Facebook Announces Withdrawal of 17 Ad Formats

Mobile phone showing Facebook

Facebook has unveiled (another) set of changes to drive us all to use its publishing tools as opposed to third party applications like Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

As of the 15th September, 17 post formats on Facebook will no longer be available to boost. They are apparently post types that are rarely used (see below for a full list) and are not tied to any advertiser objectives, meaning that nothing will change in the main Power Editor/Ads Manager interface.

However, one thing to note is the removal of the ability to boost a post from an app posted to a page’s timeline. This MAY affect any page managers using third-party publishing tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social or Buffer. As of yet, Facebook hasn’t been clear if it sees these tools as an app or as a separate functionality altogether.

Facebook has always preferred managers to use Facebook’s own scheduling functionality instead of using publishing tools like Hootsuite, so there is a possibility this is another move by the network to try to curb the use of those applications.

If you do use Hootsuite et al, the best way around this news is to post any posts that have a budget planned for them directly to Facebook and boost from there.

Alternatively, you could start scheduling from Facebook. We do this already as it means we have full control over how a post will look on the platform without risking any ‘quirks’ that many of these tools have (like funny URL strings, or misshaped images).

In short, its Facebook’s latest trick to get us all using its publishing tools, so watch out if you don’t, they’ll be coming for you.

PS – The following post formats are the ones being removed:

  • Boosting share of products from shops
  • Boosting the share of a story about a for-sale post
  • Boosting a check-in on a map, at a restaurant, or in a city
  • Boosting the share of a note
  • Boosting the share of a poll
  • Boosting place recommendations
  • Boosting the share of cultural moments
  • Boosting the share of comments
  • Boosting change of a profile picture
  • Boosting a file upload or share
  • Boosting a sports event
  • Boosting of a video or image uploaded through the Facebook camera
  • Boosting of attendance for an event
  • Boosting the share of a video playlist
  • Boosting the status of watching a television show, movie, or other types of programming
  • Boosting a post from an app posted to a page’s timeline
  • Boosting a political endorsement