Placements: Facebook and Instagram
Placements control where your Meta ads appear across Facebook and Instagram. Plai uses Advantage+ placements by default, which lets Meta automatically show your ads wherever they're most likely to perform. You can customise placements in the advanced settings if you have a specific reason to restrict them.
Default: Advantage+ placements
By default, every Meta campaign in our App runs with Advantage+ placements enabled. This gives Meta's delivery system full flexibility to show your ad across all eligible surfaces — Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network — and automatically shifts budget toward whichever placements are performing best at any given moment.
Leave Advantage+ on for most campaigns. Restricting placements manually reduces the auction pool and typically raises CPMs. Meta's system is well-optimised and has access to more signals than you can manually configure. Only restrict placements when you have a specific creative or strategic reason to do so.
Available placements
When placements are set to Advantage+, Meta considers all of the following surfaces depending on your campaign objective and creative format:
- Facebook Feed
- Facebook Stories
- Facebook Reels
- Facebook In-Stream Videos
- Facebook Search Results
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Right Column
- Facebook Instant Articles
- Instagram Feed
- Instagram Stories
- Instagram Reels
- Instagram Explore
- Instagram Shop
Messenger
- Messenger Stories
Not all placements are available for every campaign objective or creative format. Meta automatically filters eligible placements based on what you've selected.
How to customise placements
If you need to restrict placements — for example, to run ads only on Instagram, or to exclude Audience Network — you can do so in the Advanced settings tab of the campaign builder in our App. Switch from Advantage+ to manual placements and deselect the surfaces you don't want.
When to restrict placements
There are legitimate reasons to manually restrict placements:
- Instagram-only campaigns — if your brand is Instagram-focused or you have creative optimised exclusively for Instagram formats
- Excluding Audience Network — if you're running a lead gen campaign and want to avoid low-quality clicks from third-party app placements
- Feed-only — if you're testing creative performance in a controlled placement environment
- Stories/Reels only — if you've produced vertical video creative and want to maximise its use
Restricting placements reduces scale. Each placement you remove shrinks the eligible auction pool, which can increase costs and reduce delivery speed. Only restrict when you have a clear reason — and monitor performance after making the change.
Aspect ratios by placement
Different placements have different optimal aspect ratios for creative:
- Feed (Facebook & Instagram) — 1:1 square or 4:5 vertical perform best; 16:9 landscape is also supported
- Stories & Reels — 9:16 full-screen vertical is required
- Right Column — 1:1 or landscape
- Messenger — 1:1 or 9:16
When using Advantage+ placements, Meta will adapt your creative across formats automatically where possible — but supplying the right aspect ratio for each format gives better results.
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