After a lot of pressure due to the election drama that went on last year, Facebook has announced new transparency changes. These changes make it possible for ALL Ads that are created by a company to be viewable by everyone, simply by visiting the Business Page! Oh boy! This could get hairy…
Ok, but what does that mean?!?
It’s actually based on a good thing. Facebook is trying to make sure there is transparency when it comes to advertising on their platform, specifically as it relates to political ads. So starting next month in Canada (November at the time of this post), people can go to any Business Page and click on “View Ads” and they’ll see all ads a page is running on Facebook, Instagram AND Messenger.
PLEASE NOTE: This won’t be rolled out to the US until the summer of 2018. Just before the US midterm elections in November.
This means that our beloved “dark posts” will be brought to light whether we’re running political ads or not. It appears as though Facebook is going to have even MORE mandatory transparency for those who are “political advertisers.” Political Advertisers will have to verify their identity, entity and location. To learn more about the restrictions that will be imposed on political advertisers, read here.
Once it’s rolled out to everyone, we’ll be able to see ACTIVE ads BUT, Facebook plans to show both inactive and active ads. Facebook has also stated that for each “federal-election related ad” (not sure if this will relate to any other ads) they will:
- have an archive that will cover a rolling four-year period that starts from when they launch the archive.
- reveal details on amount spent
- show number of impressions delivered
- and show demographic info about who that ad reached (age, location, gender)
What Does It Mean For Non-Political Advertisers?
The bigger conversation to be had here is, how will this affect marketing on Facebook in general? Until now, your ads could be somewhat hidden from your competitors but with this new change, any competitor can view your ads and imitate your strategy. On the flip side, you’ll also be able to do unparallelled competitor research.
What other things will this affect?
What does it mean for marketing on Facebook?
Let’s talk about it here: https://business.facebook.com/mysocialsparrow/posts/494717600897714
Here’s a preview of what Facebook has planned:
