With rising competition in Meta advertising, advertisers wonder what placement strategy will generate the most clicks and conversions.
Research reveals that ad placement optimization is crucial for ad visibility. This denotes that targeting a place within the Meta ecosystem can boost your chances of landing a good conversion opportunity.
If you do not strategize effectively, your ad spend may dwindle and lead to unprofitable returns.
So, how do we tackle this? Meta offers a placement tool to help you focus on efficient ad placement. This tool comprises two methods: using AI automation called Advantage+ placements and manual placement.
Both methods have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. To formulate a plan to improve ad exposure, we will walk you through the differences between Advantage+ placements vs manual placements.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
What Are Meta Advantage+ Placements and Manual Placements?
Before delving into the differences, let’s briefly brush up on the two concepts, which will help you gain a clearer understanding and navigate the differences better.
Meta Advantage+ Placements: It’s an AI automation tool and a part of the Advantage+ campaign suite, which helps place your ads in more visible locations across the Meta ecosystem.
These spots are displayed to those customers who are most likely to convert.
It uses an ad delivery system to allocate your budget and improve ad exposure.
Manual Placements: This is a user-defined ad placement setup in which you manually choose where to display your ads. This methodology does not use AI automation and relies entirely on advertiser-fed data.
You can use them for all ad objectives–Engagement, Traffic, Awareness, Sales, Leads, and App promotions. This empowers advertisers to make a firm decision about whether to use Advantage+ automation or switch to manual.
You can also use the placement tool for Feeds, Stories, Reels, Threads, the Meta Audience Network, Instagram, etc. Placement tools can be used in both the cases, manual as well as Advantage+ placements.
Both ways have one goal – providing the best ad exposure outcome.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the two, let’s examine their core differences.
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Advantage+ vs Manual Placements: Key Differences
Here’s a quick glance at the differences. Take a look at them:
| Feature | Advantage+ Placements | Manual Placements |
| Function | Uses machine learning algorithms for placement automation | Displaying ads depends on the advertiser’s manual input. |
| Advertiser Control | Less. The algorithm decides optimal placements. | Higher. Advertisers choose specific placements. |
| Ease of Use | It is very easy and requires minimal setup. | Advertisers may require more Meta ads knowledge & its technicalities |
| Optimization | Optimized automatically by allocating the budget. | Advertiser manually optimizes based on your goals & data. |
| Cost Efficiency | AI opts for a cost-efficient way to display ads in recommended placements. | It can be more expensive if placements are not chosen wisely. This will need more understanding and strategy to implement an effective ad placement. |
| Audience Targeting & Relevance | Broader reach. Sometimes it is less relevant to niche audiences. | Specific reach. It is more relevant to specific audiences if set correctly. |
| Testing & Flexibility | Limited flexibility to test specific placements. | Full flexibility to test different placements individually. |
| Best For | Broad campaigns aiming for efficiency & scale. | Targeted campaigns where brand safety or niche audience matters. |
| Learning Curve | Generally low. It is easy to understand and is executable by beginners. | Comparatively higher. It requires an understanding of each placement’s pros/cons. |
With that, let’s analyze the two in depth. We have specified them based on the different needs an advertiser has.
Campaign Goals
The two methods work differently. While one uses automation, the other uses another programming approach. That being said, both approaches offer accurate placements based on performance goals.
Performance goals help advertisers opt for a specific action they want their audience to take. So, if you’re running a leads campaign, your performance goal would be to get “maximum number of conversions” or “maximum return on ad spend (ROAS).”
While choosing between manual placements and Advantage+ placements, you need to understand your ultimate ad goal. This is because your ad goal will define how you should allocate your budget for these placements.
Experts recommend that if you aim for a conversion, such as a purchase event, you must use a tool to reach a broader audience that smartly allocates budget based on where you will get the most conversions (feeds, stories, etc).
This is possible through Advantage+ Placements, since it was designed to provide the best possible outcome through its advanced algorithm that constantly identifies the most suitable ad placements.
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When it comes to targeting impressions, link clicks, or page views, the manual placement approach is more suitable since it is ideal for a more controlled, fixed ad placement where you know you will get the most ad visibility.
So, use Advantage+ for automated, conversion-focused campaigns and manual for controlled, visibility-driven objectives.
This brings us to our next section.
Target Audience
Another critical question is, who is your target audience? You can improve your placement planning when combined with the Audience tool (it could be Advantage+ audience or manual audience).
When using Advantage+ placements, the algorithm displays ads to those who are most likely to engage with them. This is possible by Meta AI’s capability to track and analyze these audiences’ past behaviors and activity across Meta technologies. It will use placements accordingly when it learns where your target audience is mostly active. It is learning and adjusting everything in real-time to reach the right audience.
In the case of manual placements, it all comes down to knowing where your target audience is mostly active. You can find this information in Audience Insights and Ad Performance Data within Meta Ads Manager. You can also check Instagram Insights, or connected analytics tools, such as Google Analytics.
Other factors to consider are age, gender, and demographics. For instance, if your target audience consists of young adults between 18 and 34, then using Instagram stories and reels would be a good option compared to the rest of the placements.
So, when you use the manual method, you have more control over your ad placements compared to Advantage+, where AI makes most of the decisions with your minimal inputs.
| Learn about the differences between auction vs reservation ad types. |
Ad Budget
This is another vital point to navigate. When you have a set ad budget, it is important to analyze how you can allocate it for different placements.
Advantage+ placements uses a delivery system that maximizes your ad budget by selecting the most cost-effective placements without focusing on each placement’s average cost. Based on your ad objective and settings, Meta uses targeting data to place ads where customers are most likely to convert.
On the other hand, manual placements do not use such automatic allocation. Instead, the budget is dynamically adjusted based on the selected placement options. Now, this may require the advertiser’s intervention to analyze how the distribution will allocate the budget.
Let’s explain this better with an example:
Suppose you run an online business selling women’s activewear. The campaign objective is conversions with an ad budget of $1,000.
1. First Case: You opted for manual placements. The placements you have manually picked are Instagram Reels and Story Ads. Here is how it can potentially pan out:
Story Ads spend $600 with 10 purchases (CPA $60) and Reels spend $400 with 5 purchases (CPA $80), totalling 15 purchases at a $66.67 average CPA.
2. Second Case: You shift to Advantage+ placements with the same campaign objective and ad budget. In this scenario, the budget will get automatically distributed across all placements (Feeds, Reels, Messenger, etc) based on the likelihood of a conversion. Here is the potential outcome:
Facebook Feed $300 with 10 purchases (CPA $30), Audience Network $250 with 6 purchases (CPA $41.67), Instagram Stories $200 with 4 purchases (CPA $50), Reels $100 with 2 purchases (CPA $50), and Messenger $150 with 3 purchases (CPA $50). Total 25 purchases at an average CPA of $40.
Final Result: Budget-wise, Advantage+ outperforms manual placements as it automatically allocates the budget to those placements where conversions are slightly cheaper.
So, Advantage+ reduces the hassle of ad budget allocation, while manual placements may need some hands-on intervention.
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Placements Testing & Experimentation
Testing placements can give you a better idea of how your ads reach the right spot.
Choosing Advantage+ placements means your ads are instantly shown across Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Threads), with the system automatically optimizing based on performance data.
While this boosts efficiency, it limits your ability to experiment with different ad creatives or test them in specific placements. If you want more control, consider manually selecting placements. Though it requires more effort, this approach allows deeper testing and can lead to better performance and smarter budget allocation over time.
Pros & Cons of Advantage+ Placements and Manual Placements
Both methodologies come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Knowing how your marketing efforts will be affected is essential when deciding to pick one. Let’s explore them in detail:
Pros & Cons of Advantage+ Placements
We’ll first cover the pros and then the cons:
Pros
- Helps target for enhanced reach
Advantage+ placements go above and beyond by targeting users who are highly likely to convert on your campaigns. Meta AI boosts your ad exposure by analyzing where your target audience is most likely to be active and showing your ads on those Meta platforms.
- Better Engagement
Better engagement means people interact more with your ads. Reaching the right audience gives you a higher return on ad spend (ROAS). Additionally, by providing AI with high-quality data, you help it improve future campaign performance.
- Automated Budget Allocation
You don’t have to worry about allocating budget yourself for profitable placements. Advantage+ does it for you by analysing the most relevant geographical locations that get good conversions.
- Improved Performance
Allowing Meta’s AI to optimize ad delivery may lead to better campaign results, including reduced conversion costs and increased engagement rates.
Cons
Let’s look into the cons:
- Limited control
While automation can improve performance, advertisers may have limited control over how the execution takes place. You can remove a few placements, but you may miss out on profitable placements.
- Accidental click outcomes
There is a chance of an accidental click occurring when you opt for a low-quality placement, such as Audience Network or Messenger. While not always a bad option, opting for a low-quality placement may cause AI to count an accidental link click as a successful event, while it may not be a good CPC (cost-per-click).
- Limited Transparency
Using Advantage+ placements means Meta’s AI decides where to show your ads for the best results. While this can improve performance, it also limits visibility into why certain decisions are made. This lack of visibility can make reporting harder and applying insights to other marketing channels more difficult.
Pros & Cons of Manual Placements
Now, we will look into the pros and cons of manual placements.
Pros
- More Control
Compared to Advantage+, you have more control over how your ad placements function. It is more visible and transparent with execution because you know where your ads will appear.
- Exclude Low-Quality Placements
It is easy to remove placements that are not generating good CPCs. This will help prevent wasted ad spend and provide better results.
- Precise Targeting
When you know where your target audience is mostly active, directing ads through the most active placements becomes easy, offering better ad targeting and conversions.
Cons
- More Efforts Needed
You need to spend more time and energy allotting ads to specific placements. This will require deep research, awareness of your target audience’s presence, and understanding which placements work and which don’t.
- Potential of Losing Opportunities
If not researched well, you risk missing out on good placements. This can affect your ROAS (return-on-ad-spend) and ad performance. Also, excluding some crucial placements can result in missing out on interested audiences. One must refrain from overly focusing on a few placements.
- Manual Budget Allocation
You have to look into allotting a budget for each placement personally. This can also be expensive if not done correctly.
Final Verdict
Which one should you choose, Advantage+ or manual placements?
The answer: It depends on the advertiser’s needs.
Here are the key takeaways from our blog:
- Every advertiser has different needs. If you aim to get the maximum number of conversions, better budget allocation, and broader reach, then Advantage+’s automation can offer better results.
- And if your goal is to garner more controlled, specific targeting or to generate brand awareness, page views, link clicks, etc, manual placement is the better option.
Both have one goal – To provide accurate ad placement throughout Meta technologies.
So, to pick the right one, you must know your target audience, performance goals, ad objective, ad format specific to the platform and ad budget. With these five, you can strategically implement placements and choose between Advantage+ or manual placements.
FAQs
When should you use automatic placements?
When you are using conversion-based ad objectives such as Sales, Leads, or App promotions, you can opt for Advantage+ placements. Its optimization capability is ideal for conversion campaigns, such as generating a purchase event. It ensures your campaigns reach those audiences who are highly likely to convert (ensure to keep your performance goal as a conversion one).
When should you use manual placements?
Manual placements are suitable for ads generating link clicks, traffic, page views, etc. For this, you need a concentrated audience that you know will engage with your campaign in some way. Broader audiences may pot be suitable to get these actions, hence, manual placements is ideal for targeting specific audiences who will take the desired action.
Are placements hard to get?
It can be difficult, but not impossible. It is important to test and experiment your campaigns by using both the methods, Advantage+ and manual placements.
To improve your chances of getting a good ad spot, it is recommended that you understand your competitors’ strategies, use effective ad creatives that garner attention, ensure that your ad suits the ad format of specific ad placements, and understand Meta’s algorithm for both Advantage+ and manual placements.
How do I handle unexpected performance drops with Advantage+ placements?
Some ways to tackle this are to understand your audience’s changing activities and shifts, analyse ad creatives and their effectiveness, evaluate the effectiveness of performance goals, address ad fatigue, address ad delivery issues with the same audience set, and check if you’re still in the learning phase.
Another way advertisers use is running a sales campaign using manual placements. Reverting to manual placements will give you more control, as they are more transparent. Advantage+ placement may not show you exact data, as machine learning is working in the background to target placements.
Can I use both Advantage+ and manual placements in the same campaign?
Yes, it is possible to use both Advantage+ and manual placements. However, not in the same ad set. You can incorporate the two for two different ad campaigns.
What should I do if my manual placements are too costly?
In this case, target the important placements, where you are getting actual results. Also, add new placements to give the system more chances to find lower-cost conversions. Avoid removing placements based on past costs. Fewer options can limit performance. Use broader audiences to find lower cost conversions, improving ad creative is extremely important, and also look into auction overlap if auction competition increases.
What are the risks of relying solely on Advantage+ placements?
You may not get transparency like you do in manual placements. It is an efficient tool but you may miss out on learning more about your audiences more clearly.
Is Advantage+ better than Manual?
It depends on the advertiser’s needs and requirements. Both the placement types offer effective advertising capabilities. One needs to understand what their performance goal and ad objective are.
Which is more cost effective, Advantage+ placements or manual placements?
Meta says Advantage+ placements are usually cheaper than manual ones, especially for beginners or conversion goals. They use AI to place your ads where they’ll perform best. Manual placements offer control but can cost more without a strong strategy.
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