Facebook and Instagram advertising has long been a go-to for brands looking to reach their audiences - but with increasing competition, shifting regulations, and major platform changes over the years, keeping up with them can feel overwhelming. While some brands continue to see strong returns, others question whether the platform remains a viable option for them.
Spoiler alert: yes, we think Meta ads are still worth it. That does come with some caveats though, so if you’re thinking about making 2025 the year you jump on board with Meta ads but aren’t sure if the ship has sailed, let’s take a look through what to consider.
Meta is the rebrand of Facebook which incorporated all of their products, including Facebook and Instagram, under one parent brand. The rebrand took place in October 2021, and since then advertising across Facebook and Instagram has been known as Meta Ads.
Over the years it’s not just the name that has changed - how you advertise on the platform is also significantly different to the way it once was. Over the years the platform has seen updates to placements like stories and reels, changing costs, and some notable challenges around data.
Meta has a long history of challenges with data. One high profile case was with Cambridge Analytica; in 2013 the company used an app called This Is Your Digital Life to collect data on users’ timelines, posts, messages and news feeds. The data that was collected was then used in advertising for the 2016 US elections to help persuade voters.
Another big challenge for Meta has been iOS14.5, which was released in April 2021. This removed the ability for apps to track users across the rest of the internet unless they specifically opted in. Unsurprisingly, only around 18% of users opt in. This caused a massive data black hole for Meta with the loss of data reportedly costing them a loss of $10B a year.
In May 2023 the EU issued a €1.2 billion fine to Meta, the largest ever given at the time. This was for transfers of personal data to the U.S. on the basis of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) since 16 July 2020. They were also ordered to bring their practices in line with GDPR.
There was a time when the data that Meta could collect meant finding the ideal audience was easy. So was tracking the response to advertising, whether that be sales or leads. While these things are still possible, nowadays they are not nearly so simple or certain.
So, post iOS updates and EU fines, and with the current advertising landscape in mind - are Meta Ads still worth running for businesses?
The simplistic answer, based on our experience, is yes, very much so.
However, all businesses will have different goals, strategies, products and costs to contend with, so we’d never be so bold as to say that they should be a given for every brand, or to guarantee that they will work for you.
No form of advertising should be considered a silver bullet. Our view is that Meta ads are ‘worth it’ - and can be hugely effective - when they’re being used well for the right reasons. What we like to see is:
And it goes without saying that before trying any of it, you should make sure you have a clear proposition & brand positioning, as well as a wider marketing strategy that this tactic falls into. If this isn’t something you can confidently say you have sorted, we’d recommend taking a step back before diving into social advertising.
Meta ads as a channel in 2025 is very different to the early days, where you would have super specific targeting with a couple of pieces of ad copy and a couple of ads, which could often just be photographs.
As the platform has matured it has become all about broader targeting, leveraging AI using multiple creatives (with the formats for these ever-evolving) and messaging that can be dynamically displayed to the right audience subsections to find winning ads that lead to the actions you want.
Ideally, we recommend using carousels, static images and video to test performance in the same campaign across multiple placements. The platform’s machine learning can then get to work finding the audience most likely to buy, contact you, or whichever other event you’d like to drive - and then find more people like that.
As with any use of machine learning, or indeed any marketing campaign, what you get out is only as good as what you put in. Without understanding your audience and positioning your product correctly, just showing it to as many people as possible in a spray and pray approach won’t achieve the results you want long term.
This also means (at the time of writing this) turning off Meta’s auto enhancements. If there is one thing to take away from this post, it’s to turn those off. In our experience the AI here is very artificial and not very intelligent. Unless you want something that looks nothing like your brand or completely changes the design, park those for now.
There are some circumstances where Meta ads might not be appropriate for your brand, this can be more common in the business to business space and if you have a niche or very specific audience to reach where you might find LinkedIn ads works better for you.
As with any marketing tactic, it’s about being able to test and measure results and adapting based on the data.
At Ginger Pickle we spend a lot of time running Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for our clients. We have seen a lot of changes over the years and despite the challenges, we are still seeing excellent results for clients across a whole range of industries.
If you’re not sure your Meta Ads are working or are looking to try them for the first time and don’t know where to start, get in touch. We love talking about all things paid social and are always happy to help.
