No More Six Ad Limit Per Ad Set

Up until recently, I often referred advertisers to a quote from Meta when discussing the number of ads you should have in an ad set:

Use 6 or fewer creatives per ad set… Once you’ve added more than 6 ads, there is little marginal benefit.

It was straightforward and concrete, which made it easy to communicate. Well, about that…

It’s Gone

The page where I pulled the quote from is still there, but the quote no longer exists (thanks to Dario Zannoni for the heads up!).

Meta has softened the claim that reducing ad volume improves performance. That said, the page (“About Managing Ad Volume”) and spirit of that quote remain in some important notes and recommendations in the updated version:

When an advertiser runs too many ads at once, each ad delivers less often.

And

…too many ads can result in worse performance

My Interpretation

Here’s how I interpret the removal of the six ad limit and overall softening of language on that page…

Understand that the six ad maximum was a guideline and not a hard limit. Meta saw that on average, more than six ads provided no benefit. But advertisers may have been taking that too literally and were applying a rigid maximum in all cases.

This probably depends on several factors, like budget…

If you have a moderate or modest budget, I’d still consider a six (or so) ad maximum per ad set. The original recommendations were likely for such a group. If you’re not getting impressions on some of your ads, it’s a good sign to cut back.

Now, if you’re lucky enough to work with bigger budgets, feel free to experiment with more ads. You’re more likely to get impressions on more ads, which would mean that such a maximum may not apply to you. Again, allow your results to be your guide regarding how high you should go.

But let’s not use this update as a sign that Meta wants us all to be running 20 to 50 ads in an ad set. Meta still wants us to be careful about the potential negative impact of running too many ads at once, as is clear from what remains on that page.

How many ads do you run in an ad set?