Meta gives users control over the feed — what does this mean for media buyers?

Instagram has completed the rollout of the Your Algorithm feature. Now users can manually select topics that shape recommendations in Reels and Explore. Meta presents this as content control, but for a media buyer, it is a way to target the target audience more precisely: instead of working with generalized algorithms, we get access to users who have marked their interests in the settings themselves.

Manual setup mechanics. The tool is opened via a slider icon in the top corner of any Reels. This menu displays a list of categories that the neural network selected based on views. The user can manually add new topics or change the frequency of their appearance in the feed.

In an effort to eliminate irrelevant posts, people consciously choose specific niches: from cryptocurrency to adult and gambling. As a result, Meta receives direct data about audience interests, which allows for more precise ad targeting and reduces the percentage of non-target traffic.

When driving traffic to gambling, crypto, or nutra, this audience segmentation reduces the share of wasted impressions. Advertisements within the selected categories stop being perceived as spam, as they match the user's current interest. At the same time, the requirements for promotional materials are changing:

• Keywords. In creatives and ad copies, it is now necessary to use the exact phrasing found in the Your Algorithm topic selection menu. This increases the likelihood that the campaign will land in the desired list of interests.

• Priority of Saves and Shares. In the updated algorithm, shares to Direct and saves carry more weight than likes. If a user added a topic to their settings, they expect content they will want to rewatch or send to a friend.

Working with Explore. Manual settings now also affect the Explore tab. It turns into a tool for pinpoint work with interests. To remain in this feed, the content must strictly correspond to the category chosen by the user: for jumping between topics, the algorithm instantly excludes the ad from recommendations.