Facebook claims if you are to target 24-35 then someone who is 36 might be just as interested in your advert and possibly be as valuable as someone who is 35
Facebook has today rolled out a new feature which allows advertisers to broaden the target age range automatically with its broad age match setting. The move which will increase the clicks and impressions your campaign receives but will also benefit Facebook with an increase in ad space being sold outside the key demographics. The basis for the change is that Facebook claims if you are to target 24-35 then someone who is 36 might be just as interested in your advert and possibly be as valuable as someone who is 35. While this might in part true if someone has just had a birthday or lies about their age on their Facebook profile but it may also cloud your analysis of your campaigns if you focus on demographics.Downside to broad age match
If you are a university and targeting school graduates who are under 18 or if you are a nightclub or concert promoter you requirements for what age brackets you want to attract. The setting is also for all your campaigns across Facebook which seems to be a grab at revenue as it needs to be campaign specific not account based to be of any use to advertisers. How far will Facebook start to push the age demographics above or below what you campaign against your settings will likely continue to expand.
Benefits of broad age match
Facebook is currently discounting the extra impressions and clicks for the expanded target age range, but how much will they discount the broad age match and it will likely only be a short-term offering. Once its enabled like most Facebook features its likely hard to disable once it has been activated, so should you enable it and how?
How to active Facebook Ads Broad Match
- Login to your Facebook Ads account
- Select Advert account Settings
- Scroll down to Broad targeting opt-ins
- Select Update button
- Confirm to update all existing adverts to enable broad age targeting
Does Broad Match offers move value?
It might be suitable for a number of advertisers but if you are not effectively monitoring and tracking your campaign you will just be spending more money and hoping you get increased value from the campaign unless you are measuring your social media ROI. The shotgun approach to demographics might cause chaos in some campaigns and dramatically uplift impressions and quality of traffic in others, you need to make sure you understand the possible impact before you enable Facebook Ads broadmatch.