Unlocking Meta’s Advanced Campaign Settings to Scale Your Paid Advertising Returns

If your Meta advertising is already performing well and delivering solid results, chances are you’ve nailed the fundamentals. At this stage, simply increasing budget won’t guarantee proportional growth. To scale profitably and consistently, you need to explore Meta’s advanced tools and lesser-known settings that give you tighter control, improved tracking and smarter decision-making.

This guide is tailored to businesses generating at least £50,000 per month in revenue and already seeing returns from Meta campaigns. We’ll dive into high-impact features that are often overlooked and explain how to access and implement them effectively, without the usual jargon or guesswork.

1. Use Advantage Plus Placements With Strategic Intent

Advantage Plus Placements allow Meta to automatically distribute your ads across all available platforms such as Facebook Feed, Instagram Reels, Stories and the Audience Network.

Many advertisers simply leave this feature on by default, assuming the algorithm will find the best results. In practice, some placements may waste budget with little return. To make informed decisions, you need to review actual performance data by placement.

How to check this:

• Navigate to Ads Manager and open a campaign or ad set

• Click the Breakdown button in the top-right corner

• Choose the option to view results by Delivery then select Placement

Once you identify underperforming placements such as the Audience Network or Facebook right column, you can switch to manual placements or create a test split with tailored creative for better-performing locations like Instagram Reels.

2. Run Conversion Lift Tests to Prove Real Value

Conversion Lift testing helps you determine whether your ads are truly driving sales that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. This method measures incrementality by comparing a group exposed to your ads with a control group that wasn’t.

Many advertisers only track attributed conversions, which can be misleading. Lift testing shows the real-world effectiveness of your campaigns.

To set up a Conversion Lift Test:

• Go to Business Manager and select Experiments from the menu

• Choose Conversion Lift and define your audience groups

• Run the test for at least two weeks to get statistically significant results

For best results, combine this with server-side tracking through the Conversions API so the data is as accurate as possible.

3. Build Value-Based Lookalike Audiences

Most advertisers create Lookalike Audiences based on simple actions such as purchases or leads. A more powerful approach is to create Lookalikes based on customer value, prioritising those who spend more or subscribe to high-ticket offers.

This ensures Meta is targeting people who are more likely to drive higher lifetime value rather than just convert once.

To set up a value-based Lookalike:

• Go to the Audiences section and create a new Custom Audience using either website data or a customer list

• Make sure the data includes a value field such as order total or customer lifetime value

• Create a Lookalike Audience from that source and tick the box to optimise by value

Consider creating multiple Lookalike tiers, such as 1 percent to 5 percent, and test using Campaign Budget Optimisation so the algorithm can allocate budget across top-performing groups.

4. Prioritise Conversion Events Using Aggregated Event Measurement

With the privacy changes introduced by Apple’s iOS 14 update, Meta now requires advertisers to prioritise up to eight conversion events for each verified domain using Aggregated Event Measurement.

If you don’t configure this correctly, Meta may optimise for the wrong actions or fail to track conversions altogether.

To set this up:

• Go to Events Manager and select your pixel

• Choose the Aggregated Event Measurement section

• Configure Web Events and drag your key events into priority order, such as Purchase, Add to Cart and Initiate Checkout

Changes take up to 72 hours to apply and may impact delivery temporarily, so plan accordingly. Always prioritise events based on business value rather than event volume.

5. Implement Server-Side Tracking with the Conversions API

Browser-based tracking using the Meta Pixel is no longer reliable on its own due to privacy changes, ad blockers and cookie restrictions. The Conversions API allows you to send data directly from your server to Meta, filling in the gaps.

Many advertisers see a 15 to 30 percent improvement in tracking visibility after implementation.

Steps to enable Conversions API:

• Go to Events Manager and select your Pixel

• Click into Settings and scroll down to the Conversions API section

• Follow the setup wizard or use a partner integration such as Shopify or Google Tag Manager

Use both browser and server-side events for the same conversion actions to ensure redundancy and improve match quality. You can view match scores and diagnostics directly in Events Manager to monitor performance.

6. Add ROAS or Cost Controls to Guide Algorithm Spend

When scaling campaigns, you can apply guardrails to ensure Meta only delivers your ads when it expects to hit a minimum performance benchmark. This helps maintain profitability while allowing the algorithm to optimise delivery.

How to apply controls:

• Open an ad set and scroll to the Budget and Schedule section

• Click to reveal advanced options

• Set a minimum Return on Ad Spend or a maximum Cost Per Result based on your target metrics

Avoid setting these too early in a campaign lifecycle. Wait until you have enough data to set realistic targets, otherwise you risk restricting delivery or underutilising budget.

7. Use A B Testing with Isolated Budget Allocation

A B Testing through Meta’s Experiments tool is far more reliable than running multiple ad variations within a single campaign. You can test one variable at a time such as creative, bidding strategy or landing page.

To start an A B Test:

• Open Ads Manager and select the Experiments tab

• Choose A B Test and define the variables you want to isolate

• Allocate equal budget to each test group and run for a minimum of seven days

For higher level strategy, you can also use holdout tests to compare against a group who sees no ads, helping you assess brand lift or halo effects.

8. Custom Metrics and Columns for Precision Reporting

The standard reports in Ads Manager often hide the metrics that matter most to your business. Customising your columns and building your own metrics allows you to zero in on what truly drives return.

To customise your view:

• In Ads Manager, click the Columns dropdown then select Customise Columns

• Choose high intent actions such as Landing Page Views, Adds to Cart or Initiate Checkout

• Scroll to the bottom and create custom metrics using formulas such as Cost per Add to Cart or Revenue per 1,000 Impressions

This enables smarter decisions and better pattern recognition, especially when reviewing ad fatigue indicators such as high frequency with falling CTR.

If your business is already getting results from Meta Ads, the next stage of growth comes from precision. These advanced features and tools give you the control and insight needed to scale profitably, while ensuring every pound spent delivers the highest possible return.

Avoid relying solely on automation and dig into the details—whether through server-side tracking, clean testing methodology or value-based targeting. The advertisers who embrace these deeper layers of optimisation are the ones who stay competitive as the paid landscape evolves.