On Meta Ads placements, advertisers are gradually losing the ability to manually exclude where their ads run (Facebook search results, ads between Reels and so on). According to Social Media Today, the control is already gone for the Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales objectives, and remains, for now, for Awareness and Traffic. To stay in control, you still have four levers: tailor your creatives to each placement, adjust bids by placement, use account-level exclusions and set limits on partnership ads.
Meta Ads placements: what is actually changing
Until now, when setting up a campaign, you could untick placements you considered unprofitable or wrong for your brand: Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories, Reels, search, in-stream video ads… Meta is now pushing its automatic placements (Advantage+), where its AI system decides where your ads run, based on where it expects the best results.
According to the Social Media Today article published on 12 October 2026, which reports Meta’s guidance:
- manual placement exclusions are no longer available for the Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales objectives;
- the Awareness and Traffic objectives keep this setting for now;
- nothing suggests this exception will last: the direction is clearly full automation.
The rollout is gradual and the interface may differ from one account to another, so check what your own Ads Manager shows before changing your campaigns.
Why it matters for small businesses
For a small business, every euro counts. Letting the algorithm decide on its own can work well, but it raises two fair questions:
- budget: part of your impressions may go to placements that bring low-quality clicks;
- brand image: an ad shown in the wrong context can hurt your reputation.
4 ways to stay in control
1. Tailor your creatives to each placement
In Ads Manager’s new creative workflow, you can upload several images and videos into a single ad, then customise the aspect ratio, text and link for each placement. A vertical video for Reels and Stories, a square visual for the Feed: this is often the single biggest performance factor.
2. Adjust bids by placement
Placement value rules let you raise or lower your bid for a given placement, depending on how valuable it is to your business. You can no longer exclude a placement, but you can make it a lower priority.
3. Use account-level exclusions
According to Social Media Today, placement exclusions by objective are still available in your ad account settings. That is the first place to check if certain placements are a real problem for your brand.
4. Set limits on partnership ads
With partnership ads (with a creator or another brand) and Advantage+ placements, you keep control over which creatives are used and can limit where the partner content appears.
Our advice: steer by results
Rather than fighting automation, feed it and keep an eye on it:
- track results by placement in your reports (placement breakdown);
- judge your campaigns on what matters to you, such as quote requests, sales and cost per customer, rather than click volume alone;
- test several versions of your creatives and keep the ones that convert.
This results-first approach is how FMRS runs its clients’ campaigns: for an NGO, FMRS managed €2M of Facebook Ads budget, growing the page from 180,000 to 500,000 followers (see our work). Paid social is one of FMRS’s core skills, and you can see how we can work together.
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Frequently asked questions
Can you still exclude a placement in Meta Ads?
According to Social Media Today, yes for the Awareness and Traffic objectives, for now. For other objectives, you still have placement value rules and account-level exclusions.
Are Advantage+ automatic placements less profitable?
Not necessarily: it depends on your creatives and your goals. The right move is to compare results by placement in your reports and adapt your visuals to each format.
Should I review my current Facebook and Instagram campaigns?
At the very least, check the settings of your Engagement, Leads and Sales campaigns, and prepare creatives suited to each placement, especially vertical videos.