Are You Susceptible to Meta Ads Misinformation?

Are you susceptible to Meta ads misinformation?

This topic hits home because it’s a constant struggle. I feel like there’s always a new rumor or hack based in nonsense that I need to address.

There is a ton of noise in the Meta ad space these days, and it’s not always clear who you can trust. And it’s this algorithmic feed environment that lowers the motivation to share factual information.

People want to be seen and heard. So the focus is on building a brand, getting the click, or going viral while making sure information is factual is secondary. If it matters at all.

This problem is even worse now with the flood of AI-generated content. There’s so much believable information that’s shared, some of which is at least partially true.

We have to remember why bad and misleading information pays, and we should be skeptical of it. There are ways to check ourselves and make sure that we’re not falling for it.

Let me give you an example.

A couple of months back, advertisers started sharing limited details of a new feature called Customer Lifecycle Strategy. It started with a single screenshot, which gave these posts validity.

The screenshot showed the feature, which gave options of acquiring new customers or reaching new and existing customers. That part, unless it was manufactured with AI, was compelling and convincing evidence.

And then these posts would all explain what the feature does.

This is where we as social media consumers are susceptible. This feature likely exists, due to a shared screenshot. So the explanation they give for how the feature works becomes more believable.

In almost all of these posts, the advertiser claimed this feature had some new super powers. Meta has all of this data about who is and isn’t an existing customer.

There are holes in custom audiences, which can make it challenging to only reach new customers. But this new feature would change that.

Or so they claimed.

They had no screenshots of other steps after the initial selection was made. No links to official documentation, which didn’t exist for this test feature. We just had to take their word for it.

And a whole lot of people did.

That same screenshot and some version of the explanation for how it worked spread like wildfire. People were so excited to share the news of this improved functionality.

But I question whether any of these people actually had the feature.

Even then, I had my doubts, and I shared those doubts because of the missing information. And now that I have the feature, I can confirm that we were being misled.

Customer Lifecycle Strategy doesn’t do anything new or special. Once you select that you want to acquire new customers, you still need to manually select the custom audiences you want to exclude.

All this feature does is make your approach more intentional. And it moves where you’d exclude custom audiences from the Audience section to the top of the ad set.

That’s it.

But it occurred to me how susceptible some of us are to this type of misinformation. And this isn’t unique to Meta advertising, of course.

Ultimately, the people who are most susceptible have the smallest foundation of knowledge based in facts. When you have limited knowledge about something, misinformation only needs to be believable to connect the dots.

The stronger your knowledge foundation, the less susceptible you’ll be. You will easily spot inconsistencies that just don’t make sense based on what you already know.

The problem is that this misinformation doesn’t always straight up lie or mislead. Like with the Customer Lifecycle Strategy feature, it starts with factual information.

The misinformation is in the details that are missing or not supported with proof. No screenshots or links to official documentation.

So here are some basic steps you can take to protect yourself.

First, start with a foundation based in facts about how things work. Read Meta’s official documentation and push yourself to fully understand it.

That base knowledge should trigger questions when things aren’t adding up.

Be skeptical of information that lacks verifiable proof. Don’t let people get away with this.

Ask for screenshots or official documentation that fully supports the claims. And then accept what’s provable, but dig deeper for what’s not.

So here’s the bottom of the glass.

It’s important to remember that Meta advertising misinformation pays. It pays in clicks and impressions and even money from those who are most susceptible.

If you are paid to run ads, you are considered an expert in your field. Trust what’s provable, based first in official documentation.

But the worst thing you can do is distract yourself with strategies and rumors based in lies and partially true information.