How Meta’s New UK Subscription Policy Will Impact Advertisers in 2025
In late 2025, Meta rolled out a “Subscription for No Ads” option for users in the United Kingdom. Under this model, UK Facebook and Instagram users over 18 can choose to pay a monthly fee — around £2.99 on the web or £3.99 on iOS/Android — in exchange for an ad-free experience, and Meta will stop using their personal data for personalised advertising.
This change stems from regulatory guidance from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which pushed Meta to give users meaningful choice about how their data is used for ads. Meta responded with a “consent or pay” model, giving users the option to keep personalised ads for free or pay to opt out.
What This Means for Advertisers
Potential Shrink in Targetable Audience
If users decide to subscribe and remove ads entirely, they will no longer be reachable through Meta’s advertising systems — including targeted campaigns, custom audiences, and retargeting. As a result, the total addressable audience for advertisers could decrease.
However, early adoption trends from similar subscription rollouts in the EU suggest uptake tends to remain relatively low (estimated 2–6%). This means the majority of users will still see personalised ads and remain targetable.
Audience Fragmentation and Competition
With a subset of users opting out of ads, advertisers may find that
Reach becomes slightly more competitive as fewer users are available in the ad-supported pool.
CPMs and CPAs could increase modestly due to tighter competition for impressions.
High-value users (e.g., affluent subscribers) may become harder to reach through paid channels.
Advertisers will need to monitor how quickly UK users adopt the ad-free tier and adjust budget, bidding strategy, and audience prioritisation accordingly.
Impacts on Measurement and Targeting Precision
For users who subscribe, Meta will no longer use their personal data for ad targeting, which means:
Retargeting baskets, website visitors, and lookalike audience signals could lose data points.
Attribution models may see slight gaps as a growing pool of users becomes invisible to personalised tracking.
Advertisers may need to invest more in first-party data capture (email lists, DTC tracking), server-side conversions (CAPI), and broader segmentation strategies to compensate.
Emphasis on Creative and Broad Targeting
As targeting precision becomes marginally less reliable with some users opting out of personalised ads, advertisers will benefit from:
Sharper creative messaging that resonates broadly.
Stronger top-funnel content to attract and retain engagement.
Testing of contextual targeting and placement-based strategies versus purely behavioural segments.