You probably don’t need to remove placements…
There was a time when doing this made sense. The algorithm wasn’t that smart and some placements were a waste of money.
But too many advertisers make it a habit of removing placements, regardless of the situation. They determined that the right-hand column, Audience NetworkAudience Network is a network of mobile apps that have been approved to monetize their apps with ads. This is how you can show your Meta ads to people while they are away from the Meta family of apps. Audience Network and associated groups are among your placement selection options in the ad set. More, or Marketplace are low-quality and never work.
SIDE NOTE: Overmanaging placements isn’t a new phenomenon. I once wrote about how advertisers needed to stop removing the right-hand column placement more than 10 years ago!
Optimizing for ConversionsA conversion is counted whenever a website visitor performs an action that fires a standard event, custom event, or custom conversion. Examples of conversions include purchases, leads, content views, add to cart, and registrations. More
While some placements may be more effective than others, and some like Audience Network have their issues, you shouldn’t always remove them.
If you optimize for any type of conversion, you’ll likely see your ads aren’t distributed much in those placements at all. The algorithm is trying to get you the most conversions and will do that as efficiently as it can.
Why restrict it?
Top of Funnel Optimization
Where you need to be careful is when optimizing for the top of the funnel. Meta will try to get you as many link clicksThe link click metric measures all clicks on links that drive users to properties on and off of Facebook. More or landing page viewsLanding Page View is a Facebook ads metric that represents when people land on your destination URL after clicking a link in your ad. More as possible, for example, if that is your performance goalThe Performance Goal is chosen within the ad set and determines optimization and delivery. How you optimize impacts who sees your ad. Meta will show your ad to people most likely to perform your desired action. More. And the algorithm can find lots of low-quality clicks from AudienceThis is the group of people who can potentially see your ads. You help influence this by adjusting age, gender, location, detailed targeting (interests and behaviors), custom audiences, and more. More Network.
Another example is Audience Network Rewarded Video. If you want ThruPlaysThe number of times your video was played for at least 15 seconds or to completion. More, Meta will get you lots of ThruPlays from this placementA placement is a location where your ad is shown. Examples include Facebook's mobile Feed, Messenger, Instagram feed, Audience Network, right-hand column, and more. More. But it’s not because people are necessarily interested in your video. Users are rewarded by watching at least 15 seconds.
But stop micromanaging placements when optimizing for conversions. You’ll probably just increase your costs.
Instead of obsessing over placements and other things that have minimal impact, focus on the four factors that actually matter.
