Meta’s New Centralized Ad Privacy Controls a Catalyst for Adopting a Robust Preference Management Strategy

Meta app users will now be able to manage all their account settings – including advertising controls and preferences – in one centralized hub. The changes are part of the company’s strategy to regain dominance in the ad market.

In a blog post, the company’s director of product management, Robert d'Apice, announced that Meta is rolling out changes in an effort "to make finding and managing certain settings easier across multiple apps."

Here are the key takeaways:

First, we’re updating our Data about your activity from Partners’ control, which is now called Activity information from ad partners to help people easily understand how their activity sent from other websites and apps is used to power the ads they see. Second, we’re making it easier for people to understand their options when it comes to seeing ads shown by Meta on other apps and websites. Finally, we know people want more control over the ads they see, which is why we’re exploring new ways to give people the ability to see more ads about the things that interest them, in addition to the existing option of seeing fewer ads about things that don’t interest them.

Meta

While Meta initially used the Accounts Center as a way to unify login and payment information across Facebook and Instagram, it later made it possible to easily switch between Instagram and Facebook accounts last year. Meta says it plans on centralizing additional settings in the future.

Meta further added that the changes will be generally available and gradually rolled out to everyone with connected Facebook, Messenger and Instagram accounts in the coming months.

This can be a handy update for consumers to have more influence over their ad experience. Moreover, brands can display relevant ads in alignment with the dictated consumer preferences and personalize communications.

Privacy and personalization have often been considered at odds. But the arrival of such consent and preference management solutions gives marketers the opportunity to shift to a privacy-first and customer-centric approach.

With the proliferation of ad platforms and media, it’s clear that consumers want to see relevant advertising tailored to their interests and preferences. And this move from Meta aims to simplify ad preference management from a single place.

The new account centre will empower consumers to fine-tune their topical interests. Besides, users will also be able to view how it correlates to the ads being shown on the platforms, making them more open to sharing their data.

This is several notches above consent-led opt-ins, as it enables marketers to communicate according to the customers’ actual stated preferences. Such data, offered voluntarily by the customer, is also called "zero-party data." Needless to say, it is the strongest kind of first-party data a brand can hope for.

Perhaps, marketers can take a cue from Meta’s move to consolidate and maintain user preferences in a central hub. This can be a reminder for companies to review and implement their data privacy policies by embracing preference management to maximize transparency and brand credibility.

Teams that are unable to embrace preference management in their customer experience strategy may, alas, risk losing market share to competitors that do.