Meta value rules now available for placement-specific bidding control

Meta's value rules feature becomes available, allowing advertisers to adjust bids across 25 placements and audiences.

Digital advertising dashboard showing Meta's value rules interface with data streams and placement controls
Digital advertising dashboard showing Meta's value rules interface with data streams and placement controls

Meta's value rules functionality is now available to eligible advertisers, enabling customized bidding adjustments for specific audiences and ad placements across its advertising platform. The feature allows marketers to increase or decrease bids based on factors including age, gender, operating system, location, and placement.

The capability operates through prioritized rule sets where advertisers can create up to 10 rules with up to 2 criteria each. Following Meta's June 4, 2025 announcement, the feature has reached broader availability among advertisers using sales and app promotion objectives. Fred Leach, Meta's vice president of product management, stated that "Some conversions are more valuable than others, and marketers want to focus on conversions that generate the specific business results they care about." Meta's documentation confirms that "When working with multiple rules, Meta only applies the first applicable rule in the list."

Digital marketing expert Bram Van der Hallen confirmed the feature's availability, noting that advertisers can now "set bid rules for your preferred audiences" through the advertising settings in Meta Ads accounts. The placement selection component allows targeting specific locations including Instagram feed, Facebook feed, Stories, Reels, and Marketplace placements.

NEW 🔥 Meta added a new option to increase or decrease bids to appear on specific ad placements like the Instagram feed. | Bram Van der Hallen
NEW 🔥 Meta added a new option to increase or decrease bids to appear on specific ad placements like the Instagram feed. When using ‘Value rules’ you can set bid rules for your preferred audiences. You can select the following options: Age, Gender, OS, Location and Placement. The Placement selection allows you to choose from the following placements to bid more or less. When available for your ad account, you can find a new ‘Value rules’ feature in the ‘Advertising settings’ of your Meta Ads account. From there, you can create rules to tell Meta how much more certain audiences are worth to your business. When you create a new ‘Sales’ or ‘App promotion’ campaign, you can select the rule set you want to apply for that campaign under ‘Value rules’. Meta will then optimize for conversions based on your rules. Working with value rules should result in more outcomes because you can focus your budget using your rules. This means that you could reach more of your preferred audiences without setting up multiple ad sets (depending on your current setup). It may also mean that the overall cost per result may increase when using value rules. In the Ads Manager interface, you can select a new breakdown to see outcomes for ads and ad sets where you applied value rules. Value rules can be used to optimize for all types of goals. You can create up to 10 rules and up to 2 criteria in each rule. When working with multiple rules, Meta only applies the first applicable rule in the list. #MetaAds update spotted by Bram Van der Hallen 👈 Follow for more Meta Ads content. | 18 comments on LinkedIn

Value rules represent part of Meta's broader value optimization expansion announced during a formal product announcement on June 4, 2025. According to PPC Land's coverage, the announcement outlined three key tools within Meta's AI-based product suite: Value Rules, Value Optimization, and Incremental Attribution. The tools are designed to help advertisers "optimize campaigns based on specific business outcomes rather than total conversion volume."

The functionality targets campaigns using sales and app promotion objectives with website or app as the conversion location. Meta explicitly excludes certain campaign types from value rules access, including Shop, Web+Shop, cross channel conversion optimization, Housing, Employment, Credit, SIEP, healthcare, and pharmaceutical campaigns.

Advertisers can now access value rules through the 'Value rules' feature located in the 'Advertising settings' section of Meta Ads accounts. When creating new sales or app promotion campaigns, users can select applicable rule sets under the 'Value rules' section, prompting Meta to optimize for conversions based on the specified criteria.

Meta's internal testing revealed that "working with value rules should result in more outcomes because you can focus your budget using your rules." The platform enables reaching preferred audiences without requiring multiple ad sets, though the company warns that "the overall cost per result may increase when using value rules."

The prioritized rule system addresses audience overlap scenarios systematically. If rule 1 specifies bidding 20% more for women in California and rule 2 specifies bidding 10% more for women using particular mobile operating systems, a woman in California using that operating system receives only the 20% bid increase from Rule 1.

The ads manager interface includes specialized breakdowns for analyzing outcomes from ads and ad sets where value rules apply. This measurement capability allows advertisers to evaluate rule effectiveness across different audience segments and placement combinations.

The placement bidding component addresses the complex landscape of Meta's advertising ecosystem. According to recent analysis, Meta's platform includes 25 distinct ad placement options, each with specific technical requirements and performance characteristics.

Marketing professionals can leverage value rules to address varying performance patterns across placements without creating separate campaigns. An advertiser recognizing that Instagram feed placements generate higher lifetime value customers could establish rules to bid more aggressively for that specific placement.

The feature integrates with Meta's broader artificial intelligence optimization systems while providing granular control capabilities. Value rules complement existing automated bidding strategies rather than replacing them, offering a middle ground between full automation and manual campaign management.

Meta's platform documentation emphasizes that value rules work across all campaign goal types, expanding beyond traditional conversion-focused objectives. This flexibility enables businesses with diverse key performance indicators to implement customized bidding strategies aligned with specific business priorities.

The announcement included expanded availability for these tools. According to PPC Land's reporting, Value Rules became available to 50% of advertisers as of the June announcement, with Meta targeting 100% availability in the near future, up from 10% previously. Incremental Attribution, previously limited to select advertisers, achieved global availability. Value Optimization received enhanced capabilities for tracking ROAS across profit margins and specific events.

Industry implications extend beyond individual campaign management to broader programmatic advertising trends. The value rules feature represents Meta's response to advertiser demand for increased control over automated systems without sacrificing optimization capabilities.

Technical implementation requires understanding Meta's attribution systems and conversion tracking setup. Advertisers must ensure proper conversion event configuration to benefit from value-based optimization features, as the system relies on accurate data for decision-making processes.

The feature availability spans Meta's global advertising platform, currently accessible to eligible advertisers using sales and app promotion objectives across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp placements worldwide. Geographic restrictions apply only to campaign types specifically excluded from value rules functionality.

Meta's approach addresses fundamental challenges in multi-placement advertising optimization. Traditional campaign structures often require separate ad sets for different audience or placement combinations, leading to budget fragmentation and complex management requirements.

The value rules system streamlines these operations by enabling single campaigns with sophisticated bidding logic. Advertisers can maintain simplified campaign structures while implementing nuanced optimization strategies based on audience characteristics and placement performance.

Performance measurement capabilities include specialized reporting dimensions for tracking value rules effectiveness. The platform provides granular data on how bidding adjustments impact campaign outcomes across different rule configurations and audience segments.

Meta's investment in value optimization reflects broader industry trends toward outcome-based advertising strategies. Advertisers increasingly demand tools that align advertising optimization with specific business objectives rather than generic performance metrics.

The timing of the announcement positions Meta competitively against other platforms investing heavily in automated bidding technologies. Value rules provide differentiation by combining artificial intelligence optimization with advertiser-controlled strategic direction.

For marketing teams managing complex product portfolios or diverse customer segments, value rules now offer sophisticated targeting capabilities within unified campaign structures. The feature enables businesses to implement strategic bidding policies that reflect varying customer lifetime values or product margins.

Timeline

  • June 4, 2025 - PPC Land reports Meta's official announcement of value optimization expansion including Value Rules, Value Optimization, and Incremental Attribution with expanded availability
  • April 23, 2025 - Meta rolls out ads to Threads globally with default placement activation for new campaigns
  • June 22, 2025 - Meta launches opportunity score globally for all advertisers with AI-powered optimization recommendations
  • July 2025 - Meta Value Rules feature becomes widely available in advertising settings for eligible campaign types
  • Present - Value Rules functionality currently active for sales and app promotion campaigns with website or app conversion locations

Summary

Who: Meta Technologies announced value rules expansion affecting advertisers using sales and app promotion objectives on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp platforms globally.

What: Meta introduced value rules functionality allowing advertisers to create up to 10 customized bidding rules with 2 criteria each, enabling bid adjustments based on age, gender, location, operating system, and ad placement factors.

When: Meta announced the value optimization expansion on June 4, 2025, with value rules becoming available in advertising settings for eligible campaigns shortly thereafter.

Where: The feature operates across Meta's entire advertising ecosystem including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp placements, with exclusions for specific campaign types including housing, employment, credit, and healthcare categories.

Why: Meta developed value rules to help advertisers optimize campaigns based on specific business outcomes rather than total conversion volume, addressing demand for greater control over automated bidding systems while maintaining optimization capabilities.

Key Terms Explained

Value Rules

Value rules represent Meta's system for allowing advertisers to create customized bidding adjustments based on specific audience characteristics and placement locations. This functionality enables marketers to assign different values to various customer segments or ad placements without requiring separate campaigns. The system operates through a prioritized structure where advertisers can establish up to 10 distinct rules, each containing up to 2 criteria, allowing for sophisticated bidding strategies that reflect business priorities and customer lifetime value considerations.

Placement Optimization

Placement optimization refers to the strategic approach of adjusting advertising bids and targeting based on where ads appear across Meta's extensive network of 25 different placement options. This includes locations such as Instagram feed, Facebook feed, Stories, Reels, Marketplace, and Messenger, each offering distinct user engagement patterns and conversion characteristics. Effective placement optimization requires understanding how different audiences interact with content across these various touchpoints and adjusting bidding strategies accordingly.

Bidding Strategies

Bidding strategies encompass the various approaches advertisers can employ to determine how much they're willing to pay for ad impressions or actions across Meta's platform. These strategies range from automated systems that rely on machine learning algorithms to manual approaches that give advertisers direct control over bid amounts. Value rules introduce a hybrid approach that combines automated optimization with advertiser-defined preferences for specific audience segments or placements.

Campaign Optimization

Campaign optimization involves the ongoing process of refining advertising campaigns to improve performance metrics such as cost per result, return on ad spend, and conversion rates. This encompasses everything from audience targeting adjustments to creative testing and bid management. Meta's value rules feature represents an evolution in campaign optimization by allowing advertisers to embed business logic directly into the automated optimization process.

Audience Targeting

Audience targeting refers to the practice of defining specific groups of users based on demographics, behaviors, interests, and other characteristics to ensure ads reach the most relevant potential customers. Meta's value rules enhance audience targeting by allowing advertisers to assign different values to audience segments, enabling the platform to automatically prioritize higher-value customers during the bidding process while maintaining broad reach.

Meta Advertising Platform

The Meta advertising platform encompasses the comprehensive ecosystem of tools, technologies, and placement options available across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and the Meta Audience Network. This platform processes millions of ad auctions daily, utilizing sophisticated algorithms to match advertisements with appropriate audiences across multiple touchpoints. The platform's complexity stems from its integration of various social media properties and its extensive data collection capabilities.

Automated Optimization

Automated optimization refers to Meta's use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to automatically adjust campaign settings, bidding strategies, and ad delivery to maximize advertiser objectives. This technology analyzes vast amounts of user behavior data to predict which audiences are most likely to take desired actions and adjusts campaigns accordingly. Value rules enhance this automation by incorporating advertiser-defined business priorities into the optimization process.

Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking involves measuring and attributing specific user actions, such as purchases, sign-ups, or downloads, back to advertising campaigns. This process requires sophisticated attribution models to determine which ads and touchpoints contributed to desired outcomes. Meta's value rules system relies heavily on accurate conversion tracking to understand which audience segments and placements deliver the highest value results for specific business objectives.

Business Outcomes

Business outcomes represent the ultimate goals that advertisers seek to achieve through their advertising efforts, extending beyond simple metrics like clicks or impressions to include revenue, profit, customer lifetime value, and other meaningful business metrics. Meta's value rules feature specifically addresses the need to optimize for these business outcomes rather than intermediate metrics, allowing advertisers to align their advertising optimization with their actual business priorities.

Performance Metrics

Performance metrics encompass the various measurements used to evaluate advertising campaign effectiveness, including cost per result, return on ad spend, click-through rates, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. The introduction of value rules affects how these metrics are calculated and interpreted, as the system may increase overall costs while delivering higher-value conversions. Understanding these metrics in the context of value-based optimization requires a shift from volume-focused to outcome-focused measurement approaches.