Advantage+ app campaigns: default-on setup versus sunset of legacy AAC

Meta’s current help and developer records separate three states that buyers often collapse into one: Advantage+ as the default Ads Manager setup for App Promotion, the continued ability to narrow settings until Advantage+ turns Off, and the Marketing API sunset of legacy Advantage+ shopping (ASC) and Advantage+ app (AAC) campaign objects. Default-on is not the same as “manual app campaigns have already disappeared”. About Advantage+ app campaigns; ASC and AAC deprecation.

What became default in Ads Manager

Meta’s Advantage+ app-campaign help describes an automation-first App Promotion path that uses Meta AI for bidding, audiences and placements, with streamlined setup and bulk ad creation. Separately, Meta documents that Sales, Leads and App Promotion campaigns have Advantage+ campaign budget enabled by default, and that narrowing budget, audience or placements too far can turn Advantage+ Off for that section. Set up Advantage+ campaign budget.

That supports a practical distinction for media managers:

• Default-on: new App Promotion creation leans into Advantage+ On.
• Optional Off: narrowing controls can leave Advantage+ Off; that is not documented here as impossible.
• Not evidenced here: a hard Ads Manager ban on every non-Advantage+ app structure for every account.

What the Marketing API is sunsetting

On 13 February 2026 Meta for Developers described Automation Unification: App, Sales and Leads campaigns default to an automation-first Advantage+ setup. From Marketing API V25.0, ASC and AAC campaigns can no longer be created or updated via the Marketing API; that restriction extends to all MAPI versions after 90 days (by 19 May 2026). In V26.0 (estimated September 2026) remaining ASC and AAC campaigns will be paused. Existing Customer Budget Cap (ECBC) campaigns stay editable until V26.0 and need explicit migration paths. ASC and AAC deprecation MAPI V25.0.

API object retirement is evidence of platform direction. It is not, by itself, a studio-by-studio proof that every live manual app campaign in Ads Manager has already stopped.

Practical implication

Treat Advantage+ On as the planning default for new App Promotion work, inventory any ASC/AAC or ECBC dependencies before the estimated V26.0 pause, and record whether a given ad account can still publish with Advantage+ Off. Do not read Meta’s average CPA case claims in marketing pages as this studio’s result.

Inspect the evidence

Download the announcement-to-outcome evidence timeline. The extraction separates documented facts from our analysis and unknowns.

Further reading in the existing archive: What Meta Advantage+ App Campaigns Mean for Game UA. That link provides background; this check does not independently verify its full contents.

Research checked 19 September 2026. Local draft; human editorial review and byline assignment pending.