A lot of advertisers prepare for Black Friday by increasing their budgets, testing new creatives, and setting up offers. But very few pay attention to the budget leaks caused by Meta Ads default settings
1. Cut Placements That Waste Your Budget
Don't blindly trust automatic placements.
Go through your data from the last 6 to 12 months and check which placements actually bring conversions at an acceptable CPA.
If certain placements consistently spend money without delivering results, consider excluding them. Audience Network is one placement worth reviewing, depending on your account data.
Don't make decisions based on assumptions. Let your numbers decide.
2. Stop Paying to Acquire Customers You Already Have
If you're running acquisition campaigns without excluding existing customers, you could be wasting money targeting people who have already purchased.
Build and regularly update your customer exclusion audiences using available sources such as:
Your latest customer CSV list
Meta Pixel/website purchase events
Use these audiences to exclude existing customers from campaigns designed specifically to acquire new ones.
This is especially important when acquisition costs are already high during Black Friday
3. Segment Engaged Audiences by Purchase Intent
Not all engagement is equal.
Someone who liked a post isn't necessarily as valuable as someone who viewed a product or added an item to their cart.
For higher AOV products, consider prioritizing stronger intent signals, such as:
View Content
Add to Cart
Initiate Checkout
The goal is to target people who have shown genuine buying intent, not just casual engagement
4. Review Meta's Automatic Creative Enhancements
Meta keeps introducing more automation and AI features. Don't assume every automated feature is automatically better. Test before scaling.
5. Stop Automatically Converting Ads Into Catalogs
Starting October 28, Meta may replace the creative you've worked hard on with product browsing, sending customers to a regular catalog instead of your website.
Opt out and disable Add Product Browsing in any new ad to preserve the customer journey you've planned.
Important: Meta's interface and feature availability can vary by account. Verify any announced rollout dates and settings directly in Ads Manager before making changes.
During Black Friday, CPMs can rise, competition gets tougher, and every wasted dollar matters.
Question for the media buyers here
Have you reviewed these settings in your account, or are you letting the algorithms make the decisions for you?!
1. Cut Placements That Waste Your Budget
Don't blindly trust automatic placements.
Go through your data from the last 6 to 12 months and check which placements actually bring conversions at an acceptable CPA.
If certain placements consistently spend money without delivering results, consider excluding them. Audience Network is one placement worth reviewing, depending on your account data.
Don't make decisions based on assumptions. Let your numbers decide.
2. Stop Paying to Acquire Customers You Already Have
If you're running acquisition campaigns without excluding existing customers, you could be wasting money targeting people who have already purchased.
Build and regularly update your customer exclusion audiences using available sources such as:
Your latest customer CSV list
Meta Pixel/website purchase events
Use these audiences to exclude existing customers from campaigns designed specifically to acquire new ones.
This is especially important when acquisition costs are already high during Black Friday
3. Segment Engaged Audiences by Purchase Intent
Not all engagement is equal.
Someone who liked a post isn't necessarily as valuable as someone who viewed a product or added an item to their cart.
For higher AOV products, consider prioritizing stronger intent signals, such as:
View Content
Add to Cart
Initiate Checkout
The goal is to target people who have shown genuine buying intent, not just casual engagement
4. Review Meta's Automatic Creative Enhancements
Meta keeps introducing more automation and AI features. Don't assume every automated feature is automatically better. Test before scaling.
5. Stop Automatically Converting Ads Into Catalogs
Starting October 28, Meta may replace the creative you've worked hard on with product browsing, sending customers to a regular catalog instead of your website.
Opt out and disable Add Product Browsing in any new ad to preserve the customer journey you've planned.
Important: Meta's interface and feature availability can vary by account. Verify any announced rollout dates and settings directly in Ads Manager before making changes.
During Black Friday, CPMs can rise, competition gets tougher, and every wasted dollar matters.
"You don't necessarily need to increase your budget to improve performance. Sometimes, you need to fix what's already leaking"
Question for the media buyers here
Have you reviewed these settings in your account, or are you letting the algorithms make the decisions for you?!
