In a recent announcement, Meta announced that it’s launching a brand-new, and highly anticipated functionality on its platforms– brands can now turn off comments on ads that appear on Facebook and Instagram.
According to a Meta spokesperson, “we understand that this functionality can be important for brands when running sensitive campaigns or during periods of heightened sensitivity”.
While comments controls are currently still in the testing phase, and limited to specific businesses, the availability of the feature is projected to expand to more businesses over time. Right now, the feature has been projected to roll out by early 2025.
Why is Meta Pursuing Such Measures?
Well, it’s quite simple really. Meta is starting to give businesses more control over their ads by disabling comments that may spread misinformation and become a breeding ground for trolling and hate comments. Essentially, negative and unwanted user-generated content is about to take a back seat.
To be clear though, this feature isn’t entirely new. Businesses have always had the capability to switch off and remove comments after a campaign has gone live. This new update just allows them to deactivate the ability to comment at all before the campaign goes live.
To complement this measure, Meta is also going to give businesses increased control over where and to whom their ads are shown. This means, if you’re a brand trying to appeal to specific demographics and communities, you can now determine where your ads appear, so that its messaging is targeted to exactly who it appeals to.
Basically, you’ll be given access to a “publisher block list” which lets you list what kind of public profiles you don’t want your ads to appear on. This feature is already available on Instagram and due its popularity amongst businesses, Meta is now expanding it to Facebook.
How Does this Impact Marketers?
Comments on your branded posts have always seemed like a double edged sword. While it grants you the ability to foster a community of engaged consumers, all excitedly talking about you in the comments section of your post, it also leaves you exceptionally vulnerable to hate. One negative comment can place a significant dent in your reputation, especially if you’re a small or up and coming business. Hence, for marketers it’s especially useful to now have the option to determine what impacts your brand’s performance.
Likewise, according to Meta, businesses will partner with the platform to create specific content block lists that allows them to block specific content categories that they don’t want their content appearing on, essentially saving you both time and money from having your ad reach an untargeted, disinterested audience.
This means you can now prioritise creating content that first, is a genuine manifestation of your creative ideas and speaks truly to your targeted audience’s interest, and second, choose exactly how you want them to interact with it, whether it’s through comments, or just likes.
Sometimes, the most powerful ads are the ones that leave your audience speechless, literally.