If you’re trying to create a page post ad in Power Editor and using FOF (friend of fan) targeting to narrow down your audience, you’re perhaps frustrated this option has disappeared:
Others have verified the bug.
The good news is that it’s still in the regular ads manager.
So that’s your workaround for now.
FOF targeting is critical to trim down audiences to a testable size and to increase CTR, as I explain here.
Even 3 years ago, connection targeting was the cornerstone of Facebook ads, because it helped people see what their friends are doing. It was paid by word of mouth.
I expect that Facebook will keep trimming the ad options available to us, to automatically piggyback sponsored stories on top of brand posts and to automatically choose FOF audiences to serve ads to first, even if you don’t specify it.
When advertisers whine about how difficult Facebook ads are, what they’re really saying is that they don’t want to deal with the complexity.
It’s Facebook’s problem to solve
Rather than forcing us to bid CPM or CPC (I don’t ever recommend this), wouldn’t it be smarter to let Facebook do the work?
- • Optimized CPM bidding on the offsite pixel allows Facebook to choose who to target and also decide how much to pay.
- • FOF targeting increases your CTR by automatically finding the right friends to show in each ad.
- • Custom audiences (and especially lookalike audiences based on similarity) makes Facebook find the right combination of attributes to target, so you don’t have to figure out the combos yourself.
What’s your “favorite” Power Editor bug?
Do you think Facebook marketing will ever get to the point where you can just press a button, with no ad copy, targeting, or bidding?
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.
You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.
You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.