In this video Hernan Vazquez explains that recent Facebook changes—removing many detailed interest targeting options such as health, religion, politics, and even public figures—do not signal the end of effective advertising. He argues that the real secret to reaching the best audiences is not obscure interests but strong, "adamant" copy that directly addresses the target demographic’s pain points and desires. He illustrates this with examples (e.g., selling spaghetti) and stresses aligning ad copy with the landing page. Vazquez also emphasizes the importance of running campaigns for longer periods so Facebook’s machine‑learning algorithm can gather enough data; a well‑set‑up pixel combined with third‑party tracking tools like AnyTrack or Hyros helps overcome iOS 14 data limitations. He recommends using broad audiences to give the algorithm room to learn, continuously feeding it data, and leveraging audience lists. Throughout, he promotes his agency, ScaleDriven, offering services for ad copy, funnel building, tracking implementation, and ongoing campaign management, inviting viewers to schedule calls and read case studies. The overall message is reassuring: advertisers should not panic over the targeting cuts, focus on compelling copy, broad targeting, and proper tracking, and keep advertising consistently.
The main point when it comes to Facebook targeting, let me let you in on a secret here, okay, that's allowing us to target the best possible audiences on social media, is not to find that obscure interest that nobody else is targeting.
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So Facebook just removed a bunch of targeting capabilities from their platform. Does this mean that days of advertising on Facebook are over? Does this mean that you won't be able to target your ideal audience? Does this mean that Facebook ads don't work anymore? We'll try to figure that out throughout this episode right here, right? What's going on everybody? My name is Hernan Vazquez with scaledriven.com. At scaledriven.com, what we do is we help companies, entrepreneurs to scale through paid advertising, through sales funnels, through copywriting, through better offers, better conversions. So if you're trying to scale this year, head on over to scaledriven.com, schedule a call with my team right there. There's a little bit of a message, you can check that out. And if it resonates with you, we can hop on a call and we can talk about how things work and how we are helping other entrepreneurs and business owners scale through 2022 and through all of the things that are happening, which are a lot. One of the things that just happened is that Facebook decided to wipe out a lot of targeting capabilities out of their platforms. And I want to share with you the actual news from Facebook: removing certain ad targeting options and expanding our ad controls. They announced this November 9th, and they enforced this January 19th, so 2 days ago. Okay, so this is 21st, so 2 days ago, removed some detailed targeting options that were you know, available in the Business Manager and the Ads Manager. So for instance, some of them are the ones related to health causes, the ones related to sexual orientation, religious practices, political beliefs, organization figures, and all that. So for instance, if you were targeting Grant Cardone or Tony Robbins or Dean Graziosi, there's a high chance that you won't be able to target them anymore. Okay, now here's the thing. Here's why I'm not worried, all right, with this type of thing that Facebook did, is that Facebook does this all the time. They just don't announce it. They do this all the time. In fact, every single week they're putting in new interests and they're taking out interests. And maybe you're able to target some people today or some interest today, and then in 2 weeks from now you won't be able to target them, and your ads will get paused and all of that. So this happens a lot, and this happens more frequently than you might think. In fact, throughout the past, I don't know, 7 years since I've been running Facebook ads, this happened a lot. And then Facebook will all of a sudden get those interests back in the platform. Okay, so in my opinion, there's nothing to worry about, and there's never been anything to worry about when it comes to targeting. Now, the main point when it comes to Facebook targeting— let me let you in on a secret here, okay— that's allowing us to target the best possible audiences on social media is not to find that obscure interest that nobody else is targeting. All right, the secret for you to find the best audience on social media is twofold. The first one has to do with how adamant your copywriting is. So for instance, if you're selling pasta, right, let's say that you're selling spaghetti online. If you're telling people, hey, do you want some spaghetti, there's a high chance that people will click on that ad because they want some spaghetti because they're hungry right now. Okay, now if you're selling them on the ad, if you're saying, hey, do you want some spaghetti, and you send them to a page where you're selling canned beans there's a high chance that there will be a disconnect between your ad and the landing page. So the first thing that you want to consider when you're targeting, or when you're trying to target your best audiences on Facebook, has nothing to do with the targeting itself, as funny as it sounds, but it has everything to do with what you're saying in the ad. That's why I like to start my ads with something like, hey, if you're looking to get X without Y, read this. Or would you like to get X without Y? Or attention target demographic or target market, right? Attention entrepreneurs. We just started working with a lady. She has an amazing program and she's targeting entrepreneurs with a spiritual awareness or with a spiritual knack or with a spiritual edge, right? So we're targeting entrepreneurs are also interested in spirituality. So what we say on the ads is exactly that. Hey, are you an entrepreneur and you're interested in spirituality? There you have it, right? That's as adamant as you can be. Now, of course, if your targeting is off when it comes to the actual targeting capabilities that you have within the platform, then of course there's a high chance that you will get clicks that are not entirely relevant to your audience. But that happens, okay? That happens whether you're targeting your best possible audience, you're really adamant with your copy, you will get non-qualified people because guess what? You're targeting people on social media, right? So that's the first thing. The first thing is to be really, really adamant with your copy. All right, so that's the first thing. Make sure that you're targeting and you're talking to your ideal demographic. Make sure that you're signaling them out in your copy. Make sure that you're talking to their pain points. Make sure that you're talking to their wishes, their concerns. Okay, so this is copywriting 101, and this has to do both on the text of the ad but also in the image of the ad and the video if you're running video ads. Okay, so that's number one. The second thing has to do with for how long you're running the campaign. Facebook has machine learning algorithms embedded in it, and of course with the iOS 14 rollout last year, Facebook lost a lot of capabilities to actually see what's going on after somebody clicks on an ad. That's why we're really adamant and we help implement this for every client at scale-driven.com. What we help them do is to actually set up their tracking right using third-party tracking tools like for instance AnyTrack or Hyros or a couple of others, right? So we help them set that up and the reason why is because we want Facebook to still see what's going on even if they're being blocked by iOS 14. Related stuff. So the more you run the campaign, and provided that you keep on targeting the same audience, the better they'll become, the better your campaigns will become. Why? Because now your pixel has a lot of data regarding your audience, and now it knows who to target, when to target them, and all of that. So it's a combination of the copy and the data that you feed back to Facebook. That's why, you know, uploading your lists is always a good idea to create audiences and target them. Upload, you know, having your pixel properly set up using a third-party pixel data tracking thingy, which is something that we help implement for all of our clients at this point. And those 2 things are much more important than whether you have the ability to target Tony Robbins or not, or whether you have the ability to target Grant Cardone or not. All right, that is not as important because what happens is that sometimes Facebook will put them in, will take them out, and then 2 months later they will put them back in, and then so on and so forth. So this is something that Facebook does all the time. So my recommendation when it comes to targeting is to be broad enough so that the algorithm has enough data points and enough wiggle room, if you would. So be broad enough. Do not try to target those 5 people that you want to target, right? So be broad enough with your targeting, be really adamant with your copy, and then let Facebook optimize your campaigns by running ads, by keep on running your campaigns. That's how you get to the point where your pixel is seasoned, you have enough data in your pixel, and then your targeting is going to be on point, okay? Facebook is a momentum-based platform. That means that the longer you run the ads, the better they become. And this is something that I talked about a lot in the past in terms of people that are winning with their ads, they don't stop advertising. And there's a couple of ways that you can do this by actually implementing a branding campaign or something along those lines, which guess what? We can help you implement as well. So if this is something that you want to explore, head on over to scaledriven.com. It's scaledriven.com. Just type that in. You will see a little bit of a message there, and if the message resonates with you, feel free to schedule a call with our team. There's a couple of case studies there as well. There's just 2, we need to add a couple more, but there are 2 really good case studies if you want to read them. And if that resonates with you, we can hop on a call. It's not a low— almost no pressure. The only pressure is like, hey, you're muted. That's the only pressure that we have on the call, right? Hey, Your microphone is muted. That's high-pressure sales tactics as we apply. Okay, but no, in all seriousness, these are super valuable calls for people that jump in, mostly because they get a plan after talking to us. They get a plan whether they decide to work with us or not. They still get a plan on how to move their business forward in 2022. So if that's you and you want help with your ads, your advertising on Facebook, and on YouTube, on social. If you want us to help you with your conversions, if you want us to help you with your email marketing, head on over to scaledriven.com, read that message that's in there, and I hope that it helps. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below. Share this with somebody that needs to see this, and please keep on advertising. Do not fret, there's nothing to be afraid of. And again, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Thank Thank you guys. Have an amazing rest of your day. See you guys soon.
