Meta to retire Automated Ads, shifts focus fully to Advantage+ campaigns

Meta has confirmed it will discontinue its Automated Ads feature, redirecting advertisers toward its AI-driven Advantage+ suite. The phase-out is set to take place over the coming months, with full removal planned for next year.

Launched as a simplified entry point for brands, Automated Ads allowed businesses to create campaigns directly from Facebook or Instagram pages by answering a short set of questions. The system then generated targeting and creative suggestions, pulling imagery from existing page posts. Positioned between boosted posts and more complex Ads Manager campaigns, the tool was designed to lower barriers to ad creation.

The company now considers Automated Ads redundant, as its Advantage+ platform provides similar functionality with expanded AI-driven optimization. Meta says Advantage+ campaigns will eventually become even more streamlined, with the goal of minimizing the need for manual inputs such as creative selection, targeting, and measurement.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year described the company’s long-term vision: advertisers would only need to define their campaign objectives and connect a payment method, while the platform would generate the rest of the campaign automatically.

Existing Automated Ads campaigns will continue to run for now, but advertisers will no longer be able to create new ones. Meta is directing users to transition to Advantage+ tools as it completes the rollout.