Facebook announced that they have disabled targeting around “self-reported” segments, including religion, employer and education segments, in which users can identify themselves without verification.

This is a huge segment exclusion, especially for B2B advertisers. With this exclusion, advertisers may begin to see less-efficient metrics, including click-through-rates, cost-per-click, etc., due to fewer hyper targeted variations.

How will Facebook remedy these targeting exclusions?

One way advertisers can target similar audiences without using their employer is through industry targeting. Instead of targeting the specific employer, advertiser can target the industry that employer belongs to. Though this will not give as narrow of an audience, but it will serve ads to the type of people you want to see them. Facebook claims that job title targeting is still possible; however, this targeting is limited. For example, this targeting is so limited that no job titles come up when searching for “finance” or “advertiser.” However, finance is available through interest targeting, as well as variations of finance (e.g., personal finance, corporate finance). Though these additional layers are not ideal, they are a substitute until Facebook enables more specific targeting methods.

In the meantime, while using detailed layered targeting, note the Facebook audience size tool. This will give you a good idea of how many users fit your targeting specifications. Advertisers can work backwards to get as closely sized of an audience as was available when employer targeting was enabled.

What does the future for Facebook targeting restrictions look like? Business Insider suggests that Facebook could be toying with a replica of LinkedIn’s resumé feature, which allows users to share their professional and educational experiences, along with their contact information, right on their Facebook profile. Could Facebook begin to use resumé scanning as a verification tool for employer targeting? This tool could bring more qualified audiences to advertisers.