Facebook clarifies Custom Audience list management terms for agency-advertiser relationships

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Since releasing new rules around Custom Audiences in June, Facebook is clarifying terms around a specific update to its Custom Audience list management policies.

Previously, Facebook stated advertisers may not sell or transfer their Custom Audiences or authorize any third party to sell or transfer custom audiences. The company is now updating that specific term to clarify that an advertiser with an independent relationship with an agency off of the platform can allow those agencies to manage their Custom Audience lists.

Here is the newly updated term in full:

You may not sell or transfer your custom audiences, or authorize any third party to sell or transfer Custom Audiences. If you have entered into an independent agreement with a partner for licensing marketing information, you may use the Custom Audiences tools and sharing functionality to create and provide custom audiences for advertising based on that information, subject to the requirements of these terms and applicable law.

Facebook says since updating the terms, it had started to receive questions from advertisers asking if paying an agency to manage their Custom Audience list qualified as selling or buying a Custom Audience.

Facebook has updated the term to make clear that working with an agency to manage your Custom Audience lists isn’t considered selling or transferring the list.

Facebook’s most recent updates to its Custom Audience rules went into effect on July 2. The company now requires advertisers to specify the origin of an audience’s information when uploading a Custom Audience list. This makes it possible for Facebook to show users how advertisers got their information and if they are being targeted by their phone or email address when they click on “Why am I seeing this ad?” in an ad’s drop-down menu.