Meta ads changes in October 2026: the dates and what to do

The October 2026 dates at a glance

Everything in this table comes from Meta's own developer pages, read on 9 October 2026. If you run ads only through Ads Manager, most of it does not need action from you. If you use a reporting tool, a bulk-upload tool, an agency script or your own code that talks to Meta's Marketing API, send this page to whoever maintains it.

6 October: Marketing API v24.0 is retired

Meta's Graph API changelog lists Marketing API v24.0 as introduced on 8 October 2025 and available until 6 October 2026. That date has now passed. The same table shows v25.0 (18 February 2026) and v26.0 (29 July 2026) as the versions still available, neither with an end date set yet.

What happens to a call that still names v24.0 depends on the endpoint. Meta's Marketing API versioning page says such calls "may fail or be upgraded to the next available version". It describes an auto-upgrade: where an endpoint did not change between the retired version and the next one, the platform upgrades the call instead of failing it. Where the endpoint did change, the call fails. The page says the auto-upgrade can be switched off in the Marketing API Version setting, under Settings on the app's Marketing API product page.

In practice that means an old integration may look healthy while one or two requests quietly fail. The next available version after v24.0 is v25.0, so that is where upgraded calls would be expected to land. That last point is our reading of the table, not a statement from Meta.

What to do

• Search your code and your tool settings for v24.0 and replace it with a current version.
• Check error logs from 6 October 2026 onwards for failed requests.
• Ask any third-party tool you rely on which Marketing API version it calls.

27 October: Messenger Stories placement is retired

The v26.0 changelog, released on 29 July 2026, marks the Messenger Stories placement as deprecated. On v26.0 and later, the story value in an ad set's messenger_positions is already dropped without an error, and it no longer appears in the placements an ad set reports as in effect. Meta says this applies to all Marketing API versions, including unversioned calls, on 27 October 2026.

Meta's instruction is short: developers using manual placements should remove the value, and Advantage+ Placements need no action. It also notes that historical targeting data may still show the placement, so old reports will not change.

The changelog is written for developers and does not describe Ads Manager. If you pick placements by hand, it is still worth opening your ad sets and checking what is selected. Vertical creative made for Stories keeps its uses elsewhere; our guide to Meta ad sizes lists the ratios for each placement.

27 October: poll ads can no longer be created

The same changelog says poll components are no longer supported when creating or updating ads and creatives. The poll_spec field, and the poll type under interactive_components_spec, are unavailable on v26.0 and later now, and on all Marketing API versions from 27 October 2026.

Updates that do not touch the creative can continue, according to Meta. So renaming an ad or changing its status should still work, but a request that sends poll fields will not. The affected endpoints are the ones that create ad creatives and ads, update an ad, and generate previews.

27 October: three delivery estimate fields are removed

Delivery Estimate is the endpoint that tools use to predict how an ad set might deliver. Meta's v26.0 changelog removes three fields from its responses: daily_outcomes_curve, budget_guardrail and estimate_dau. Meta's stated reason is that the service behind those values has been deprecated, and it says no replacement API is available.

The removal already applies on v26.0 and reaches all remaining supported versions on 27 October 2026. It affects delivery estimate requests on both ad accounts and ad sets. Any dashboard or planning tool that draws a curve of expected daily results from these fields will need to stop reading them before that date.

27 October: web-only destinations in Website and App campaigns

Some campaigns use Website and App as the conversion location, sending people to whichever is likely to convert. Until now a creative could carry a setting that forced the website. Meta's changelog says a creative with applink_treatment set to web_only can no longer be attached to an ad in those campaigns. This applies on v26.0 and later now, and on all Marketing API versions from 27 October 2026.

Meta's guidance is to use automatic destination selection or a compatible manual destination. If your campaigns are website-only or app-only, this change does not concern them.

In v26.0, but not on an October date

Two more items in the v26.0 changelog are worth knowing about, although neither has an October deadline for older versions.

• Instagram Explore Feed placement. It is no longer available on v26.0 and later, and a request that names Explore returns an error. Meta gives no date for other versions.
• Advantage+ Audience in special categories. For housing, employment and financial products ad sets with certain targeting, v26.0 requires the advantage_audience setting to be stated as on or off. Meta says this becomes mandatory for all versions once v25.0 is deprecated, with the date still to be confirmed.

A short checklist

• If you only use Ads Manager: check any ad sets with manual placements, then carry on.
• If you use a third-party tool: ask the vendor to confirm it is off v24.0 and ready for 27 October 2026.
• If you have your own code: upgrade the version, remove the Messenger story position, poll fields, the three delivery estimate fields and web_only in Website and App campaigns, then test.
• After 27 October 2026: read your error logs and compare delivery by placement with the week before.

None of these changes alter how an ordinary image ad is built and published. The steps in how to publish ads on Meta are the same.

Sources

• Graph API changelog, version tables, Meta for Developers, undated, read 9 October 2026.
• Graph API and Marketing API v26.0 changelog, Meta for Developers, released 29 July 2026.
• Marketing API versioning, Meta for Developers, undated, read 9 October 2026.