Ad Topics Control

A flat catalog of more than 20,000 ad topics, organized into a hierarchy people can browse and control.

Ad Topics introduction, topic list and category filter.

My role: Product Design, Design Strategy
Team: Taxonomy, Privacy, Data and GTM
When: 2022 · 9 Months
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web

visits to topic controls: +7%
interactions: +18%
understanding and reported effectiveness: +0.3%
incremental revenue protected, estimated: 0.2%

The 30-second version

Problem: The old control covered only a few sensitive categories. The underlying catalog had more than 20,000 topics in one flat list.
What I did: Worked with Taxonomy on a hierarchy, redesigned browsing and filtering, and prototyped in Figma and Xcode.
Result: Visits rose 7% and interactions rose 18%. The control protected an estimated 0.2% of incremental revenue.

Context and constraints

Ad Topics Control is where you tell Meta which kinds of ads you want less of, or more of. It used to cover a handful of sensitive categories, and I led the work to open it up to thousands of topics.

My role and the team

I led the design, worked with the Taxonomy team on the hierarchy, and prototyped in Figma and Xcode. The Xcode build helped us check usability before launch and align Taxonomy, Privacy, Data and GTM.

The problem

Before this, you could only turn down ads in a few sensitive categories. If you were sick of crypto ads, or fast food, there was nothing you could do about it, and no way to ask for more of something you liked.

Opening it up meant dealing with the catalog underneath. There were somewhere north of 20,000 targeting topics in one flat, very granular list, and nobody was going to browse that.

Key decisions

01 / 02

Make a choice carry down

Options: The starting point was a flat list of more than 20,000 targeting topics.
The call: Turn the flat catalog into a hierarchy with the Taxonomy team.
Why: Choosing to see less of Weight management also reduces Weight loss drugs. People do not have to find each granular topic themselves.

02 / 02

Let people ask for more, too

The call: Support more and less, with browsing, sorting and filters above the full topic list.
Why: The old control only let people turn down a handful of sensitive categories. It offered no way to ask for more of something they liked.

The work

Ad topics now opens with a plain explanation and one clear button to manage topics. That leads to the full list with Sort and Filter at the top, and Filter uses the parent categories we worked out with the Taxonomy team.

Sort switches between your recent interactions and alphabetical order. Here the list is filtered to Arts and entertainment, and choosing to see less of a topic gets a confirmation of what will change.

How it scaled

A choice near the top of the hierarchy carries down. Choosing to see less of Weight management also reduces Weight loss drugs.

How a choice carries down

Before
20,000+ targeting topics
One flat, very granular list.
Organized with Taxonomy
A hierarchy
Filters use the parent categories.
Your choice
Weight management
You choose to see less.
Carries down
Weight loss drugs
Less of it too, without finding it yourself.

The control works both ways: ask for more of a topic, or less.

Results

The topic controls got 7% more visits and 18% more interactions. Understanding of what the control does, and whether it did what it said, went up 0.3%. It also protected an estimated 0.2% of incremental revenue.

visits to topic controls: +7%
interactions: +18%
understanding and reported effectiveness: +0.3%
incremental revenue protected, estimated: 0.2%