How-to
Meta is removing placement exclusions from Sales and Leads ad sets: what changes for a bulk launch
Since August 2026 some advertisers see a notice in the ad set that exclusions are going away for Sales and Leads campaigns. Jon Loomer documented it on August 20; Meta has not. What the notice says, who it applies to, the two controls that remain, and what it means when a tool creates your ad sets.
The short answer
Some advertisers now see this in the ad set editor: "Excluding placements, platforms, devices and operating systems will no longer be available for your ad sets." Jon Loomer documented it on August 20, 2026. According to his report it applies to the Sales and Leads objectives, excludes sensitive verticals, requires the new multimedia creative workflow, and is a test Meta plans to expand. Meta has not documented it, and there is no timeline.
Four things go away in the affected flow: removing individual placements, removing a whole platform, limiting to mobile or desktop, and limiting to an operating system. Two things remain: account-level Placement Controls, and value rules that adjust bids per placement. If a tool creates your ad sets, the question is whether the API keeps accepting the exclusions it sends; nobody has published the answer, so verify on your own account and launch paused.
What the notice says, and what it does not
Loomer quotes the notice in full: "Excluding placements, platforms, devices and operating systems will no longer be available for your ad sets." He adds four consequences he observed: no removing individual placements, no removing platforms, no mobile-only or desktop-only, no OS limits.
What it does not say: when, whether it reaches other objectives, and what happens to existing ad sets with exclusions. Loomer notes the change is "unofficial and not yet documented by Meta". We searched Meta's help and changelog on October 24, 2026 and found nothing. This entry is therefore an observation by a careful practitioner, not a Meta policy, and we label it that way in the 2026 change list.
The two controls that remain
Account-level Placement Controls. Loomer's workaround: Advertising Settings, Account Controls, Placement Controls, which removes placements for every ad set in the account. For an agency that runs one client per ad account this is workable; the exclusion becomes a per-account decision, which is where most of them belong anyway. For an account that mixes campaigns with different placement needs, it is a blunt tool.
Value rules. Bid adjustments per placement, device or mobile OS; seven placements were eligible at the time of Loomer's report, with "several more" coming. There is no platform-level value rule, so you cannot lower a bid for all of Facebook, but you can for Facebook-specific placements. Loomer's advice, which we share: use value rules only when a specific problem requires them, not as a reflex. His examples of where to watch: Audience Network on link-click or landing-page-view goals, Audience Network Rewarded Video on ThruPlay goals, and whether those goals belong in a Sales or Leads campaign at all.
One more number from his report: over the past year Meta added an option to automatically assign up to 5 percent of budget to excluded placements, which already signaled where this was heading.
What it means when a tool creates the ad set
Through the Marketing API, placements live in the ad set's targeting: publisher_platforms and the per-platform position lists. A tool that creates ad sets from saved defaults writes those fields on every launch. Meta has published nothing about whether, for affected objectives, the API will reject explicit exclusions, ignore them, or keep honoring them; the v26.0 changelog removes specific placements (Instagram Explore Feed, Messenger Stories) but says nothing about this test.
So the honest state is: a tool's saved placement defaults may not survive in an affected account, and you will not know from the tool. You will know from Ads Manager, if the ad set exists there before it spends.
What to do before the next launch
- Open a new Sales or Leads ad set in each account you manage and look for the notice. The test is per account.
- Move the exclusions you rely on to Advertising Settings, Account Controls, Placement Controls, per account, and write them down next to the pixel and the Page in your per-account record (managing multiple ad accounts).
- If a tool creates your ad sets: ask what it sends in
publisher_platforms, and check the first ad set it creates in an affected account. - Launch paused, check placements on the ad set before activation. The pre-launch QA checklist has placements as one line; this is the month it earns its place.
- Prefer adding ads to an existing, correctly configured ad set over creating new ones in affected accounts: adding ads to an existing ad set covers what that does to learning.
How Adlio handles it
Adlio writes your saved platforms into every new ad set it creates, from the per-account defaults you set once, and does not edit the targeting of existing ad sets. Every ad lands paused in the ad set you chose, so the placements Meta actually applied are visible in Ads Manager before a dollar is spent. When Meta documents the API behavior for affected objectives, we will test it on our own account and update this page and the 2026 change list. The batch flow is on bulk upload Facebook ads.
Frequently asked questions
Which campaigns does this apply to?+
Per Jon Loomer's report of August 20, 2026: only the Sales and Leads objectives, with sensitive verticals excluded (he presumes special ad categories and possibly health and wellness), and only for advertisers who have the new multimedia workflow in the ad creation step. Other objectives keep full placement control. Loomer describes it as a test that Meta plans to expand, unofficial and undocumented, with no timeline.
Can I still keep my ads off Audience Network?+
At account level, yes, per Loomer: Advertising Settings, Account Controls, Placement Controls removes placements for the whole account. Per ad set, in the affected flow, no. Value rules let you lower bids for a placement rather than exclude it; seven placements were eligible at the time of his report.
Does it change ad sets that already run?+
Loomer describes the new ad set creation flow. Whether existing ad sets keep their exclusions when edited is not documented. Check one of your own before you assume either way.
What does this mean for a tool that creates ad sets?+
Tools pass placements in the ad set's targeting (publisher_platforms and the per-platform positions). Meta has not published whether the API will keep accepting exclusions for affected objectives, so a tool's saved defaults may or may not survive. Adlio writes your saved platforms into every new ad set it creates and launches paused, so you see the resulting placements in Ads Manager before spend.
Sources
Adlio team
Built by media buyers who launch Meta ads in volume. Questions or corrections: support@adlio.ai.
Topic cluster
What changed at Meta
The dated 2026 changes in Ads Manager and the Marketing API that alter what a batch of ads launches with.
- Meta is removing placement exclusions from Sales and Leads ad sets: what changes for a bulk launch