Meta Ads placements: no manual choice for Sales, Leads, Apps
Meta is removing manual placement selection at the ad set level for campaigns using the Sales, Leads and App promotion objectives. Campaigns using Awareness, Traffic and Engagement are not affected and keep manual placements. The change is rolling out gradually, and Meta points advertisers to three replacements: per-placement creative, placement value rules and account-level placement exclusions by objective.
| Platform | Meta Ads |
|---|---|
| Feature | Meta Ads placement settings |
| Announced | Not confirmed |
| Status | Rolling out |
| Where available | Rolling out gradually; Meta says it may not be available to every account yet. Applies to the Sales, Leads and App promotion objectives. Awareness, Traffic and Engagement are not affected. Meta gives no announcement date or completion date. |
| Who is affected | Advertisers running Sales, Leads or App promotion campaigns with manual placements, including Facebook-only or Instagram-only ad sets and ad sets that exclude Audience Network, Marketplace or the right column. |
| Action needed | Recommended. Move placements you never want to account-level controls, use placement value rules for placements you want less of, and make sure every placement has creative that fits it. |
| Sources | Meta Business Help Centre: What's new in placement settings in Meta Ads Manager |
What changed
Placements are where an ad can appear across Meta's apps: Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories, Reels, Marketplace, Audience Network and so on. Until now, any ad set could either use Advantage+ placements, where Meta's delivery system decides, or list its placements by hand. According to Meta's help page, for Sales, Leads and App promotion campaigns "you no longer choose placements manually at the ad set level". The page says the feature is being rolled out gradually and may not be available to every account yet.
Meta's reasoning is that letting its delivery system allocate budget across placements finds the most cost-effective opportunities and "can help" lower cost per result compared with manual placements. Meta gives no figure for that on the page.
Meta lists three ways to manage where ads appear instead:
- Customise media for each placement. An ad can hold up to ten images and videos, a multi-media ad, and asset customisation lets you set a different crop, text or link per placement. At least one media is required for each placement. Ads won't deliver in placements where the media isn't supported, and Ads Manager shows warning indicators when a different image, aspect ratio or video length is needed.
- Placement value rules. You tell Meta how much more or less a conversion from a placement is worth to your business, and Meta adjusts bids up or down for that placement and optimises accordingly.
- Account controls. These apply to every campaign in the ad account and can exclude Audience Network native, banner and interstitial, Audience Network rewarded videos, Facebook Marketplace and the Facebook right column. New: account-level placement exclusions by objective, available for Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales.
For partnership ads with Advantage+ placements, Meta says you still choose the media and text at ad creation and can manage which placements the partnership appears in when it is limited to specific placements.
Why it matters
For most accounts already running Advantage+ placements, nothing changes in practice. The advertisers this hurts are the ones who use the ad set as the unit of control: an Instagram-only sales ad set for a brand whose buyers live there, a Facebook-only lead ad set for an older audience, or a campaign that excludes Audience Network because its cheap clicks pollute the results. Those choices now have to move somewhere else, and the somewhere else is coarser.
Account controls are the honest replacement for brand-safety and quality exclusions like Audience Network, Marketplace and the right column, but they cover every campaign in the account, or every campaign with that objective. You lose the ability to exclude a placement for one campaign and keep it for another. Our view: put the placements you never want at account level now, before the change reaches you, so nothing quietly starts spending there. Use value rules for placements you want less of rather than none of, and fix the creative gap, because an ad set that used to dodge Reels with a manual selection will now either need vertical media or simply not deliver there.
What to do
- In Ads Manager, list the Sales, Leads and App promotion ad sets that use manual placements, and note which placements each one excludes and why.
- For placements you never want, such as Audience Network or the Facebook right column, set them in Account controls, using the new exclusions by objective where you only want them off for Sales or Leads.
- For placements you want less of rather than none of, create a placement value rule that lowers their value instead of excluding them.
- Open each active ad and check the placement warnings; add or customise media so every placement has an asset that fits it, using asset customisation for crops, text and links.
- Keep Awareness, Traffic and Engagement campaigns as they are; manual placements still work there.
Still unknown
Meta's page has no announcement date, no completion date for the rollout and no performance figure for its cost claim. It does not say which placements the new exclusions by objective can cover, so whether a Sales campaign can be limited to only Facebook or only Instagram through account controls is not confirmed. Coverage elsewhere quotes a Meta test with specific numbers; we have not found it on an official Meta page, so it is not included here.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still choose placements manually on Meta?
Only for Awareness, Traffic and Engagement campaigns. For Sales, Leads and App promotion campaigns, Meta says you no longer choose placements manually at the ad set level once the change reaches your account; it is rolling out gradually.
How do I exclude Audience Network from Meta ads now?
Use account controls, which apply to every campaign in the ad account. Meta lists Audience Network native, banner and interstitial, Audience Network rewarded videos, Facebook Marketplace and the Facebook right column, and you can now also set account-level placement exclusions by objective.
What are placement value rules in Meta Ads Manager?
Rules that tell Meta how much more or less a conversion from a given placement is worth to your business. Meta adjusts bids up or down for that placement and optimises for outcomes based on the rule, instead of you switching the placement off.
Official sources
Related coverage
- Meta Pixel: conversions measured on customer devices
- Meta Ads Manager Creative diversity column: how to read it
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Update history
- — First coverage, from Meta's help page on placement settings. Includes Piyush’s take.
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