Yes — but not where you used to. Meta is taking placement exclusions out of the ad set, so unchecking Audience Network campaign by campaign is going away. The one control that still hard-blocks a placement is account-level Placement Controls in Advertising Settings. Value rules only lower bids; they never switch a placement off.
If you have ever seen half a Facebook budget land on Audience Network and unchecked it in the ad set, you are about to lose that habit. Here is what changed and what still works.
What is Meta actually removing?
Meta is removing the ability to exclude placements, platforms, devices and operating systems at the ad set level. Meta ads strategist Jon Loomer documented the change on August 20, 2026, publishing the in-platform notice advertisers were shown: "Excluding placements, platforms, devices and operating systems will no longer be available for your ad sets."
That covers more than you might think. It is not only "uncheck Audience Network" — it is also excluding Facebook or Instagram entirely, restricting to mobile only, and the iOS-only and Android-only splits a lot of advertisers rely on.
According to Loomer’s reporting, as of late August the change was running as a test on Sales and Leads objectives, with special ad categories and some sensitive verticals left out. Meta has not published a platform-wide rollout announcement, so treat the timing as unconfirmed — but treat the direction as settled, because it matches everything else Meta has shipped this year. One related change is already permanent: Social Samosa reported on August 21, 2026 that Messenger Stories was removed as an ad placement on August 27, 2026.
Do value rules replace placement exclusions?
No. Value rules are a bid dial, not an off switch, and the dial has a floor.
Meta’s suggested replacement is value rules, which let you adjust bids by placement, device type and mobile operating system. The catch is the cap. A bid decrease under value rules cannot exceed 90%, as reported on August 26, 2026 — so a placement can be made expensive to win, but never impossible to win. If Meta’s system decides your best available impression is on Audience Network, it will still buy it.
For an owner spending a few thousand a month, that distinction matters. A 90% bid cut is not zero spend on a placement you have already decided converts nobody. It is less spend, sometimes.
Which control still actually blocks a placement?
Account-level Placement Controls. That is the one hard block left, and it applies even when Advantage+ placements is switched on.
You will find it in Advertising Settings, under Account Controls, then Placement Controls. Set it to allow only specific placements and the blocked surfaces stay blocked across every auction campaign in the account, regardless of what any individual ad set says. The trade-off is that it is account-wide — you cannot keep Audience Network on for a prospecting campaign and off for a retargeting one.
Two limits before you flip it: it applies to auction campaigns, not Reach and Frequency buys, and changing placements can reset the learning phase on active ad sets.
| Control | Where it lives | Does it hard-block a placement? | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad set placement exclusions | Ad set, manual placements | Being removed — and even today, up to 5% of budget can still run on an excluded placement unless you untick the limited-spend option | One ad set |
| Value rules | Ad set / campaign | No — bid decrease capped at 90% | One ad set or campaign |
| Account-level Placement Controls | Advertising Settings > Account Controls | Yes, for auction campaigns | Whole ad account |
That 5% line deserves a note. The ad set exclusion many owners think of as a hard block has not been one for months: TheOptimizer documented on June 6, 2026 that "Allow limited spending to excluded placements" is on by default, spending up to 5% of budget on each excluded placement when Meta thinks it will help. The control you are losing was already leakier than it looked.
Should a small business block Audience Network at all?
Usually not on instinct — check the numbers first, because the answer differs by objective.
Audience Network and Facebook Marketplace often show low cost per result and poor lead quality, which is exactly the pattern that makes owners want to exclude them. But blanket-blocking a placement narrows the auction for Meta’s delivery system, which can raise your cost per result overall. Before you block anything, run a breakdown by placement over the last 30 days in Ads Manager and look past cost per lead to what happened after it — answered calls, booked jobs, closed sales. If a placement produces leads your team cannot reach, block it. If it just looks cheap and unfamiliar, leave it.
This is the kind of judgement call our Meta Ads management team makes from lead-quality data rather than platform reports, because Ads Manager cannot tell you which leads picked up the phone.
What to do this week
- Check whether you have lost the controls already. Open an active Sales or Leads ad set, choose manual placements, and see whether the exclusion checkboxes are still there. The rollout is uneven, so two accounts can look different on the same day.
- Pull a placement breakdown for the last 30 days and judge each placement on booked work, not cost per lead. Write the numbers down before you change anything.
- If a placement genuinely fails on quality, block it at account level in Advertising Settings > Account Controls > Placement Controls, and accept that it applies to the whole account.
- Untick "Allow limited spending to excluded placements" anywhere you still have ad-set exclusions, so the exclusions you already set mean what you think they mean.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still exclude Audience Network from my Facebook ads?
Yes, but only at the account level. Advertising Settings > Account Controls > Placement Controls lets you allow specific placements only, and that block holds across every auction campaign in the account — including campaigns running Advantage+ placements. The ad-set level exclusion is being removed, and value rules cannot replace it because a bid decrease is capped at 90% rather than zero.
Will losing placement exclusions raise my cost per lead?
It can go either way, and the honest answer is that it depends on your offer. Broader placements give Meta’s delivery system more inventory to choose from, which often lowers cost per result on paper. The risk is quality: if the extra volume comes from placements that produce leads who never answer, your cost per booked job rises even as your reported cost per lead falls. Track the outcome after the lead, not the lead.
Does this change affect Advantage+ campaigns too?
Advantage+ placements already asked you to hand placement selection to Meta, so in practice this change moves manual campaigns closer to how Advantage+ has always worked. The reported test covered Sales and Leads objectives, with special ad categories excluded. Account-level Placement Controls are the exception that still applies on top of Advantage+ placements, which is why they are now the control worth setting up properly.
Is Meta removing placement controls everywhere?
Not confirmed. As of the reporting in late August 2026, Meta had not published a platform-wide announcement, and advertisers were seeing the notice inconsistently — some had lost the checkboxes, others had not. Assume it is coming, check your own accounts rather than relying on what another advertiser sees, and set your account-level controls now.
Not sure which placements are actually producing work for you? We will read your Meta account and tell you straight — book a free 48-hour audit.
Sources: Jon Loomer Digital, August 20, 2026; Social Samosa, August 21, 2026; Elsop, August 26, 2026; TheOptimizer, June 6, 2026.