By Lewis Day
15 Mar 2024 · 5 Min Read
Formally Advantage+ Shopping, Advantage+ Sales is on of the most exciting developments on the Meta ad platform in years. Utilising machine learning specifically designed for the new era of Meta advertising, Advantage+ Sales campaigns (ASC) have yielded impressive results for our clients.
We’ve created this guide to Advantage Plus Sales to help you understand:
- What Advantage+ Sales is
- What makes it different to classic campaigns
- How to incorporate testing it into your mix
What is Advantage+ Sales (ASC).
Advantage+ Sales is a campaign type specifically geared towards e-commerce businesses, allowing for product ads utilising the machine learning algorithm. It’s a more automated campaign type that gives people less control over audience segmentation in favour of broader audiences.
Meta claims that it is “designed to be the most efficient solution for performance-focused advertisers looking to drive online sales”. Reported results across the industry have been overwhelmingly positive, and indeed, internally, we have seen great results for our clients, specifically e-commerce clients.
That being said, like with all campaign types in advertising, nothing is perfect. We have seen that the effect of the learning phase is much more severe and causes more instability than with standard campaigns. So if you are looking to test this campaign type, take that into consideration; make fewer changes and wait a week or so for results to stabilise before you decide it hasn’t worked.
What makes it different to classic campaigns?
The general theme here is simplicity. The campaign set-up process is simplified to make it easier for advertisers to get started. The campaign type uses a machine learning algorithm for serving ads, and Meta has removed a few features, such as non-location audience targeting and placement exclusions.
Broader audiences.
The largest difference between ASC and ordinary campaigns, as mentioned above, is the restriction on audiences. You cannot add Lookalikes, Interest targeting or audience exclusions.
This sounds like a step backwards. We get it. Everyone rolls their eyes and says, “Yet another targeting feature was removed from an ad platform just so that the platforms can make more money.” This is the classic argument in our industry whenever something like this happens.
Yes, it would be nice to know that you could refine your targeting, and we do see this lack of audience control result in a higher number of engaged and existing audience segment interactions than your usual, manual sales campaigns. Especially since Meta removed the ability to set existing audience budget caps.
However, in our experience, the majority of advertisers receive a better overall result from leaning into broad in the correct way, and this is especially true with our ecom clients.
So whilst this is a restraint compared to classic campaign types, Meta as a platform is moving in a direction of broader audience targeting, and we have seen positive results from this, which, ultimately, is what matters most.
Creative testing.
Another key benefit of the ASC compared to manual campaigns is the capacity and ability to test creative assets. Within a single Advantage+ Sales campaign, you can test up to 150 different creative assets, allowing for great insight into which creative is performing best when compared to your other assets.
When pairing this with the broader audience targeting and an algorithm that continues to learn from historical data and optimise accordingly, you will gain valuable insight into what creative resonates best with your audience on a scale that other campaign types can struggle to match.
How to thoughtfully test Advantage+ Sales.
We wouldn’t recommend that you switch all of your campaigns to ASC. As with most platforms, balance is key, and we are seeing the most success running these campaign types alongside manual sales campaigns.
We recommend portioning a small percentage of your budget, dependent solely on your required investment, to reach 50 conversions in a week. So look at your current CPA and multiply that by 7.15. This is the minimum daily budget we recommend using to test this campaign type.
The more you can afford to risk, the better, as this will enable you to exit learning faster, but it's probably not wise to utilise a high percentage of the budget if this could cause problems to the bottom line of your business should things not work out.
Secondly, you need to give it time. With the learning phase being a little more unforgiving with this campaign type, the first week can be a little rockier than with manual sales campaigns. Give it a few weeks before assessing its success.
These are general rules, and everyone's account is different, so please consider your own circumstances before testing this campaign type and feel free to reach out to us for advice around testing advantage+ shopping campaigns.