Meta's Advantage+ (formerly known as Automated Ads) is an AI-driven suite designed to automate budget allocation, audience targeting, creative enhancements, and ad placements. While these automated features are enabled by default—especially when using Advantage Campaign Budget (formerly CBO)—many performance marketers and media buyers prefer manual control to maintain brand consistency, test specific variables, and optimize ROAS precisely.

If you want to regain manual control over your campaigns, this guide walks you through how to disable or adjust these automated features step-by-step.

Pre-Optimization Checklist

Important Notes Before You Begin:• Cool-down Periods: Changing certain budget settings may require a waiting period (e.g., switching from campaign-level to ad set-level budget requires at least 2 hours).• Test First: We highly recommend testing these manual adjustments on a draft or a test campaign before applying them to active, high-budget campaigns.• UI Variations: Meta frequently updates its Ads Manager interface; some menu names may vary slightly depending on your account version.

Step 1: Verify Campaign Status

  1. Open Meta Ads Manager.
  2. Select your target campaign and click Edit.
  3. At the Campaign level, check if the Advantage Campaign Budget toggle is switched on.
    • When using Advantage Campaign Budget (CBO), Meta automatically applies automated distribution across ad sets.
    • Switching to Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO) allows for more granular, manual control.

Step 2: Disable Advantage+ Creative Enhancements

If you want to preserve your original visual assets and prevent Meta's AI from automatically adjusting brightness, contrast, aspect ratios, or adding templates, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Ad level of your campaign.
  2. In the ad setup section, find the ad preview area and click on Advanced Preview.
  3. Select the Advantage+ Creative tab.
  4. Toggle off All Optimizations (or selectively disable specific enhancements like standard enhancements, image expansion, or audio).
  5. Save your changes.

Step 3: Adjust Budget Optimization Settings

Advantage+ features are deeply integrated with how your budget is structured. To move away from automated budget distribution:

  1. Go to the Campaign level settings.
  2. Locate the Advantage Campaign Budget option.
  3. Toggle this option Off to switch to Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO). This shifts budget control down to the individual ad set level.

Note on Time Constraints: If you have recently activated Advantage Campaign Budget, Meta may require you to wait at least 2 hours before you can toggle it off. If you need to bypass this, you can pause the campaign, wait for the system to process, and then make the switch.

Step 4: Opt Out of Advantage+ Audience

To prevent Meta from automatically expanding your target audience beyond your specified parameters, adjust your settings at the Ad Set level:

  1. Go to the Ad Set level settings.
  2. Scroll down to the Audience section.
  3. If Meta has defaulted you to "Advantage+ Audience," look for the option to Switch to original audience options.
  4. Manually define your age, gender, location, and detailed targeting parameters.
  5. Ensure that Advantage+ Detailed Targeting (audience expansion) is unchecked if you want to restrict delivery strictly to your selected demographics.
  6. Important: If you have multiple ad sets, you must repeat this process for each individual ad set.

Why Isn't There a "One-Click" Master Switch?

Many advertisers wonder why Meta does not provide a single button to turn off all Advantage+ features. This is due to several platform dynamics:

  • The Learning Algorithm: Meta's AI relies on continuous data feedback. Frequent, sweeping changes disrupt the learning phase and can destabilize ad delivery.
  • Feature Coupling: Budget optimization, audience expansion, and creative variations are programmatically linked to maximize Meta's internal inventory efficiency.
  • Platform Strategy: Automation lowers the barrier to entry for novice advertisers, making it the default path for the majority of accounts on the platform.

By systematically adjusting your settings at the Creative, Budget, and Audience levels, you can successfully bypass Meta's default automation and run fully customized, manually controlled performance campaigns.