About Advantage+ placements on Meta, explained
Meta’s help article “About Advantage+ placements” only loads with JavaScript. Here it is in plain words, with Meta’s own worked example, from Meta’s help center as read on October 9, 2026.
On this page · 8 sections
- What are Advantage+ placements?
- Where can Advantage+ placements show your ads?
- How does Meta choose placements with Advantage+ on?
- Why can a pricier placement still be worth keeping?
- How do you exclude placements in Meta Ads Manager?
- What does Allow limited spend to excluded placements do?
- When should you use account-level placement controls instead?
- How does Adwize handle your placements?
Advantage+ placements, also shown as Placements with Advantage+ on, lets Meta choose where your ads appear across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Audience Network and Threads. Meta’s delivery system looks at every available placement and buys the cheapest opportunities to get you the most results at the lowest average cost overall, not the lowest cost in each placement. Meta reports that, in one experiment, ad sets using Advantage+ placements had an 11.7% lower cost per action on average than ad sets with manual placements. You can still pick placements by hand: in the ad set, switch to Manual placements or edit Placement controls and untick what you want to exclude. For sales, leads and app promotion campaigns, excluding a placement in any ad set turns Advantage+ off. If your business has a hard constraint, Meta suggests account-level placement controls instead, which apply even when Advantage+ placements is on.
TL;DR
- Advantage+ placements lets Meta spread your ads across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Audience Network and Threads.
- Meta aims for the lowest average cost overall, not the lowest cost in each placement.
- Meta reports an 11.7% lower cost per action on average in one experiment against manual placements.
- Excluding a placement in any ad set turns Advantage+ off for sales, leads and app campaigns.
- Adwize shows your placement setting in plain words before launch and waits for your approval.
What are Advantage+ placements?
Advantage+ placements is the setting that lets Meta decide where each of your ads appears. In Ads Manager it can also show as Placements with Advantage+ on. Instead of picking feeds, Stories or Reels yourself, you hand the choice to Meta’s delivery system, which looks for the most cost-effective opportunities across all its apps.
Meta lists three benefits on its help page: a lower cost per result, more people reached, and less time spent managing campaigns, because the system selects placements for you.
It is also Meta’s recommended default. When you create an ad set, the Placements section starts with Advantage+ placements selected, and you have to edit it on purpose to choose placements manually.
Where can Advantage+ placements show your ads?
Across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Meta Audience Network and Threads. The exact list depends on your campaign objective, your ad type and your settings, so not every placement is open to every ad. Meta has a separate page listing available placements and formats by objective.
Two practical points from Meta’s placement page. You do not need an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram: your Facebook Page can be the voice of the ad there. And for Facebook in-stream video, your ads can appear in partner live streams, which you can exclude per campaign or for the whole account in brand safety controls.
Because the same ad can land in a square feed slot or a tall Story, check that your images and videos fit each format. Our Meta ads specs page lists the sizes by placement.
How does Meta choose placements with Advantage+ on?
Meta’s delivery system tries to get you the most optimization events, meaning the results your ad set is optimized for, at the lowest average cost overall. It does not try to get the lowest cost inside each placement. It scans every available opportunity and picks the least expensive ones, whatever that does to each placement’s own average.
Meta recommends Advantage+ placements in particular if you use the highest volume bid strategy, because that strategy has the same goal: as many results as possible for the budget.
Meta’s best practices add one more idea. Pair Advantage+ placements with Advantage+ creative, so the right version of your creative reaches each placement, and use placement asset customization when one format needs its own image or video.
Why can a pricier placement still be worth keeping?
Because a placement’s average cost does not tell you what happens when you remove it. Meta’s help center uses a worked example with 11 opportunities and a 27 dollar budget: 3 on Facebook at 3 dollars per result, 3 on Instagram at 5 dollars, and 5 on Audience Network, three at 1 dollar and two at 7.
With all three placements on, the report shows Facebook at 3 dollars, Instagram at 5 and Audience Network at 1. You get 9 results for 27 dollars, or 3 dollars each. Instagram looks like the one to cut.
Turn Instagram off and the system has to buy the expensive Audience Network slots instead. You get 8 results for 26 dollars, or 3.25 dollars each. The cheaper-looking setup costs more per result. Meta’s lesson: a placement with a higher average cost is not necessarily inefficient.
| Line | All placements on | Instagram turned off |
|---|---|---|
| Facebook, average cost per result | $3 | $3 |
| Instagram, average cost per result | $5 | Not used |
| Audience Network, average cost per result | $1 | $3.40 |
| Results (optimization events) | 9 | 8 |
| Total spend | $27 | $26 |
| Average cost overall | $3 | $3.25 |
- All placements on
- = 9 results for $27, $3 each
- Instagram turned off
- = 8 results for $26, $3.25 each
- Meta’s lesson
- = judge the total, not each placement
How do you exclude placements in Meta Ads Manager?
Create a campaign and go to the Placements section of the ad set. For awareness, traffic or engagement, hover over Advantage+ placements, click Edit and select Manual placements. For leads, app promotion or sales, click Show more settings. Then untick the devices, platforms or placements you want to leave out, and publish.
For leads, app promotion and sales, Meta is explicit: excluding a placement in any ad set, or opting out of mobile or desktop devices, triggers Advantage+ off. Your campaign then loses part of the automatic optimization.
If you chose Sales and selected specific mobile devices, your ads may still reach other devices when that is likely to help. Deselect Reach more people across other mobile devices if you need to turn that off.
- Create a campaign in Ads Manager
- Go to the Placements section of the ad set
- Edit Advantage+ placements or Show more settings
- Untick devices, platforms or placements
- Check limited spend, then publish
What does Allow limited spend to excluded placements do?
It is a middle ground between all placements and hard exclusions. When the option is on, Meta may spend up to 5% of your budget on each placement you excluded, but only when it is likely to improve performance. You can then click Manage excluded placements to allow it placement by placement.
Meta offers it in the placement steps for every objective it describes, from traffic and engagement to sales. You can leave it on, or untick it if an excluded placement must stay at zero.
Example. A furniture brand excludes Audience Network out of habit. With limited spend on, Meta can still test a small share there when it looks worthwhile, without reopening the whole budget to it.
When should you use account-level placement controls instead?
When your business has a hard constraint, for example a placement where you are not allowed to advertise. Meta’s best practices say to use account-level placement controls to exclude specific placements or platforms in that case, while warning that it may limit how well Advantage+ placements works.
Account controls have one advantage: Meta applies them even when Advantage+ placements is on, so every new campaign respects them without manual edits in each ad set.
For everything else, Meta’s advice is to stay opted into all placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads and Audience Network, so the system can move budget to wherever results are likely to be best.
How does Adwize handle your placements?
Adwize prepares your Meta campaign from one sentence and shows you its settings in plain words before anything goes live, including whether Advantage+ placements is on or which placements are excluded. You approve, edit or refuse. Nothing launches without your yes. See the Launch page.
Once the campaign runs, Adwize reads the results each day. When something drifts, such as a cost per result climbing, it tells you in one sentence and proposes a change for your approval. See the Optimize page.
Adwize works with Meta ads only, on Facebook and Instagram, inside your own ad account. It uses the same placement settings as Ads Manager. For budgets across ad sets, read our guide to Advantage+ campaign budget.
Frequently asked questions
Do Advantage+ placements lower my costs?
Meta reports that, in one experiment, ad sets using Advantage+ placements had an 11.7% lower cost per action on average than ad sets with manual placements. Your own results depend on your ads, audience and budget.
Does excluding one placement turn Advantage+ off?
For leads, app promotion and sales campaigns, yes. Meta says excluding a placement in any ad set, or opting out of mobile or desktop devices, triggers Advantage+ off. Account-level placement controls do not.
Do I need an Instagram account to run ads on Instagram?
No. Meta says your Facebook Page can serve as the voice of your ad on Instagram, so you can select the Instagram placement without a business Instagram account.
Should I turn off the placement with the highest cost per result?
Not on that number alone. In Meta’s own example, turning off the priciest placement cut results from 9 to 8 and raised the average cost from 3 to 3.25 dollars, because the system had to buy dearer slots elsewhere.
Does Adwize change my placements without asking?
No. Adwize shows your placement setting before launch and proposes any change with the reason in one sentence. It does not launch, change or spend anything until you approve.
Sources
- Meta Business Help Center, About Advantage+ placementsAccessed 10/09/2026
- Meta Business Help Center, How the Meta delivery system works using Advantage+ placementsAccessed 10/09/2026
- Meta Business Help Center, Choose ad placements in Meta Ads ManagerAccessed 10/09/2026
- Meta Business Help Center, Best practices for placementsAccessed 10/09/2026
