Find out what's changing and tips about how to continue reaching teens

As part of our continued work to keep our apps age-appropriate for teens, we’re sharing that we’re making further changes to their ad experiences. We recognize that teens aren't necessarily as equipped as adults to make decisions related to their online data for advertising, particularly when it comes to showing them products for purchase. That’s why we’ve been evolving the way advertisers reach teens on our platforms, including further restricting the options available to advertisers. These changes reflect research, direct feedback from parents and child developmental experts, UN children’s rights principles and global regulation.

Note: For most countries, in the context of this product announcement, we consider those aged 13-17 to be a “teen.” In Indonesia it is those aged 13-20, and in Thailand it is those aged 13-19.

What’s changing?

Between February and April of 2023, we will be rolling out the following changes:

• Targeting changes: Advertisers will only be able to target teens based on age and city-level or greater location (e.g. state). We will remove the ability to target teens by gender or any location more granular than city (e.g. zip code); this follows last year’s targeting updates, which included removing the ability to target teens by detailed targeting options (e.g. interest) or Custom Audiences (e.g customer list).
• Campaign options restrictions: We are also changing the way we deliver ads to teens — we will not use a teen’s previous engagement such as the Pages they have liked to determine the ads they see. Making this update requires evolving our infrastructure, and as a result, advertisers will see certain campaign options (such as some placement, ad format, and optimization goals) removed when running campaigns that target teens. As we continue to build technology that supports age-appropriate ad experiences, we'll continue to explore tools to support advertisers, while maintaining the best interests of the child framework.

These changes will apply to both new and existing campaigns, which will need to be updated to prevent disruption to ad delivery to teens. Specifically, beginning February 20th, 2023, no new campaigns can be created with restricted options available for use to reach teens, and no significant edits can be made. Beginning on April 7th, 2023, existing campaigns targeting teens only will be paused until restricted options are removed, and campaigns targeting both teens and adults using restricted options will shift to only deliver to adults. To view the details of these changes and the implications of your ad campaign set up, please review this Help Center article.

In addition, starting in March 2023, teens will have more ways to manage the types of ads they see on Facebook and Instagram with Ad Topic Controls, expanding on what’s already available.

What does this mean for me?

This guide provides more detailed best practices in line with these changes to support your business objectives.

Prior to these changes going into effect in April of 2023, we recommend that advertisers adjust targeting and campaign options for campaigns targeting teens to avoid delivery disruptions. You can refer to our Help Center for more detail on these changes. We suggest all changes to new and existing campaigns to be completed before April 2023 to avoid disruptions.