Should You Turn Off Audience Network? (2026)
Should I turn off Audience Network for my ecommerce ads?
Not by default. In a Meta experiment on 147,000 campaigns in 2025, Advantage+ placements, which include Audience Network, delivered an 11.7% lower cost per action than manual placements. Exclude Audience Network only when weeks of your own placement data show spend without purchases, or brand-safety rules require it. Block specific apps first.
Leave it on until your own numbers say otherwise. Meta’s own test found that ad sets using Advantage+ placements, which include Audience Network, delivered results more cheaply than ad sets with hand-picked placements. The case for excluding it is real but narrow: a placement that spends for weeks without sales, or apps your brand cannot appear in. In both cases there are finer tools than switching it off.
What is Meta Audience Network?
Audience Network extends your campaigns to people using mobile apps that partner with Meta (About Meta Audience Network). Meta says its ads use the same targeting, auction, delivery and measurement systems as ads on Facebook and Instagram. It supports the sales, traffic, leads and app promotion objectives, plus awareness and engagement for video, in native, banner, interstitial and rewarded video formats.
For most objectives you don’t pick it on its own. Meta says Audience Network runs through Advantage+ placements or alongside Facebook feed placements (About the Audience Network standalone platform). So if your ad set uses Advantage+ placements, Audience Network is already in the mix, and Meta decides how much budget it gets.
What does Meta’s data say about excluding placements?
Meta’s position is to keep placements on. Its page on Advantage+ placements reports that, in budget-controlled experiments on 147,000 campaigns run from 30 August to 7 September 2025, ad sets using Advantage+ placements delivered an 11.7% lower cost per action on average than ad sets with manual placements. That figure covers all placements together, not Audience Network alone, and it is an average: your account can differ.
Meta’s guide to costs that are too high adds a warning about cutting a placement on cost alone. It does not recommend removing a placement just because it has shown higher costs to date, because the delivery system seeks the lowest-cost opportunities first; fewer placements can stop it reaching them. Excluding any placement also switches the ad set from Advantage+ on to Advantage+ off (What turns Advantage+ on and off). For the wider choice across every placement, see should I use Advantage+ placements or manual placements?
How do I tell if Audience Network is wasting my budget?
Use your own placement data, read over enough time. These steps take you from spend to the apps behind it.
- In Ads Manager, open the Ad sets tab and set the date range to the last 28 days.
- Click Breakdown, then By delivery, then Placement (View ad results by placement).
- Add Amount spent, Purchases, Cost per purchase, Link clicks and Landing page views to the columns.
- Read the Audience Network rows: what share of spend they took, and what they returned in purchases and landing page views.
- On the ad set, click View charts, select Platform, then Download reports to get the apps where your ads ran, with impressions (Download delivery reports).
Read the result with Meta’s caution in mind. Placement values in breakdowns are estimated, and Meta’s breakdown effect means a placement with a higher cost per result may still have been the cheapest option available when it ran (Understand fluctuations in ad performance). Meta’s delivery reports also lag 3 to 5 days and cover up to 30 days, so download them weekly if you want a longer record.
| What your 28-day breakdown shows | What it suggests | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Small share of spend, purchases at or near your target | It is pulling its weight | Leave it on |
| Small share of spend, few purchases | Too little data to judge | Keep watching for another 4 weeks |
| Large share of spend, no purchases, low landing page views | Clicks are not reaching your site | Check the apps list and block the worst |
| A few apps carry most impressions with no results | The problem is specific apps | Add those apps to a block list |
| Apps your brand cannot appear in | A brand-suitability problem, not a cost one | Block them, or exclude the placement account-wide |
The thresholds in that table are judgment calls, not Meta rules. Set your own, and keep them fixed so you compare like with like each month.
Can I block specific apps instead of turning it off?
Yes, and it keeps the rest of the placement working. In the Meta Brand Safety and Suitability Center you can build a publisher block list from the Audience Network partner-publisher list or from your delivery reports, by ticking apps and choosing Add to publisher block list (Create a publisher block list). A block list file can hold up to 10,000 lines, and viewing partner-publisher lists needs a business portfolio.
Some publishers are undisclosed: you see their impressions but not their names. Meta says they pass the same checks as other publishers, and it publishes a downloadable list of them that you can review and add to a block list (About undisclosed publishers).
How do I turn off Audience Network?
Exclude it per ad set, or for the whole ad account. Meta’s steps for a sales campaign (Choose ad placements):
- In Ads Manager, open the ad set and go to the Placements section.
- Click Show more settings, hover over Placement controls and click Edit.
- Untick the Audience Network placements.
- Untick Allow limited spend to excluded placements if you want no Audience Network spend at all; when ticked, Meta can spend up to 5% of the budget on each excluded placement when it expects better performance.
- Publish the ad set.
To exclude it everywhere, go to Advertising settings, click Placement controls, turn on “My business can only advertise on specific placements”, untick the Audience Network placements and confirm (Set audience and placement controls). Meta says these controls apply to every campaign in the account, even with Advantage+ placements, that changes to existing campaigns can take up to 48 hours, and that the feature is being introduced gradually.
Before you cut a placement for poor results, check the creative fits it: How do I know if my creative is ready for every placement? For how placements interact with the rest of Advantage+, see What is Meta Advantage+ and how do I set it up in 2026?, and for placement checks across the whole account, the Meta ads audit checklist.
Can software help?
Bach.ai (by Wittelsbach) connects to a Meta ad account, audits it daily, finds revenue leaks with an estimated revenue impact, and proposes fixes. It applies a change on Meta only after you approve it.
FAQ
Does Audience Network bring low-quality clicks?
We found no Meta figure on click quality by placement. Check it yourself: in the placement breakdown, compare landing page views with link clicks and look at purchases for the Audience Network rows. If clicks rarely become page loads or sales over several weeks, investigate the apps in your delivery report.
Is Audience Network included in Advantage+ placements?
Yes. Meta lists Audience Network among the places Advantage+ placements can show your ads, alongside Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. If you use Advantage+ placements, the delivery system decides how much of your budget goes there.
Will excluding Audience Network turn Advantage+ off?
At the ad set level, yes. Meta says excluding a placement in any ad set switches it to Advantage+ off. Account-level placement controls in Advertising settings do not change a campaign’s Advantage+ state, according to Meta’s page on what turns Advantage+ on and off.
How long should I test before excluding Audience Network?
We found no Meta guidance on a test period. Read at least 4 weeks of placement data, since breakdown values are estimated and costs swing day to day. Make the call on purchases and cost per purchase, not on CPM or CTR, and change one setting at a time.
Sources
Sources: Meta Business Help Center, About Meta Audience Network, About the Audience Network standalone platform, About Advantage+ placements, Your costs are too high, What turns Advantage+ on and off, View ad results by placement, Download delivery reports, Understand fluctuations in ad performance, Create a publisher block list, About undisclosed publishers, Choose ad placements and Set audience and placement controls (checked 2 Oct 2026).