Advantage+ audience explained: what it is, what it does with your targeting, and how to turn it off

What is Advantage+ audience in Facebook ads?

Everything below comes from Meta's own pages as they read on 13 October 2026. The pages carry no publication date.

Meta's Help Centre page About Advantage+ audience gives the meaning in one sentence: it lets you use Meta's AI to find the audience for a campaign, instead of defining that audience yourself. In Ads Manager it appears in the ad set as Audience with Advantage+ on. Meta says the system draws on signals such as past conversions, Meta pixel data and interactions with your earlier ads.

It is the default. Meta's setup page says Advantage+ audience is applied automatically at ad set level when it is available, and again when you duplicate an older campaign and choose the recommended setup.

It is not available to everyone. Meta's page on audience controls and audience suggestions says campaigns in the special ad categories for financial products and services, employment or housing, and ads about social issues, elections or politics, do not have access to it.

Advantage+ audience vs targeting: what Meta does with what you enter

The difference from the original audience options is what your entries mean. With the original options, each selection limits who can see the ad. With Advantage+ audience, Meta sorts your entries into two groups: audience controls, which limit delivery, and audience suggestions, which only steer it. Our post on Advantage+ campaigns in 2026 introduces the two groups; the table goes through each input.

Meta describes suggestions this way: it shows ads to people who match, and to other audiences when that is likely to improve performance. In its words, "Suggestions don't always constrain your audience." Suggestions are never delivered outside your controls.

The location exception is described on Meta's page about reaching people interested in your selected cities and regions, which says the option may be on by default. Our post on ads in the wrong language or location covers it.

For limits that apply to every campaign, Meta offers controls for the whole ad account: countries, a minimum age and excluded audiences. Meta says the feature is being introduced gradually, so you may not have it yet.

How to turn Advantage+ audience off and switch to original audience options

Meta documents this at ad set level, but its two pages name the control differently. The Meta for Business page says to select Switch to original audience options. The Help Centre setup page says to select Further limit your audience or Further limit the reach of your ads. Which label you see appears to depend on the version of Ads Manager you have; the effect Meta describes is the same.

1. 01

   Open the ad set

   Go to the ad set level of the campaign and find the Audience section.
2. 02

   Choose the original options

   Select Switch to original audience options if it is shown. Otherwise select Further limit your audience or Further limit the reach of your ads.
3. 03

   Make your selections limits

   Set age, gender, detailed targeting and the custom audiences to include. Meta says you may have to untick the Use as a suggestion box beside a setting. While that box is ticked, the setting is still a suggestion.
4. 04

   Check the label

   Meta's page on what turns Advantage+ on and off says the audience section usually shows Advantage+ off once a setting is chosen this way with the box unticked.

Three things to know before you do it:

• You may not need to. The same page says you can raise the minimum age as far as 25, or exclude a custom audience, without turning Advantage+ off.
• On a live ad set it restarts learning. Meta's list of significant edits includes any change to targeting. See our post on the learning phase.
• It can come back. If you duplicate the campaign and choose Recommended setup, Meta applies Advantage+ audience again. Choose Original setup to keep your version.

To reverse it, the Meta for Business page says to select Switch to Advantage+ audience under Audience.

Is Advantage+ audience good, and does it work?

Meta says it does, on average, and the evidence it offers is its own. We found no independent test on Meta's pages. The setup page says Advantage+ audience typically gets better results than the original options because delivery is not limited to people who match your selections. Meta publishes three figures:

• 14.8% lower cost per result with the awareness objective.
• 9.7% lower with the traffic, engagement and leads objectives.
• 7.2% lower with the sales and app promotion objectives.

Those are from the Help Centre page. The Meta for Business page gives the same three numbers as median improvements in cost per acquisition for upper, middle and lower funnel campaigns. Its footnote says they come from Meta's analysis of 469 A/B studies run between 1 January 2023 and 1 August 2024, each comparing an advertiser's usual setup with and without Advantage+ audience. Studies where the usual setup was already a broad audience were left out.

In practice that means three things. The figures are medians, so some advertisers did worse. The studies ended more than two years ago. And the stated gain is smallest for the sales and app promotion objectives. Meta's own recommendation is to run an A/B test, not to switch an ad set on and off by hand, which it says gives unreliable results. Our guide to testing ad creative covers running a fair comparison.

When Meta itself points to the original options

Meta's pages give three cases.

• Retargeting. Meta says Advantage+ audience is not recommended for a retargeting campaign. If the ad is only for people who visited your site or are on your customer list, that list has to be a limit, not a suggestion.
• A specific audience matters more than performance. Meta's wording is that if reaching a specific audience is more important than getting the best performance, you should further limit your audience.
• Restricted categories. Campaigns in the special ad categories listed above do not have Advantage+ audience at all.

A legal or geographic restriction is not on that list. Meta's page on suggestions, controls and value rules says hard requirements belong in audience controls, which work with Advantage+ audience on. This is general information, not legal advice; check the rules for your own industry.

Sources

• Meta Business Help Centre: About Advantage+ audience, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to create a campaign using Advantage+ audience, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: About audience controls and audience suggestions in Advantage+ audience, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: Use audience suggestions, audience controls and value rules to reach your preferred audience, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: What turns Advantage+ on and Advantage+ off, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: Set audience and placement controls for your ad account, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to reach people interested in your selected cities and regions, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: About Advantage+ detailed targeting, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: Significant edits and learning phase, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta Business Help Centre: About A/B testing, undated, read 13 October 2026
• Meta for Business: Advantage+ audience, undated, read 13 October 2026