Is manually adjusting ads outdated in 2025? Is Meta Advantage+ really that good?

 When it comes to Facebook ads, the use of artificial intelligence is no longer a new topic. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has put in a lot of effort in this area. The launch of Meta Advantage+ reflects Meta's emphasis on AI-driven ad campaigns.

So here comes the question: Compared with ad campaigns carefully created by ad experts (manual placement), is Advantage+ (automatic placement) a better option with its smart settings? Let's take a look at these two methods today.

Key points of this article

1. Two types of Facebook ad placements

2. Advantage+ placement selection and costs

3. A/B testing between Advantage+ and manual placement

4. Case study analysis of Meta Advantage+ application

5. Which is better: Advantage+ or manual settings?

01

Two types of Facebook ad placements?

The Facebook Ads platform offers users two options for ad placements: one is the automatic option (now named Advantage+ Placements), and the other is manual placements. These two choices define the various surfaces where ads may be displayed for advertisers.

When you start creating a new ad campaign in the Ads Manager, a key step is to configure the placement settings at the ad set level. At this point, the system will by default recommend that you use Facebook's Advantage+ Placements, which is a suggestion based on algorithmic optimization.

However, if you prefer to set it manually, the first thing you need to decide is the device type selection—whether to choose mobile devices, desktop devices, or both. But note that once you make a choice, many surfaces that were originally available will be automatically excluded.

For example, if you choose desktop settings, then Audience Network, Messenger, and Instagram will no longer be suitable channels for your ad placements. So, to ensure the exposure of your ads, I generally choose the platform's recommended option—all devices.

1. When using manual placements

advertisers can choose where their ads will be displayed. However, I often see advertisers fall into a common pitfall: they tend to select only a few places to run their ads. This can significantly limit the opportunities for the ad algorithm to perform effectively and make efficient use of the budget.

Additionally, when asked why not use manual placement, I think many advertisers may not be clear about where their target audience is more active. If your potential customers are mainly on Instagram rather than Facebook, then running ads only on Facebook might not be cost-effective.

Moreover, if you accidentally select some particularly expensive ad placements during manual targeting, the budget may be quickly exhausted.

2. Automatic Placements - Advantage+ Placements

Advantage+ placements can automatically select the best-performing placements from a range of default surfaces to display ads. This is primarily due to the intelligent algorithms of Facebook's delivery system. These algorithms adjust the budget allocation flexibly based on the estimated performance of the ad set across various placements, ensuring that resources are concentrated on the most effective ones.

If a particular placement is found to be underperforming, the system will quickly adjust its strategy and shift more focus to other high-performing placements. This ensures that ads can continue to reach the target audience in a sustained and effective manner. If you have any questions about this, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section.

02

Advantage+ Placement Selection and Costs

After you select Advantage+ placements, you can see in the Ads Manager that the average customer acquisition cost (CAC) for Facebook placements is $4, for Instagram placements it's $6, and for Audience Network it's $2. Overall, with a total investment of $36, you can get 9 conversions, with an average CAC of $4 per conversion.

I've seen some novice advertisers consider excluding the highest-cost Instagram placements ($6). But once Instagram placements are turned off, the average CAC for Facebook remains the same, while the CAC for Audience Network rises to $4.40.

That is to say, you would only end up with 8 conversions, with a total spend of $34, resulting in a decrease in overall budget efficiency.

03

A/B Testing Between Advantage+ and Manual Placements

When conducting A/B testing between Advantage+ and manual placements, even though we have a lot of information about Advantage+ placements and believe they can deliver good results, we can still verify this hypothesis through actual testing.

The purpose of this test is to explore whether using automatic placements can reduce the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and cost per click (CPC).

After the test was completed, the results clearly showed that Advantage+ placements performed significantly better. The customer acquisition cost (CAC) was reduced by 50%, and the cost per click (CPC) saw a substantial decrease of 150%.

In another similar test, we also found that Instagram performed even better than Facebook when combined with automatic placements. This finding further confirmed our hypothesis that the diversity of placements allows the algorithm to more accurately target ads to the locations with the highest expected conversion rates and the lowest CAC.

Therefore, when choosing between Advantage+ and manual ad placements, considering the high efficiency demonstrated by Meta's algorithm in optimizing ad delivery and identifying the most likely-to-convert audience, I am inclined to recommend Advantage+.

Moreover, compared to manual placements, using Advantage+ placements to run ads can offer you lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and cost per mille (CPM), thereby achieving a higher return on ad spend.

However, this is just one successful case and does not mean that using Advantage+ will definitely lead to significant improvements in all aspects. Next, I will share another case of using Meta Advantage+ with you!

04

Case Study Analysis of Meta Advantage+ Application

Last year, a client I worked with was conducting a significant amount of business on the Meta platform and was constantly seeking ways to scale up their business. As Meta actively promoted its Advantage+ feature in 2024, this client decided to give it a try in the hope of enhancing ad performance and business growth.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Meta Advantage+ ad campaign setting in accurately targeting potential customers, improving ad conversion rates, and reducing the proportion of unqualified leads by testing the Meta Advantage+ ad campaign setting.

Testing Process: 

Initial Setup: We created a new ad campaign in Meta Ads and selected Advantage+ as the campaign setting option. Since this option was chosen, specific placements could not be edited.

Audience Targeting:This time, instead of using the typical Facebook ad targeting options, we leveraged the Advantage+ feature to guide the AI for audience targeting by providing inputs. These inputs included interests, behaviors, and custom audience inputs from customer lists. 

Test Audience: Initially, the client tested an audience group with interests and behaviors as inputs, which resulted in 130 unqualified leads. Subsequently, the client tried using custom audience inputs from a customer list, but two additional potential customers were also deemed unqualified and filtered out. Both Advantage+ audiences were set with numerous exclusions to assist machine learning in identifying the target customers.

Adjusting Settings: After the initial test results were unsatisfactory, we assisted the client in recreating the ad campaign and changed the settings to "manual" to remove Audience Network placements. Then, the client attempted to build Advantage+ audiences again and ran the campaign for the remainder of the month.

Results: The client was not satisfied with the test results of the Advantage+ feature. In the initial test, there were many unqualified leads. After adjusting the settings, the number of leads decreased, but two promising potential customers did not enter the demo, and another customer said he only saw the ad but was not the target customer.

Analysis:The client provided multiple parameters to Meta's AI to achieve precise targeting, hoping that the AI could accurately identify the target audience for their products and services. However, the audience built by the AI was significantly different from expectations. When using Advantage+, the system was often overwhelmed with false and junk leads. This could be due to the Audience Network introducing unqualified customers or insufficient identification by the AI algorithm.

Although Meta Advantage+ has potential, this test did not meet the client's expectations, resulting in a large number of unqualified leads and misidentifications. Therefore, the client may need to consider an alternative approach or optimize its usage. Of course, it should be noted that Meta is continuously improving its AI algorithm to enhance targeting accuracy, so there is still great potential.

05

Which is Better: Advantage+ or Manual Settings?

The choice of ad placement strategy often determines the effectiveness of the ad. When faced with the two placement options on the Meta Ads platform—Advantage+ and manual settings—which one can achieve the best return on investment?

1. Scenarios for Manual Settings: Although Advantage+ employs machine learning technology to accurately screen and target users within Meta's vast user base, and it also optimizes based on the guidance we provide, it has not yet reached the level of human expertise in understanding and grasping the nuanced characteristics of the audience and converting these characteristics into actionable potential customer or customer development strategies.

Therefore, for companies with complex marketing structures and diverse sales channels, especially those with highly specialized products or services and intricate marketing channels, Meta Advantage+ may not meet their needs.

Unless we can interact with it more deeply and provide specific feedback, such as "These potential customers aren't quite right; how should we adjust to improve," its complexity might become a hindrance, making it less effective than more direct and customized approaches.

2. Scenarios for Meta Advantage+ in Cross-border E-commerce: In the cross-border e-commerce space, Meta's Advantage+ can accurately identify groups with clear purchase intentions for businesses focused on sales. Compared to the cumbersome process of customers filling out forms and then negotiating with sales personnel, Advantage+ leverages its powerful AI forecasting technology to simplify and streamline the purchasing process.

Moreover, Advantage+ not only precisely targets potential customers but also ensures a smooth and convenient shopping experience, giving it a significant edge in reducing customer acquisition costs and improving ad conversion rates.