Facebook to update its guidelines which may affect advertisers

It’s good to keep yourself informed of changes within a media platform that your campaign uses. These changes may affect your campaign’s message.

Reported by AdvertisingAge, Facebook has updated and instated new guidelines effective the week of August 3, 2009.

According to the article, the social networking site will block advertisers that do not observe the new guidelines. It still allows apps to integrate “virtual goods, subscriptions, advertising, or whatever you choose.” However, there are two kinds of advertisements that are no longer permitted. They are “anything that sends ‘user data received from Facebook to ad networks,’ which limits the potential for behavioral targeting… and… any ads that display user data in applications, ‘unless specifically approved by Facebook.’” This last portion could present a problem to users who like to incorporate personal photos into the ads as they are not approved by Facebook.

These changes in guidelines may directly affect a campaign’s creative message. Therefore, it is important to be aware of how an advertising message is being perceived in the particular media platform in which it is running. A few modifications to the advertisement may make the campaign stronger and stay within the parameter of Facebook rules.