Ad Topics Control

Role
Product Design, Design Strategy
TYPE
Product Design
YEAR
2022
Overview

Ad Topics Control is a feature that gives users more influence over the types of ads they see on Meta platforms. By adjusting preferences for topics like fitness, parenting, or music, users can choose to see fewer ads, or in some cases, more, on subjects that matter to them. The goal was to make the ad experience feel more personalized, transparent, and respectful of individual comfort levels.

Problem

Before this work, Meta only allowed users to reduce ads in a limited set of sensitive categories, such as alcohol, parenting, or politics. This created a mismatch between what users wanted and what the system could support. Many users found themselves repeatedly seeing ads about topics they had no interest in or actively wanted to avoid. There was no way to opt out of less sensitive but still unwanted topics like crypto, fast food, or dating. There was also no way to lean into content they actually enjoyed. The lack of flexibility contributed to user frustration and reduced the sense of control people had over their feed. For a platform built around personalization, this gap created both product inconsistency and a missed opportunity for user trust.

Solution

As the Product Designer leading this effort, I worked to expand and scale Meta’s Ad Topics Control in a way that balanced user empowerment with system feasibility. I started by identifying pain points with the existing flow and then looked for ways to reuse familiar design patterns that would reduce friction and increase clarity. A key challenge was surfacing thousands of targeting topics in a way that felt digestible. To address this, I partnered with the taxonomy team to expand and organize our categorization system, enabling a more flexible filtering experience. I built prototypes in Figma and Xcode to bring the design vision to life and guide alignment across cross-functional teams. These included updates to UI hierarchy, filtering interactions, and category groupings that made it easier for users to discover and act on topics that mattered to them. Throughout the process, I collaborated with Privacy, Data, and GTM teams to ensure compliance, usability, and a smooth implementation path.

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Outcome

The redesigned Ad Topics Control launched across Meta platforms and gave users a more intuitive and meaningful way to shape their ad experience. From a business perspective, it helped protect 0.2 percent of iRev while meeting rising expectations around personalization and transparency. This project also laid the groundwork for future consent and ad experience improvements, helping shift the user relationship with ads from passive to being an active participant.

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