Advantage+ Placements: When to Override Meta's Automation

You launched a campaign with Advantage+ Placements enabled, trusting Meta to optimize delivery across Feed, Stories, Reels, and Audience Network. A week later, you check the breakdown: 40% of your budget went to Audience Network, converting at half the rate of Feed. The algorithm found cheap impressions—but not valuable ones.

Advantage+ Placements promises to find the best places to show your ads automatically. Sometimes it delivers. Other times, it chases low CPMs at the expense of conversion quality. This guide explains when to trust Meta's placement automation and when to override it.

What Is Advantage+ Placements?

Advantage+ Placements (formerly Automatic Placements) distributes your ad budget across all available placement options automatically. Instead of manually selecting where your ads appear, Meta's algorithm decides based on predicted performance.

Available Placements

Meta offers placements across its family of apps:

Facebook

• Feed: The main Facebook timeline—high visibility, engaged users
• Stories: Full-screen vertical format between user stories
• Reels: Short-form video placement within Facebook Reels
• In-stream video: Ads within video content
• Search results: Ads in Facebook search
• Marketplace: Ads within Facebook Marketplace
• Right column: Desktop-only sidebar placement

Instagram

• Feed: Instagram's main photo/video timeline
• Stories: Full-screen vertical between user stories
• Reels: Short-form video within Instagram Reels
• Explore: Ads in the Explore discovery tab
• Profile feed: Ads when viewing profiles

Audience Network

• Native, banner, and interstitial: Ads within third-party apps
• Rewarded video: Video ads users watch for in-app rewards

Messenger

• Inbox: Ads in the Messenger home screen
• Stories: Full-screen ads between Messenger stories

How Advantage+ Placements Works

When enabled, Advantage+ Placements:

1. Bids for impressions across all available placements
2. Allocates budget based on predicted cost-per-result
3. Shifts spend toward placements achieving better results
4. Continuously optimizes as data accumulates

The algorithm optimizes for the lowest cost per your selected conversion event. This sounds ideal, but it creates a specific problem: the algorithm may favor cheap placements that generate low-quality conversions.

The Placement Quality Problem

Not all placements are equal. Here's what we typically see in performance data:

Typical Placement Performance Hierarchy

The Algorithm's Blind Spot

Advantage+ Placements optimizes for cost-per-conversion, not conversion quality. If Audience Network delivers conversions at $20 CPA while Feed delivers at $25 CPA, the algorithm shifts budget to Audience Network.

But those Audience Network conversions might be:

• Lower intent users who return products more often
• Accidental clicks from cluttered app environments
• Users who never engage with your brand again

The $5 CPA savings evaporates when you factor in returns, refunds, and lower lifetime value.

When to Use Advantage+ Placements

Use Case 1: New Campaigns Without Placement Data

When launching a new campaign, you don't know which placements will work best for your specific creative and audience. Advantage+ Placements can explore efficiently, gathering data faster than manual testing.

Recommendation: Use Advantage+ for the first 2-4 weeks, then analyze placement breakdown and switch to manual if patterns emerge.

Use Case 2: Broad Awareness Objectives

For reach or brand awareness campaigns where conversion quality matters less, Advantage+ Placements can maximize impressions efficiently. When the goal is eyeballs rather than purchases, cheap placements deliver value.

Use Case 3: Limited Creative Resources

If you don't have assets optimized for each placement (different aspect ratios, lengths), Advantage+ Placements at least ensures your ads run somewhere. Manual placement requires manual creative optimization.

Use Case 4: Very High Volume Campaigns

If you're spending $50k+ daily and need maximum reach, restricting placements limits scale. Advantage+ can find incremental conversions across the full network that manual placement might miss.

When to Override Advantage+ Placements

Override Case 1: Audience Network Draining Budget

If your placement breakdown shows 30%+ budget going to Audience Network with conversion rates below Feed, exclude it. Audience Network works for some advertisers (particularly mobile apps and gaming), but for most e-commerce and lead gen, it's a budget drain.

Override Case 2: Right Column Consuming Desktop Spend

Right column placements have tiny creative space and poor engagement. If you see meaningful spend there with low conversion rates, exclude it. Feed and Stories deserve that budget.

Override Case 3: Stories Outperforming Feed (Rare)

If your creative is specifically optimized for vertical format and Stories consistently outperforms Feed, consider a Stories-only campaign. This is unusual but happens with certain creative styles.

Override Case 4: Brand Safety Concerns

Audience Network shows your ads in third-party apps where you can't control adjacency. If brand safety matters, exclude it regardless of performance.

Override Case 5: Messenger Placements Underperforming

Messenger placements often have low engagement and feel intrusive to users. Unless your product specifically targets Messenger communication, exclude these placements.

How to Analyze Placement Performance

Step 1: Access Placement Breakdown

In Ads Manager, select your ad set and click "Breakdown" then "By Delivery" then "Placement." This shows performance by individual placement.

Step 2: Compare Key Metrics

For each placement, compare:

• CPA: Cost per acquisition/conversion
• Conversion rate: Percentage of clicks that convert
• Spend share: What percentage of budget went here
• CPM: Cost per thousand impressions

Step 3: Calculate Efficiency Index

Create an efficiency score for each placement:

Efficiency = (Conversions / Spend) x 1000

Higher scores indicate better efficiency. Compare each placement's efficiency to your average. Exclude placements performing 50%+ below average.

Step 4: Consider Volume

Low-volume placements may show distorted metrics. Only make exclusion decisions based on placements with significant spend (at least 5-10% of total budget) and 20+ conversions.

Manual Placement Strategy

If you decide to switch from Advantage+ to manual placements, here's a recommended approach:

Tier 1: Core Placements (Include First)

• Facebook Feed
• Instagram Feed
• Facebook Stories
• Instagram Stories

These placements consistently deliver quality traffic and conversions. Start here.

Tier 2: Test Placements (Include If Relevant)

• Instagram Reels (if you have vertical video)
• Facebook Reels (if you have vertical video)
• Instagram Explore (for discovery-oriented campaigns)
• Facebook Marketplace (for e-commerce products)

Include if you have appropriate creative and your audience uses these surfaces.

Tier 3: Avoid Unless Proven (Exclude Initially)

• Audience Network (exclude unless mobile app advertiser)
• Facebook Right Column (exclude—poor performance)
• Messenger (exclude unless communication-focused product)
• In-stream video (exclude unless video views objective)

Only include these if you have specific data showing they work for your account.

Creative Requirements by Placement

If you're running manual placements, ensure your creative fits each surface:

Feed Placements

• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 4:5 (portrait) recommended
• Video length: Up to 240 minutes (but shorter is better)
• Image resolution: 1080x1080 minimum

Stories and Reels

• Aspect ratio: 9:16 (vertical) required for best display
• Video length: 15 seconds ideal for Stories, up to 90 seconds for Reels
• Full-screen consideration: Text safe zones matter

Right Column (If Used)

• Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 (landscape)
• Desktop only
• Very small display area—simple creative works best

The Hybrid Approach

You don't have to choose all-or-nothing. A hybrid approach uses Advantage+ Placements with exclusions:

How to Configure

1. Enable Advantage+ Placements
2. Click "Edit placements"
3. Manually exclude underperforming placements (e.g., Audience Network, Right Column)
4. Leave remaining placements to the algorithm

This gives you algorithmic optimization across quality placements while preventing budget waste on proven underperformers.

Key Takeaways

• Advantage+ Placements optimizes for cost-per-conversion, not conversion quality
• Audience Network and Right Column often drain budget with poor results
• Feed and Stories placements typically deliver best conversion quality
• Use Advantage+ for new campaigns, then analyze and exclude underperformers
• The hybrid approach—Advantage+ with exclusions—often works best
• Ensure your creative fits each placement's format requirements

FAQ

Should I always exclude Audience Network?

Not always. Mobile app advertisers—especially games—often see good Audience Network performance. For e-commerce and lead gen, exclusion is usually right. Test it for your account, but start excluded and add back only if data supports it.

Does excluding placements hurt delivery?

It can reduce reach and may increase CPM as you compete for fewer impressions. But if excluded placements weren't converting well, your overall CPA should improve. Trade reach for efficiency.

How often should I review placement performance?

Monthly for most accounts. Weekly if you're spending $10k+ daily. Don't over-optimize based on small sample sizes—wait for statistical significance before making exclusion decisions.

Can I use different creative for different placements?

Yes. In ad creation, you can customize creative by placement—uploading a square image for Feed and vertical video for Stories. This typically improves performance but requires more creative resources.

Why do my Reels perform inconsistently?

Reels performance varies wildly based on creative style. Native-looking content (resembling organic Reels) outperforms obviously promotional creative. If your Reels creative doesn't fit the format's aesthetic, consider excluding until you have appropriate assets.