If you’re running Instagram ads and notice a sudden drop or complete stop in performance, it’s possible you unknowingly hit the brakes yourself. The problem lies with the “Less personalized” ads option that might have popped up on your personal Instagram profile.
This wouldn’t be that bad by itself if Meta explained the full consequences when you made that choice. Unfortunately, they don’t. And for musicians and curators (and any other advertisers) in Europe, this can be a serious setback. What’s even worse? Even Meta’s own support agents often miss this key issue, instead suggesting vague fixes like “broaden your audience.” Meanwhile, your ads keep underperforming or stop altogether, and the issue lies elsewhere.
So if you’re stuck wondering why your ads aren’t working – or why they’re performing way below expectations – this could be the cause. Let’s break down how this happens, what it means for you, and how you can fix it to get your campaigns back on track (scroll down for the steps on how to fix it).
*Subscribing to use our products without ads or choosing to see less-personalised ads affects your ability to run ads and participate in partnership ads and affects your ability to earn money through our products.
Meta (the parent company of Instagram and Facebook) rolled out the “Less personalized” ads option in response to EU regulations, giving users more control over how their data is used for advertising. In theory, this sounds like a win – right? You can limit how Meta uses your activity to personalize ads, and that’s appealing to many people.
But before you get too excited, there’s a catch. If your personal Instagram profile is linked to your ad campaigns – say, you’re running ads to promote your music or playlists – choosing “Less personalized” ads can completely break your ad performance. Here’s why: When you select this option, you’re essentially telling Instagram, “Don’t use any of my data to make these ads work.” This doesn’t just affect the ads you see, it also messes with the ads you create and pay for.
For some, it means their ads will just stop – no explanation, no reason why. For others, the ad account might still spend money but won’t perform (by far) as expected. Either way, your campaigns will be seriously impacted.
Meta actually mentions this issue in a rather hidden-away FAQ about Less personalized ads, but sadly, they don’t include this important detail in the popup that prompts you to make this choice (nor do they link to the article).
TL;DR: If you’re advertising, “Less-personalized” or no ads on Meta aren’t for you.
First things first, you’ll need to change your ad preferences. Here’s how:
*The same can be done in the Accounts Centre reachable through Facebook, too.
This is the key step to fixing things. Without changing this setting, you’re pretty much stuck. And, unfortunately, Meta’s support team is just as in the dark about this issue as many users, so you’re not very likely to get a helpful answer from them.
Once you’ve updated your settings, keep a very close eye on your ads over the next few hours – and then the following 2-4 days. Based on our experience, Meta will often overspend during this time – sometimes even 3-5 times more than usual – and it’ll likely be on quite expensive conversions. So, make sure you’re monitoring that ad spend carefully.
Here’s another not-so-awesome thing: your ads will go into a Learning phase again. This can be a bit of a setback, but it’s not the end of the world if your ads recover quickly. If some ads don’t seem to perform as well as they did before even after some time, try adding a few new creatives (= videos) to the affected campaign(s). You can also try duplicating your ads – starting over might actually help ads that are just too affected to get back on track.
Just keep an eye on the performance and adjust based on what feels right.
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If you’re using Instagram ads to grow your career or audience, the “Less personalized” ads setting is not your friend. The same goes for paying for a Meta ads-free subscription. While these settings might seem harmless (or even beneficial) at first glance, they will shut down your ad campaigns.