Meta EU Policy Update: Add Beneficiary and Payer Details

As an advertiser, it’s important to stay up to date with Meta’s advertising policies that affect the running of your ads. At Madgicx, we’re here to help you stay compliant so your ads run seamlessly with no interruptions 🤩

Meta has a new policy update for all ads that target the EU. From the 10th of July 2023, a new requirement must be met for you to be able to run ads targeting the EU and its territories, as well as the worldwide targeting option. 

According to Meta, “You’ll need to enter the person or organization who is benefiting from the ad (‘beneficiary’). You’ll also have the option to enter the person or organization paying for the ad (‘payer’) if that person or organization is different from the ‘beneficiary’.”

You can read the full article here 📖

⚠️ Be warned! If you don’t enter the information, you won’t be able to publish your ads. This applies to all new, duplicated, or edited ads and all the places where you can create ads. 

Who must I put as the beneficiary and payer for my ad?

According to their support article, “The EU Digital Services Act (DSA) requires Meta to provide information on ‘the natural or legal person on whose behalf the advertisement is presented’ (the beneficiary of the ad) and, where different, ‘the natural or legal person who paid for the ad’ (the payer of the ad).”

This could look like any of the following options:

1. For a small business that is running ads on its own, the business is both the ‘beneficiary’ and the ‘payer.’ This means they only need to set the ‘beneficiary’ and leave the ‘payer’ toggle off (see screenshot below).
2. A subsidiary of a parent company could enter the subsidiary name as the ‘beneficiary’ and the parent company as the ‘payer’.
3. An individual advertising a product or business can enter the product name, service name, or business name as the ‘beneficiary’ and put their own name as the ‘payer’. For example, if you run ads on your personal ad account for a business, you’d enter the business as the ‘beneficiary’ and yourself as the ‘payer.’

How to enter the ‘beneficiary’ and ‘payer’ details

If your ads are targeting the EU and its areas, you’ll be prompted to set this information when you log into Meta Ads Manager.

Advertisers could see different options when choosing a ‘beneficiary’:

1. If applicable, you can choose the ‘beneficiary’ from a list of the 10 most recently used ad account users that have created ads in the account. 
2. If applicable, you can choose from a list of options that were previously verified by Meta for that ad account.
3. Advertisers can also manually enter a business entity name.

After entering a beneficiary, you’ll have the option to slide a toggle that reads, ‘A different person or organization is paying.’ If the ‘beneficiary’ and ‘payer’ are the same, you can leave the toggle as is. 

If you slide this toggle, you’ll have similar options appear where you can choose the most appropriate one or manually type it in.

And that’s it! You’re compliant again 🦾

List of EU territories affected

Here is the full list of European Union countries and territories affected by the regulation. Remember, you’ll also need to enter these details if you are running a worldwide campaign. 

• Åland Islands
• Austria
• Azores
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Büsingen am Hochrhein
• Campione d'Italia and Italian waters of Lake Lugano
• Canary Islands
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• French Guiana
• Germany
• Greece
• Guadeloupe
• Heligoland
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Livigno
• Luxembourg
• Madeira
• Malta
• Martinique
• Mayotte
• Melilla and Ceuta
• Mount Athos
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Réunion
• Romania
• Saint Martin (France)
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden