Trial and error is not appropriate : Facebook’s issue ads policy sweeps up brands

Facebook’s new political ads policy has drawn scorn from publishers — and now a constituency more near and dear to Facebook is bothered: ad buyers. In the wake of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has taken an extra-cautious approach for political advertising. Anyone who wants to spend money on Facebook to promote political topics must register with an official government ID, and once approved, they must mark all political ads as political. Yet frustration has mounted since ad buyers — even executives at major media-buying agencies — have been unable to properly identify what ads need to be labeled as political. Brands’ corporate responsibility efforts, such as ads during Pride Month, have been swept up in the madness and have led to delayed campaigns. Facebook’s automated system has also erred. It’s all left buyers feeling like Facebook is just guessing and not doing enough to be transparent.