How to Leverage Influencer Marketing to Reach Audiences Meta No Longer Allows

September 22, 2025

6 min read

Written by:

Tara Johnson Senior Content Strategist

Tara Johnson is a marketing strategist with 10+ years of experience in digital strategy, content creation, and advertising. At Power Digital, she leads content planning, creating high-impact resources that boost visibility and drive results. Tara believes in no magic wands—just smart content and a passion for sustainable, authentic growth.

Reviewed by:

Power Digital Growth Marketing Partner

Power Digital is a full-service growth marketing agency helping brands accelerate their revenue with data, strategy, and execution. Known for our award-winning teams and nova technology, we bring clarity to complexity and build marketing that scales.

Table of contents

1. Why Influencer Marketing Solves Meta’s Targeting Problem
2. Strategies for Leveraging Influencer Marketing Post-Meta Changes
3. The Bigger Picture for Marketers
4. Ready to Rethink Your Strategy?

To Top

Meta’s ad targeting changes are rewriting the rules of digital advertising. As of March 31, 2025, the platform officially removed detailed targeting exclusions from all active campaigns in Ads Manager. That means advertisers can no longer block out specific interests or behaviors, a tactic that once helped reduce wasted spend and improve efficiency.

According to Meta’s own business help center, this move was designed to simplify campaign setup, though many marketers see it as a loss of control. Industry analysts have noted that advertisers now face broader audience pools and fewer ways to refine who actually sees their ads.

In May 2025, Meta introduced another significant shift. Instead of allowing advertisers to select niche interests such as “trail running,” “HIIT workouts,” or “home fitness,” those categories have now been consolidated into larger buckets like “fitness and wellness.” This reduces granularity but pushes advertisers to rely more heavily on Meta’s algorithmic delivery systems.

For brands that once leaned on Meta for precision audience targeting, these updates represent a seismic shift. Yet they also open the door to an opportunity marketers often overlook: influencer marketing.

Why Influencer Marketing Solves Meta’s Targeting Problem

Precision through community. While Meta has removed micro-targeting, influencers naturally build tightly defined groups around shared values and interests. Their followers represent the exact affinities that advertisers are now struggling to replicate through platform tools.
Authenticity over algorithms. Instead of relying on Meta’s AI to guess who might be interested, influencer content reaches people who intentionally opted in. That authenticity makes campaigns more trustworthy and persuasive.
Content that performs with the algorithm. Influencers create short-form Reels, interactive Stories, and authentic testimonials—the very content formats Meta’s algorithm prioritizes. Their posts not only reach the right people but also enjoy stronger organic amplification.

Strategies for Leveraging Influencer Marketing Post-Meta Changes

Invest in micro-influencers. Small but highly engaged creators often mirror the precision Meta used to provide with interest targeting. For example, a hydration brand could partner with trail-running influencers to reach endurance athletes directly.
Foster audience trust over time. Instead of one-off sponsored posts, develop storytelling arcs that play out over multiple pieces of content spanning multiple months. This builds momentum, sustains visibility, and allows Meta’s algorithm to amplify a consistent narrative.
Combine influencer content with paid social. Use Meta’s Advantage+ tools to scale creator-led campaigns. By seeding ads with influencer-generated creative, brands can blend the trust of influencer voices with the reach of machine learning—and scale content creation more quickly than traditional creative routes.
Activate community engagement. Encourage followers to join challenges, tag friends, or share user-generated content. These organic touchpoints not only extend reach beyond Meta’s new broad targeting categories, but also drive measurable actions like link clicks, website traffic, and promo code usage.
Measure beyond engagement metrics. Track affiliate conversions, post-purchase surveys, and attribution lift to connect influencer activations directly to business outcomes. This helps offset the reporting opacity introduced by Meta’s changes.

According to Ashley LaBrune, Associate Director of Social, Influencer at Power Digital:

“While Meta may have removed detailed targeting capabilities, influencer marketing gives brands the same level of precision, with the added benefits of trust and authenticity. With curated influencer programming, brands can reclaim control and reach intentional, deeply engaged audiences that are far more powerful than any algorithm’s interest bucket.”

The Bigger Picture for Marketers

Meta’s removal of targeting exclusions in March 2025 and its interest consolidation in May are not minor updates. They represent a shift from advertiser control to platform control, forcing brands to rethink how they reach audiences.

Influencer marketing provides a solution. By tapping into creator communities, brands can achieve the relevance and authenticity that Meta’s tools no longer guarantee. Advertisers should now prioritize creative strategies that resonate naturally, rather than relying solely on algorithmic precision.

The takeaway is clear: influencer marketing is no longer optional. It is now a critical growth lever for brands that want to overcome Meta’s targeting restrictions, reach the right audiences, and drive measurable impact.

Ready to Rethink Your Strategy?

If you’re looking for ways to offset Meta’s targeting changes and build growth through influencer marketing, Power Digital can help. Our team partners with brands to design influencer strategies that combine creative authenticity with measurable performance.

Contact Power Digital today to start building campaigns that reach the audiences Meta no longer lets you target.