefit?
As per ETML team’s experience with the recent update, no changes have been made in the optimisation and objectives of the campaign. This update will have no adverse effect in the way campaigns run. In fact, the earlier options available for location targeting were used rarely and as per a statement on Meta’s official page, this has been done to improve the accuracy, efficiency and eventually the ROI of its ongoing campaign.
Meta’s location targeting can have an added boost to its efficiency when advertisers choose its audience meticulously. Especially, while looking at the master audiences while setting up the campaign. You can read the details on checking the overlap with the master audiences and how it can benefit your brand’s growth, in scaling your campaigns and controlling your CAC in one of our recent articles.
More information regarding the update can also be found on the META Business Help Center. An official update states that “People living in or recently in the location” will become the default option under the Audience location status for advertisers across the world. This location targeting update has been done in META’s efforts to provide efficiency and value to advertisers all over the world, with improved performance efficiency and removing the options with low usage.
