"You no longer have to pick between manual and Advantage+"

Meta's announcement on 2025-02-06. A major reorganization of the Advantage+ portfolio. The gist:

• Manual and Advantage+ now share the same UI — no more separate campaign selection
• "Advantage+ on" label — shows which campaigns have AI optimization active
• Advantage+ Shopping → Advantage+ Sales rebrand
• Advantage+ Leads Campaigns launched
• Opportunity Score expanded

Advantage+ Shopping campaigns grew 70% YoY in Q4. Ad quality improved 8% after Andromeda rolled out. Now "the next step is full integration."

Source: Meta Business News — Supercharge performance with new Advantage+ AI features

Change 1 — Unified campaign setup

Before: at campaign creation, you chose "Advantage+ Shopping?" → manual vs. automated completely separated.

New approach: when creating a campaign, turn on Advantage Audience, Placement, and Campaign Budget in the default settings and the "Advantage+ on" label automatically appears. You can still use manual detail settings alongside.

Practical impact:

• The boundary blurs = any campaign can reach Advantage+ level optimization
• Manual operators can turn on select Advantage options to get the benefits
• Accounts that were "pure manual" now auto-use some AI features

Numbers: Unified-setup campaigns match CPA with existing Advantage+ Shopping. So: UI simplification + performance preserved.

Change 2 — Advantage+ Leads Campaigns launched

Until now, the Advantage+ lineup centered on Shopping (ecommerce) and App. Leads (lead gen) was manual-only.

Now: Advantage+ Leads Campaigns. B2B, services, and consultation-booking industries get automation benefits too.

How it works:

• AI auto-decides audience, placement, and budget
• Goal is "high-quality lead collection" — leads with real conversion potential, not just submission volume
• AI learns from CRM-connected events (Sales Qualified Lead)

Conditions for adoption:

• Accounts generating 10+ leads per week
• Send SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) events from CRM via CAPI
• Set Customer Value Rule to weight high-value leads

Skip if:

• New accounts (insufficient lead data)
• Manual setup already producing high lead quality (no reason to change)

Change 3 — Opportunity Score expansion

Opportunity Score: Meta suggests, per-account, "if you made this change right now, here's how much performance would improve" as a numeric score.

Visible on select accounts in 2024, expanded to all accounts in 2025. A few clicks apply AI optimization.

Common recommendations:

• "Turn on Advantage Detailed Targeting → expected +12% improvement"
• "Switch to Advantage+ campaign → expected +18% improvement"
• "Expand placements → expected +5% improvement"

The "expected improvement" numbers come from A/B test experimental data. Not pure fiction.

How to respond in practice:

• Score 80+ recommendations are usually accepted (verified safe changes)
• 50–80 are selective (trial some)
• Under 50: skip
• Except: "Changes that reset the learning phase" always get a second look first

So what do we do?

Short term (right now):

1. Check the Opportunity Score at the top of Ads Manager
2. Among 80+ recommendations, accept only targeting/placement ones
3. Review learning-reset-triggering recommendations carefully

Medium term (1–2 months):

1. Manual campaigns → sequentially turn on Advantage Audience + Placement + Campaign Budget
2. After switching, verify the "Advantage+ on" label
3. Keep it if performance holds; roll back if it worsens

Lead gen accounts:

1. If generating 10+ leads/week, test 1 Advantage+ Leads Campaign in parallel
2. Send SQL events to Meta via CAPI
3. Compare CPA after 2 weeks

One caveat

Meta's official announcement is easy to read as "manual is disappearing," but the manual option is still available. "Manual vs. automated" is still a choice. The integration is mostly about UI simplification and making AI options easier to turn on.

Precise manual control is still valid in situations that need it (Special Ad Category, regulated industries, etc.).

Advantage+ migration, performance analysis, and scaling are covered in detail in Meta Ads Book 4.