Should you use Advantage+ PlacementsFormerly known as Automatic Placements. When you utilize Advantage+ Placements, Meta will automatically optimize which placements are used and when to get you the most results for your budget. More or should you manually select the placements that work best?
When you create your ad setAn ad set is a Facebook ads grouping where settings like targeting, scheduling, optimization, and placement are determined. More, Advantage+ Placements is on by default. This makes all placements available for your ads.
I know some advertisers will manually turn off placements to focus on those that perform the best. For example, they’ll use only Feed placements. This makes sense, in theory.
Here’s what I recommend…
If you’re optimizing for any type of conversion, leave Advantage+ Placements on. Meta’s only goal is to get you the most conversionsA conversion is counted whenever a website visitor performs an action that fires a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion. Examples of conversions include purchases, leads, content views, add to cart, and registrations. More as efficiently as possible in that case. Turning off placements may make that more difficult — or more expensive.
The primary reason to turn off placements is low-quality actions. The algorithm doesn’t know what a low-quality click is, for example. If you optimize for link clicksThe link click metric measures all clicks on links that drive users to properties on and off of Facebook. More, the algorithm will find lots of link clicks. One way it’ll do this is with 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, which will give you accidental clicks and other garbage.
Why not turn off AudienceThis is the group of people who can potentially see your ads. You help influence this by adjusting age, gender, location, detailed targeting (interests and behaviors), custom audiences, and more. More Network when optimizing for conversions? Because if conversions don’t come from Audience Network, the algorithm will adjust.
I’ve found that almost none of my budgetA budget is an amount you're willing to spend on your Facebook campaigns or ad sets on a daily or lifetime basis. More is spent within Audience Network when optimizing for conversions. But the majority of it may be spent there if optimizing for link clicks 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. And that won’t be a good thing.
Overall, don’t overthink it, especially when optimizing for conversions. Leave Advantage+ Placements on. But watch out for weaknesses in the algorithm if you use any other type of optimizationThe Performance Goal is chosen within the ad set and determines optimization and delivery. How you optimize impacts who sees your ad. Meta will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More.
What do you do?