Oct 2: Who not to target, a buggy ad editor, and Meta’s new AI
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Use lookalikes to tell Meta who not to target
Most people use lookalike audiences to find more of their best customers, and that still works well even with Advantage+ audience. But you can flip it around. Build a lookalike from a low-quality signal and exclude it. That tells Meta which users you don't want, even with how broad Advantage+ targeting is now.
A few seed audiences worth building exclusion lookalikes from:
- Users who have churned
- Clearly fraudulent purchasers
- Customers who start a paid subscription but only stay for a month. This one is especially strong, because it tells Meta to stop chasing impulse buyers.
You'll find it at the ad set level under "Exclude these custom audiences."
Seed size: you'll need at least 100 people from one country in the seed list before Meta will build the lookalike.
Start narrow: a 1% exclusion lookalike is the safe place to start. Excluding a big one, like 5 to 10%, can cut your reach more than you'd expect.
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Meta's new aspect ratio flow is buggy, so check it twice
Meta is rolling out a new ad creative flow on some accounts. You can upload several assets at once and choose which aspect ratios each creative uses. It replaces the old way of customizing assets placement by placement.
The catch: it's buggy. Edits can look saved when they aren't. Before you publish, reopen the ad and check the Aspect ratios panel a few times to make sure your changes stuck.
Quick check: after saving, open the ad preview for Feed and for Stories and Reels. If a crop looks off in either, the edit didn't save.
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Meta's Muse AI can run Ads Manager. Start with reporting.
Meta's new Muse AI integration connects straight to your Business Manager, so you can do a lot more in Ads Manager right from the chat. You can even launch ads from it.
The catch: connecting gives it broad read and write access across your Business Manager, and it's still unclear how that holds up in practice. Test with caution, and start with reporting tasks before you let it touch budgets or launch anything.
Limit the blast radius: connect it through a login that only has access to the ad account you're testing, so a mistake can't spill into your other accounts.