Meta pushes spending (5%) on excluded placements for sales and leads campaigns
Meta introduces default option to spend up to 5% of budget on each excluded placement in sales and leads campaigns, activated by default unless advertisers manually opt out.

Meta has introduced a placement spending option for its advertising platform that allows the company to allocate up to 5% of campaign budgets to placements advertisers have explicitly excluded. The feature launched recently for sales and leads campaigns, though Meta has not disclosed an official announcement date for the change.
According to the new setting, when advertisers create sales or leads campaigns and manually select specific ad placements, Meta now includes a default option to spend a portion of the budget on excluded placements. The option appears under "Placement controls" at the ad set level, where advertisers find a checkbox reading "Allow limited spend to excluded placements" alongside a "Manage excluded placements" button.
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The feature activates by default. Advertisers who wish to maintain strict placement exclusions must manually deselect the checkbox or specify which excluded placements should not receive budget allocation. Digital marketing specialist Bram Van der Hallen spotted the update and documented the interface changes in a LinkedIn post shared recently.
Meta's recommendation for the feature centers on performance optimization. "Meta recommends spending part of your budget to excluded placements as it may improve performance," according to Van der Hallen's documentation of the setting. The platform justifies this approach by noting that sales and leads campaigns optimize for bottom-of-funnel conversions, making limited spending on excluded placements a consideration for maximizing outcomes.
The 5% budget allocation applies to each individual excluded placement rather than a total 5% distributed across all exclusions. This means campaigns with multiple placement exclusions could see significantly more than 5% of total budget directed to placements advertisers intended to avoid.
The implementation raises questions about brand safety concerns, particularly for advertisers who exclude Meta's Audience Network for specific reasons. Audience Network places ads on external apps and websites beyond Meta's owned properties, creating potential brand suitability challenges for advertisers with strict content adjacency requirements.
The placement control update arrives amid Meta's broader shift toward automation and default opt-in settings across its advertising platform. The company eliminated detailed targeting exclusions in January 2025, citing 22% better performance for campaigns without the feature. Meta also enabled Dynamic Media by default for Advantage+ Catalog ads starting September 2025, with 100% enforcement by October 20, 2025.
These changes align with Meta's AI-powered advertising strategy. The company completed a global rollout of streamlined campaign creation flows that activate Advantage+ by default for sales and app campaigns during Q2 2025. Advantage+ sales campaigns have shown 22% average return on ad spend improvements, according to Meta's Q2 2025 earnings report where the company posted $46.6 billion in advertising revenue.
The placement spending option operates within Meta's complex placement ecosystem of 25 distinct ad locations across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network. Each placement carries specific aspect ratio requirements and performance characteristics, creating technical challenges for advertisers managing creative assets and campaign optimization.
Advertisers check for the feature's availability by navigating to placement controls at the ad set level within new sales or leads campaigns. The rollout appears gradual, as not all advertising accounts have received access to the setting simultaneously.
Industry response to the feature has centered on control and transparency concerns. Marketing professionals commenting on Van der Hallen's documentation expressed skepticism about default opt-in approaches. One advertiser characterized the approach as Meta taking control "under the pretext of improving performance," while another noted that "budget control for clients just got way harder."
The implementation differs from Meta's value rules feature, which became available in July 2025 and allows advertisers to increase or decrease bids for specific placements. Value rules enable strategic bidding adjustments but do not override placement exclusions in the same manner as the new spending option.
Meta's approach to automated placement delivery extends to its newest advertising surface. When the company rolled out ads to Threads globally in April 2025, the Threads feed placement activated by default for new campaigns using Advantage+ or Manual Placements. Advertisers wanting to exclude Threads had to manually opt out through placement settings.
The feature's impact on campaign performance remains unproven through independent testing. Meta's internal recommendation suggests potential performance benefits, but the company has not released specific performance data comparing campaigns with and without the limited spend option enabled.
For advertisers concerned about brand safety or maintaining strict placement control, the manual opt-out requirement introduces an additional verification step in campaign setup processes. Campaigns created before advertisers discover the new default setting may already be delivering ads to previously excluded placements.
The spending allocation mechanism operates independently from existing placement optimization features. Advertisers using Advantage+ placements already allow Meta's algorithms to identify cost-effective ad placements across the network. The new limited spend option applies specifically when advertisers select manual placements and create exclusion lists.
Technical implementation details indicate the feature integrates with Meta's existing placement selection interface rather than requiring separate campaign structures. Advertisers maintain access to all 25 placement options when configuring campaigns, with the limited spend checkbox appearing only after exclusions are applied.
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The update follows Meta's pattern of introducing automation features with default activation. The company's advertising platform evolution throughout 2025 has consistently emphasized algorithmic optimization over manual controls, a strategy supported by significant AI infrastructure investments including data center clusters requiring gigawatt-scale energy capacity.
Marketing professionals managing multiple client accounts must now add placement spending verification to their campaign launch checklists. The default activation means existing quality assurance processes may miss the setting unless specifically updated to check for the new checkbox state.
The feature's availability coincides with Meta's continued expansion of automation capabilities. The company launched opportunity score globally in June 2025, providing AI-powered campaign optimization recommendations through Ads Manager. These tools represent Meta's broader strategy of increasing automation while maintaining selective advertiser oversight options.
Advertisers seeking to maintain complete control over placement exclusions should verify the checkbox state during campaign creation and monitor existing campaigns for any retroactive application of the setting. Meta has not indicated whether the feature will expand to other campaign objectives beyond sales and leads.
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Timeline
- January 21, 2025: Meta removes detailed targeting exclusions, citing 22% better campaign performance
- April 23, 2025: Meta rolls out ads to Threads globally with default placement activation
- May 29, 2025: Meta launches unified API structure for Advantage+ campaigns
- June 4, 2025: Meta announces value optimization expansion including Value Rules for placement-specific bidding
- June 22, 2025: Meta launches opportunity score globally for all advertisers
- July 11, 2025: Meta unveils Creative breakdown for Flexible formats and AI-generated images
- July 25, 2025: Meta value rules become available for placement-specific bidding control
- July 30, 2025: Meta posts 22% advertising revenue growth to $46.6 billion
- August 20, 2025: Meta expands advertising features with targeted offers and universal value rules
- August 25, 2025: Meta announces Dynamic Media default activation for Advantage+ Catalog ads
- October 2025 (date unspecified): Meta introduces limited spend option for excluded placements in sales and leads campaigns
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Summary
Who: Meta Platforms introduced the feature affecting advertisers running sales and leads campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network placements.
What: A new default setting allows Meta to spend up to 5% of campaign budgets on each placement advertisers have excluded, requiring manual opt-out to maintain strict placement control.
When: The feature launched in October 2025 with gradual rollout to advertising accounts, though Meta has not disclosed an official announcement date.
Where: The setting appears in Placement controls at the ad set level within Meta Ads Manager, specifically for new sales and leads campaigns with manual placement selection.
Why: Meta recommends the feature to improve campaign performance, stating that sales and leads campaigns optimize for bottom-of-funnel conversions where limited spending on excluded placements may maximize outcomes, continuing the company's broader automation strategy throughout 2025.