Use Advantage+ Sales (formerly Advantage+ Shopping) as your main scaling campaign once you have a reliable pixel or Conversions API signal and at least a few ads with proven purchases. Keep a separate manual campaign for testing new creative, and cap or exclude existing customers so the campaign focuses on new buyers.
What Advantage+ Sales does
It automates audience, placement and much of the bidding in one campaign. You supply creative, budget, country and some guardrails. Meta decides who sees what.
When it works well
- Your tracking is healthy (pixel plus Conversions API).
- You already have proven ads with consistent purchases.
- You can spend enough for regular daily purchases.
When it struggles
- Brand new accounts with little purchase history.
- Accounts where most "purchases" are returning customers, which inflates results.
- Unproven creative. Advantage+ amplifies what you give it, good or bad.
Our recommended setup
| Campaign | Budget share | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Advantage+ Sales (scale) | 75 to 80% | Proven ads only, existing customers capped |
| Manual sales (test) | 20 to 25% | New concepts, one ad set each |
How to check it's finding new customers
Compare new customer orders in Shopify week on week against spend. If spend rises but new customers don't, the campaign may be harvesting existing buyers.
Budget and scaling planner
Frequently asked questions
Is Advantage+ better than manual campaigns?
Often for scaling, yes, provided tracking is solid and the creative is proven. Manual campaigns remain useful for controlled testing.
Should I exclude existing customers from Advantage+?
Cap them or exclude them if retention is handled by email and SMS. Otherwise the campaign can report strong ROAS from people who would have bought anyway.
How many ads should go in Advantage+ Sales?
Enough proven ads to rotate, usually 4 to 10. Add new ones only after they've proven themselves in testing.
Written by Shimeez Bok, founder of Growth Alchemy, an ecommerce growth studio in Auckland, New Zealand.
