Short answer: Meta Advantage+ sales campaigns are the current version of what used to be Advantage+ shopping campaigns. Any Sales campaign becomes Advantage+ when three automations are on: Advantage+ campaign budget, Advantage+ audience and Advantage+ placements. Compared with the old shopping campaigns, you get ad sets back and can exclude custom audiences, but the existing customer budget cap is gone. Use them when you have reliable purchase tracking, enough conversion volume and plenty of varied creative.
From Advantage+ shopping to Advantage+ sales campaigns
Advantage+ shopping campaigns (often called ASC) were Meta’s automated campaign type for online sales. They were rigid: one ad set, limited targeting controls, and a separate setup flow from normal campaigns.
On 7 February 2025, Meta announced a streamlined Advantage+ setup that applies AI optimisations to sales, app and leads campaigns, so advertisers no longer choose between a manual and an automated campaign at the start. Advantage+ shopping became Advantage+ sales.
The old campaign type was then phased out behind the scenes too. According to PPC Land, Marketing API version 24.0, released on 8 October 2025, stopped the creation of new Advantage+ shopping campaigns through the legacy APIs, with full deprecation across all API versions planned for version 25.0 in early 2026. If you still have an old shopping campaign running, plan to rebuild it as an Advantage+ sales campaign.
How Advantage+ sales campaigns work
Advantage+ is now a state a campaign is in, not a separate product. When you create a Sales campaign, Advantage+ is on by default. As Jon Loomer explains, that applies three optimisations:
- Advantage+ campaign budget: one budget at campaign level that Meta moves between ad sets.
- Advantage+ audience: Meta finds buyers beyond any audience suggestions you give it.
- Advantage+ placements: ads can run across Meta’s apps and the Audience Network wherever Meta predicts the best results.
Turn off any one of the three, for example by excluding placements or setting a hard gender restriction, and the campaign becomes a manual Sales campaign that still uses some Advantage features.
Underneath, Meta’s ad retrieval system matters too. In December 2024 Meta described Andromeda, the engine that narrows tens of millions of ad candidates down to a few thousand relevant ones for each person. The practical effect: your creative now does much of the targeting.
What you can and cannot control
| You control | Meta controls |
|---|---|
| Budget, bid strategy and performance goal | How budget is split between ad sets |
| Locations and languages | Who sees the ads within those locations |
| Minimum age | Maximum age and gender (you can only suggest) |
| Custom audience exclusions | Interests and detailed targeting (you can only suggest) |
| Creative, copy and product catalogue | Which ad and placement each person sees |
Audience suggestions such as maximum age, gender, custom audiences and detailed targeting are treated as starting points. Meta may go beyond them if it predicts better results.
Existing customers: the budget cap is gone, so here is what to do
Advantage+ shopping campaigns had an existing customer budget cap. You could tell Meta to spend no more than a set share of budget on people who had already bought from you. In Advantage+ sales campaigns, that cap has been removed.
This matters because automated campaigns can drift toward people who were going to buy anyway. Here is how to keep control:
- Define your audience segments. In your ad account settings, under audience segments, define existing customers and engaged audiences using custom audiences, such as a customer list, website purchasers and people who engaged with your page. Meta uses these for reporting, so you can see results for new, engaged and existing customers.
- Check the audience segment breakdown in Ads Manager regularly. If most purchases come from existing customers, your campaign may be taking credit for repeat orders.
- Recreate the cap with ad sets. Build a prospecting ad set that excludes your customer list, and, if you want, a separate retention ad set. Because ad sets are back, you can recreate a version of the old cap this way.
- Keep customer lists fresh. Upload or sync your customer list often, so exclusions stay accurate.
- Judge on blended numbers. Compare Meta results with total revenue and new customer counts. My guide to ROAS vs MER vs CAC explains which numbers to watch.
Creative volume and variety
With targeting mostly automated, creative is your main lever. Meta needs different ads to reach different people. Ten small variations of the same image do not give it much to work with. Ten genuinely different concepts do.
- Mix formats: short videos, static images, carousels and catalogue ads.
- Mix angles: product demo, customer review, problem and solution, comparison, offer, founder story.
- Mix people and settings: different ages, use cases and environments to match different buyers.
- Refresh regularly: add new concepts before old ones fatigue, rather than after results drop.
- Review AI enhancements: Advantage+ creative can automatically adjust your ads, for example brightness, cropping or text. Check which enhancements are on, and turn off any that do not suit your brand.
For a structured way to test concepts, read my guide to Facebook ad creative testing.
Advantage+ sales campaigns vs manual campaigns: when to use each
Use Advantage+ sales campaigns when:
- You sell online and your purchase tracking is accurate, ideally with both the Pixel and Conversions API (see Meta Pixel vs Conversions API).
- You get a steady flow of purchases, enough for the ad set to exit the learning phase.
- You can supply a good volume of varied creative.
- You want to scale with fewer campaigns and less manual work.
Use manual Sales campaigns when:
- You must restrict placements or audiences for legal, brand or product reasons.
- You need a strict audience test, for example a clean test of a new market.
- Conversion volume is very low and you need to optimise for an earlier event.
- You run time-limited promotions to a specific list, such as a launch for existing customers.
How to set up an Advantage+ sales campaign
- Check tracking: purchases and values in Events Manager should match your real orders.
- Define existing customers and engaged audiences in your ad account settings.
- Create a new campaign, choose the Sales objective and keep Advantage+ on.
- Set the campaign budget and choose a bid strategy. Start with highest volume or a sensible ROAS goal.
- Set locations, languages and minimum age. Add customer list exclusions if this is a prospecting ad set.
- Upload a varied set of creatives and connect your catalogue if you have one.
- Leave the campaign alone through the learning phase, then review results by audience segment.
What I recommend: run one well-funded Advantage+ sales campaign as your main prospecting engine, keep the structure simple, and spend your time on creative and tracking rather than targeting. Watch the existing customer share closely, because without the old cap that is where waste hides.
Frequently asked questions
What are Meta Advantage+ sales campaigns?
Do Advantage+ shopping campaigns still exist?
Can I limit spend on existing customers in Advantage+ sales campaigns?
How many creatives should I use in an Advantage+ sales campaign?
Who can manage Advantage+ sales campaigns for my store?
Need help with Advantage+ sales campaigns?
If you are moving from old shopping campaigns or your Advantage+ results are hard to trust, I can help. As a Meta Ads specialist, I set up tracking, customer segments and creative testing so automation works for you. Start with a free ads audit and I will show you where your budget is really going.
Sources
- Search Engine Land: Meta simplifies Advantage+ campaign setup, adds leads campaigns
- PPC Land: Meta deprecates legacy campaign APIs for Advantage+ structure
- Jon Loomer: Advantage+ sales, app and leads campaigns
- Jon Loomer: Advantage+ sales replaces Advantage+ shopping
- Engineering at Meta: Meta Andromeda