Meta Is Phasing Out Manual Targeting from Advantage+ Campaigns

Jeff Courtney

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March 1, 2025

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6 min

What’s changing with Meta’s targeting

Meta is reducing manual control in Advantage+ campaigns. Detailed targeting inputs are limited; the system uses machine learning to expand reach beyond your selections and find people most likely to convert. In practice, you set the goal, budget, and creative; the platform handles audience expansion and delivery.

Key effects:

Fewer switches and narrow filters; broader default audiences.
More reliance on conversion signals and creative performance.
Faster learning cycles when you feed the system consistent data.

Why Meta is moving toward automation

Manual targeting was a proxy for intent. It worked until the signal got noisy. Privacy changes, platform fragmentation, and smaller observable audiences pushed Meta toward models that infer intent from behaviour at scale. The platform holds far more behavioural data than any advertiser can manage by hand; automation uses that edge.

For advertisers, this means less time guessing at interests and more time improving inputs the system can learn from: creative, offer, landing experience, and conversion quality.

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What this means for creative strategy

When every brand can access the same automation, creative becomes the targeting. The platform finds the people; your visual language, narrative, and proof give the model the right signals to chase.

Design for:

Clarity in the first second. Thumbnail, type, and framing that reads on mobile.
Message variants, not just visual variants. One idea per asset.
Rhythm and refresh. Rotate concepts; keep winners in play; cut the laggards.
Signal quality. Clean UTMs, server-side events if possible, and pages that load fast.

Meta knows more about your audience than you do. The only thing it can’t automate is taste.

How music and cultural brands should adapt

Concrete moves for teams running release cycles, drops, exhibitions, or ticketing:

Structure for learning. Group assets by concept so the system can compare ideas, not just sizes.
Optimise the destination. Fast page, clear call to action, frictionless checkout or pre-save.
Use creative to segment. If you can’t narrow targeting, let your ads do it. Visuals and copy that speak to collectors, superfans, or new listeners act as soft filters.
Own the data. Capture email/SMS on your site. Feed high-quality conversions back to Meta to improve optimisation.
Budget with intent. Keep a steady base for always-on growth; spike spend for launches once you see stable winners.

Internal links to add: Link “paid media campaigns for artists and cultural brands” to your Performance Marketing page. Link “creative direction for campaigns that convert” to your Creative Direction page.

Our view: data + creativity, not data vs creativity

Automation replaces guesswork, not creative intent. The brands that will win combine rigorous testing with strong identity: consistent typography, distinctive colour, clean motion, and copy that gets to the point.

The bottom line

Manual targeting is fading in Advantage+. Treat creative as the control surface. Build assets that read fast, test ideas with intent, and send clean conversion signals. Then let the system scale what works.