This is intentionally bad design…
Meta is burying manual placements, and it’s not clear if this is a test or the rollout of an official change.
In this version, the Placements section of your ad setAn ad set is a Facebook ads grouping where settings like targeting, scheduling, optimization, and placement are determined. More appears to be locked in. If you click “Show more options,” you can click to edit PlacementA placement is a location where your ad is shown. Examples include Facebook's mobile Feed, Messenger, Instagram feed, Audience Network, right-hand column, and more. More Controls and then be able to remove Audience NetworkAudience Network is a network of mobile apps that have been approved to monetize their apps with ads. This is how you can show your Meta ads to people while they are away from the Meta family of apps. Audience Network and associated groups are among your placement selection options in the ad set. More and Messenger Stories placements (but no other placements).
One more click on “Switch to manual placements” (which is labeled “not recommended”), and it’s STILL more clicks away.
You need to click to edit each individual platform and then open a dropdown menu before you can finally remove other placements.
Meta is going way out of their way to prevent you from removing placements. It’s quite clear this is intentionally bad design to make it more difficult.
I’d be fine if Meta locked in Advantage+ Placements when optimizing for a conversion. The problem is for any type of top-of-funnel action. Meta will take advantage of weaknesses in placements to pad your numbers with low-quality actions.
An example of this is Audience Network when optimizing for link clicksThe link click metric measures all clicks on links that drive users to properties on and off of Facebook. More or landing page viewsLanding Page View is a Facebook ads metric that represents when people land on your destination URL after clicking a link in your ad. More, so it’s good those placements are somewhat easy to remove.
There is NO REASON it should require five clicks (SERIOUSLY) to remove a placement.
What do you think?