Explainer
Advantage+ creative enhancements: what Meta may change in your ad, and how to switch each one off
Advantage+ creative is a set of optional changes Meta can make to an ad after you upload it: cropping or expanding the image, animating it, adding music, laying text over it, or rewording your copy. Meta says some of these are on by default and that any of them can be turned off. You do that per ad, in the Enhancements step and in Advanced preview, and a Review defaults tab lists everything that was switched on for you.
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What Advantage+ creative enhancements are
Meta's Business Help Centre page About Advantage+ creative describes the feature this way: when it is on, your images and videos are optimised into versions your audience is more likely to interact with. The page says the media and text you upload may be adjusted, that the result may differ depending on who sees the ad, and that some enhancements may be turned on by default.
As that page read on 9 October 2026 it listed 31 separate enhancements, 17 of them labelled as using generative AI or having the option to. Which ones you are offered depends on the ad format, the placements and whether you use a catalogue. Everything below is taken from Meta's pages as they read on that date. Meta changes these pages and the Ads Manager screens often, so check the live version.
What Meta may change in an image ad
These are the enhancements on Meta's list that alter how a single image ad looks, sounds or reads. The descriptions paraphrase Meta's own.
| Enhancement | What Meta says it does | Uses generative AI |
|---|---|---|
| Visual touch-ups | Crops and expands the image to fit more placements. When it expands, it generates new pixels to fill the extra space. | Yes |
| Adjust brightness and contrast | Changes the brightness and contrast of the image if that may improve performance. | No |
| Add animation | Adds movement such as panning, zooming or rotating to an eligible image and turns it into a short video. Text in the image may be animated too. | Yes |
| Add music | Adds music to the ad. On the automatic setting, Meta chooses between AI-generated music and a track from its library. | Yes |
| Add overlays | Shows text you have provided on top of the creative when Meta expects it to help. Can be combined with visual touch-ups. | Yes |
| Enhance media text | Writes alternative versions of the text overlay on an image ad by rephrasing your message, then delivers the original or a variation. Meta says the picture itself does not change. | Yes |
| Text improvements | Takes words and phrases from your ad copy and shows them, as written or adjusted, on or around the creative, for example as an overlay, footer or headline. | Yes |
| Text generation | Generates up to five variations of your primary text and headline. | Yes |
| Image generation | Creates different versions of your creative, either new settings for a product or person, or full variations based on a reference image, with generated text and logo overlays. | Yes |
| Translations | Translates the text and image overlays in the ad into the viewer's preferred language. | Yes |
The same page lists others that add something around the ad without editing the image: Relevant comments, Show summaries (an AI-written summary of your selling points under the ad), Show spotlights and Reveal details over time (text and images pulled from your website), and Enhance CTA, which can swap the call-to-action sticker on a Stories ad for one of Meta's pre-written ones. Video ads have their own set, including Video touch-ups, which crops a video or uses AI to expand it to 9:16 or 4:5. Background generation and Image touch-ups apply only to Advantage+ catalogue ads.
Which ones are on by default
Meta does not publish a single fixed list. Its page on reviewing default-on creative features says a feature may be enabled by default when Meta predicts it will improve performance, and that such features are labelled On by default during creative setup. In practice that means the defaults can differ from one ad to the next.
Meta's pages do name a few specifically:
- Text improvements. Meta's setup instructions for the feature say you will see it turned on by default.
- Reveal details over time, Show spotlights and Show summaries. Each may be on by default when the ad format is Single image or video.
- Add product tags. May be on by default for traffic or sales campaigns with an eligible catalogue.
For the rest, including Visual touch-ups, Add animation, Add music and Enhance media text, Meta's pages do not say either way. Do not assume they are off. Check the ad.
What advertisers have reported
On 21 April 2026, Marketing Brew reported that several brands and agencies had found changes in their Meta ads that they had not asked for. The clothing brand Snag Tights told customers in February 2026 that ads which looked wrong had not come from it, and its chief executive said Meta's AI tools had altered its ads without the company knowing. An agency, Misfit Marketing, described resized images, altered backgrounds and still images turned into video, and one case in which an expanded image showed grass growing over a client's patio. Another agency's chief executive said the settings had come back on after being switched off.
A Meta spokesperson told the publication that advertisers can opt out of AI creative testing at any time in their ad account settings, that the tests run on a small share of impressions, and declined to comment on the specific examples. These are the advertisers' accounts as reported, not something we have verified ourselves.
How to review and switch them off
The steps below follow Meta's page Turn off Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager. Enhancements are set per ad, so repeat this for every ad.
- 01
Open the Enhancements step
For a new ad, go to Ad creative, click Set up creative and continue to Enhancements. For a published ad, tick it on the Ads tab, click Edit, find the Advantage+ creative section and click Edit there. - 02
Turn off what you do not want
Each enhancement has its own switch, and some have a Customise option. Meta's page on a related setting also describes an All optimisations toggle that turns every enhancement off at once. - 03
Check Advanced preview as well
In the ad preview, click Expand, then open the Advantage+ creative tab. Meta notes that some enhancements can only be turned off here and do not appear in the Ad creative section, so check both places. - 04
Open Review defaults
Next to Advanced preview, Review defaults lists every creative feature that is on by default for this ad, grouped by category, with an Edit link to each. Features you switched on yourself are not shown there. - 05
Look at the variations, then save and publish
Use the arrows on each enhancement card, and the Placements tab, to see what people could be shown. Then click Save, and Publish.
Three more controls sit outside that flow:
- Many ads at once. Tick the ads on the Ads tab, open the menu beside Edit and choose Advantage+ creative. Meta's bulk-edit page says all the selected ads must share one ad format.
- Testing of new features. In Advertising settings, under Creating ads, click Creative features and untick Test new creative features. This is the account-level opt-out Meta documents; it says the option is only shown to eligible advertisers.
- Optimise text per person. This lets text you supplied appear in any position in the ad. Meta's instructions say that for image ads it goes off only when visual touch-ups, relevant comments, add overlays and text improvements are all off.
What this means in practice
- Supply the image in the shape each placement needs, so there is less for Meta to crop or expand. See Meta ad sizes.
- Treat the preview as part of publishing the ad. Meta's own page tells advertisers to check the preview and the defaults before they publish.
- Check again whenever you duplicate or edit an ad. Advertisers in the Marketing Brew report said settings had returned; the check takes a minute.
- If you are unsure whether an enhancement helps, run the same ad with it on and with it off and compare. See how to test ad creative.
- Meta says it adds an AI info label when features such as Background generation, Image generation or Add animation create or significantly edit an image, and that you are told during ad creation when the label will appear.
Sources
- Meta Business Help Centre: About Advantage+ creative (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Turn off Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Review default-on creative features in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Enable text improvements in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Bulk edit Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Opt in to or out of testing new creative features in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: Turn the optimise text per person feature on or off in Meta Ads Manager (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Meta Business Help Centre: About AI info on ads created or edited with generative AI tools (undated, read 9 October 2026)
- Marketing Brew: Meta's AI push has made its way into ad creative. Not all marketers are happy about it (21 April 2026)
Questions people ask
What are Advantage+ creative enhancements?
They are optional changes Meta can make to an ad after you upload it, such as cropping or expanding the image, animating it, adding music, adding text overlays or rewording your copy. Meta's help centre listed 31 of them on 9 October 2026, 17 labelled as using generative AI. Which ones you are offered depends on the ad format, placements and whether you use a catalogue.
Are Advantage+ creative enhancements on by default?
Some are. Meta says a creative feature may be enabled by default when it predicts the feature will improve performance, and labels it On by default during creative setup. Its pages name Text improvements as on by default, and say Show summaries, Show spotlights, Reveal details over time and Add product tags may be; for the others, check the ad.
How do I turn off Advantage+ creative enhancements in Ads Manager?
Open the ad, go to the Enhancements step in Ad creative (or the Advantage+ creative section when editing a published ad) and switch off each enhancement you do not want. Then open Advanced preview and its Advantage+ creative tab, because Meta says some enhancements can only be turned off there. The Review defaults tab lists everything that was on by default for that ad.
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Keep reading
- How to publish ads on MetaThe steps in Ads Manager, from campaign objective to Publish.
- Meta ad sizesThe aspect ratios to supply so Meta has less reason to crop or expand.
- How to test ad creativeHow to compare ads fairly, including with and without enhancements.
- AI ad generatorStatic image ads in your brand, built on ads that are already running.
Mockingbird is an independent product from Onwards Analytics and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Meta. Meta, Facebook, Instagram, Meta Ads Manager and the Meta Ad Library are trademarks of Meta Platforms, Inc. Meta changes its tools often; check Meta's own help pages for the current detail before you rely on it.