With such huge modifications rolling out in the Facebook UI, little or no attention is being paid to quiet changes taking place in Facebook Ads. Thanks to our friend Julie Gallaher for bringing us notice of the apparent loss baffling change to Facebook Ads Birthday targeting.
Birthday targeting allowed marketers to push psychological buttons with users specifically on their birthdays, a technique that was colorful and worked in some situations. Now Birthday targeting has been stripped of of it’s true strength and stashed in Broad targeting, as a subcategory of Events. The focus has been neutered because Birthday targeting can no longer be matriculated with Precise Interests. Bummer! I liked the old way because it was an effective lever to grab users’ attention. Any edge helps, right? In 365 days you could cover everybody on their special day and speak directly to users’ interests.
Here’s the new location for (now-much-less-less-cool) Birthday targeting, inside Broad targeting.
Here’s a screen capture of the former Birthday targeting location in the FB Ads UI, from my Facebook advertising book (Killer Facebook Ads, WIley/Sybex 2011). We’re not positive when it was removed.
Curiously but not surprising, Birthday targeting is still front and center in the the ever-more-streamlined Facebook Ads Help Center. Unceremoniously removing Facebook Ads reports and changing features without fanfare or even announcement (let alone documentation) is not out of character for Facebook.
It would have been nice to find out about this in public FB documentation, a press release or something. Perhaps it was buried in a mailing from FB.
