Facebook changes business ad options in reaction to iOS updates

If you’re a social media marketer, you know Facebook isn’t a fan of Apple’s recent privacy changes. The social media giant recently announced some updates and new features to help business owners advertise on the platform in light of the loss of data from Apple. 

“The social networking giant has repeatedly argued that Apple’s changes would impact small businesses that relied on Facebook ads to reach their customers. But it was not successful in getting any of Apple’s changes halted. Instead, the market is shifting to a new era focused more on user privacy, where personalization and targeting are more of an opt-in experience,” said Sarah Perez for TechCrunch.

New communication options. The new features include expanded click-to-chat options from ads where “businesses can choose all the messaging platforms where they’re available to chat, and we’ll default the chat app in your ad based on where a conversation is most likely to happen,” according to the announcement.

You can also start a WhatsApp chat from an Instagram profile, and the company will “begin testing paid and organic tools to help small businesses find and qualify leads directly within the Instagram app,” said Facebook. New communication options include a test to allow “businesses to manage emails through Inbox and send remarketing emails from Facebook Business Suite,” as well.

More sophisticated advertising tools. “We’re also introducing File Manager, a new feature that allows businesses to easily create, manage and post content within Facebook Business Suite. Lastly, we’re making post testing available in Facebook Business Suite to let businesses test and compare multiple versions of a post to see which one people are more likely to engage with,” said the announcement from Facebook.

Why we care. Facebook is expanding its advertising options, trying to make its Business Suite easier for businesses of all sizes to use, and developing other ways for businesses and customers to connect. While some SMBs may be suffering from the iOS change, these moves may be useful to help expand their social advertising and convert more leads via the channel.

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