What the New “Beneficiary” Field in Meta Ad Campaigns Means

Meta has new requirements for brands advertising to Europeans.

The EU Digital Services Act now mandates Meta to provide more ad targeting information on the beneficiary and payer of ads that target anyone residing within the European Union. This means that if you run any Facebook or Instagram ads that specifically target these audiences, you’ll soon need to update your ad targeting processes to comply with the new regulations.

🚨 Effects on Facebook and Instagram Ads

For any ad set with an audience in the EU, advertisers will have to indicate both the person or brand benefiting from the ad and the person or brand paying for the ad. In most cases, advertisers will add their business name to both fields.

The information on ‘payer’ and ‘beneficiary’ is designed to provide more insight into the source of every Facebook and Instagram ad.

👨‍💻 Effects on Developers

Developers will also be affected by these updates, as Meta is implementing changes to its Marketing API to align with the requirements. As a result, developers will need to update their API usage accordingly. By the end of August, Meta will display beneficiary and payer information in the Ad Library and the Ad Library API for all ads created on or after June 22, 2023, that target the EU or associated territories.

💰 Potential Consequences for Meta

Failure to comply with these regulations could lead to significant penalties for Meta. The company recently faced a $1.3 billion fine for the unauthorized transfer of EU user data to the U.S. without explicit permission or adequate protections in place.

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