Meta advertising in 2024 is unrecognizable from 2022. The iOS 14.5 dust has settled, Advantage+ has matured, and the winners have diverged from the losers.
Here's what's actually working across our client accounts—not theory, not best practices from blog posts, but observed patterns from live campaigns.
The Big Shift: Trust the Algorithm (Finally)
Two years ago, the smart money was on manual controls. Detailed targeting, custom audiences, manual bidding.
That's flipped.
What we've observed: Broad targeting with Advantage+ creative consistently outperforms manual targeting. The algorithm has gotten remarkably good at finding buyers—often better than our explicit audience definitions.
The implication: Shift effort from targeting to creative. The algorithm handles distribution; your job is to give it creative worth distributing.
Creative Volume Is Non-Negotiable
The single biggest predictor of success in our accounts is creative testing velocity.
The numbers: Our best-performing accounts launch 15-25 new creative concepts per month. Our mediocre accounts launch 5-8. The correlation is nearly perfect.
Why this matters: Every creative has a finite lifespan. The algorithm shows it to responsive users first, then expands to less responsive users until performance degrades. You need fresh creative before the old creative exhausts its audience.
The framework: Plan for 70% of your creative to fail. That's not pessimism—that's the math. If you're launching 20 concepts and 6 work, you're doing well.
What's Working in Creative
UGC, but evolved
Raw UGC is saturated. Everyone has testimonial videos now. What's working:
Static images aren't dead
Despite the video push, statics are resurging in certain contexts:
The key is scroll-stopping design. If it could be a stock photo, it won't work.
The hook window is shrinking
You have 1-2 seconds, not 3. We're seeing:
Advantage+ Shopping: The Specifics
ASC (Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns) is now the primary driver for most e-commerce accounts.
Setup that's working:
- Single campaign, high budget
- 150+ creatives loaded (yes, really)
- Broad targeting (country-level)
- Value-optimized bidding (not purchase if your AOV varies)
What to watch: ASC can over-index on retargeting. Check your breakdown by "Audience Segment" to ensure you're getting new customers, not just remarketing.
Attribution Settings
This is where most accounts leak money.
The current best practice:
- 7-day click, 1-day view for conversion campaigns
- 1-day click only for testing (cleaner signal)
- Use Marketing API or third-party attribution for real numbers
The problem: In-platform ROAS is often 30-50% higher than actual ROAS. Don't scale based on Meta's numbers alone.
Budget Allocation
Counterintuitive finding: most accounts spend too much on testing and not enough on scaling winners.
Our current allocation:
- 70% budget on proven creative (last 30 days of profitable performance)
- 20% on creative testing (new concepts)
- 10% on audience testing (new angles for winners)
The instinct is to diversify. The math says consolidate.
What Stopped Working
The Testing Framework
How we launch new creative:
The goal is fast feedback, not statistical significance. With enough volume, patterns emerge quickly.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Meta advertising has become more competitive, not less. The low-hanging fruit is gone. The playbook that worked in 2021 doesn't work now.
What works now:
- More creative, faster
- Better creative, not just more
- Trust the algorithm for distribution
- Question the algorithm for attribution
The barrier to entry went up. That's good news if you're willing to clear it.
Platforms change. The physics of attention and conversion don't. Master the fundamentals, adapt the tactics.