Value rules
- Also called Value rule
- Updated October 22, 2026
Value rules are a Meta Ads Manager setting that tells the delivery system some conversions are worth more, or less, to you than others. You set a percentage for an audience (age, gender, location, device), a placement or a conversion location, and Meta raises or lowers its bids there. Everyone else gets the normal bid.
How does Meta define value rules?
Meta's About value rules in Meta Ads Manager page:
Value rules allow you to express value across audience, placement and conversion location criteria and consolidate campaigns to drive performance. When you use value rules, your campaigns can adjust delivery toward criteria and outcomes you value more.
The criteria are "age, gender, location, OS, device platform and select placements and conversion locations." Meta's example: if men aged 25 to 44 have "an average 60% higher lifetime value", you raise your bid for them by 60%. "People outside of these value rules will receive a non-adjusted bid." That list names no custom audience, but Meta's separate About audience labels in value rules page says a custom audience carrying an audience label can be a rule criterion too.
Value rules also replace an older tool. Meta: "Advertisers who use bid multipliers and want to continue expressing value for outcomes from certain audiences will be required to use value rules by 2027."
What are the limits?
From the about page and Meta's How to set up value rules and How to create a campaign using value rules pages:
| Limit | What Meta says |
|---|---|
| Bid change | "increase bids by up to 1000% or decrease bids by up to 90%" |
| Criteria | "up to 2 criteria per rule" |
| Rules | "up to 10 rules per rule set" |
| Rule sets | "one value rule set to each ad set" |
| Overlaps | "Meta will only use the first applicable rule to adjust the bid" |
| Audience | "keep your audience broad"; with conflicting audience controls "the value rule cannot be applied" |
| Special ad categories | age, gender and certain locations are restricted, and picking them means "an error and subsequent ad rejection" |
Both how-to pages also say "This feature may not be available to you yet."
Which bid strategies work with value rules?
Meta's pages disagree on a label. The about page says "Value rules are not available for manual bid strategies such as ROAS goal or bid cap." The setup pages say to "choose Highest volume or value or Cost per result as your bid strategy". But Meta's About bid strategies page files ROAS goal under goal-based bidding, not manual, and says "you can also use value rules on top of goal-based bidding". Where they agree: highest volume, highest value and cost per result goal work, and bid cap doesn't. ROAS goal is the open question: the about page rules it out, and the bid strategies page's wording would let it in. Check your own Ads Manager before you plan around ROAS goal. The bid strategy entry covers the five options.
What it means for your ads
- Start from your own numbers. Meta's percentage best practices say "the best place to start is by using your own business data and testing small adjustments", such as lifetime value, ROAS or margins. With no number in mind, Meta suggests "a 50% adjustment for your high-value audience".
- Expect cost per result to rise. Meta: "you may see more conversions from your preferred audiences, placements and conversion locations, but your overall cost per result may increase." Judge the rules on value and ROAS, not on cost per result alone.
- Use one broad ad set instead of many narrow ones. Meta pitches value rules as a way to "consolidate multiple campaigns", which fits a broad Advantage+ audience.
- Read the breakdown. Meta's value rules breakdown shows results per rule, and "only shows performance for ad sets and ads." Meta adds you "may need to utilize other analytics tools" to confirm lower-funnel gains.
Common mistakes
- Expecting overlapping rules to add up. Only the first one counts. In Meta's example, a woman in California on a particular OS gets only rule 1's 20%, not rule 2's 50%, "because it is the first rule in the order."
- Favoring a placement without an ad made for it. A placement rule buys more of that placement, so the ad should fit its frame.
Sources
- About value rules in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
- About audience labels in value rules — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 24, 2026)
- How to set up value rules in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
- How to create a campaign using value rules in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Best practices to choose the right value rules percentage — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
- How to use the value rules breakdown for reporting in Meta Ads Manager — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
- About bid strategies — Meta Business Help Center (accessed October 22, 2026)
Meta revises these pages without notice, so check the source before acting on any of it.
Terrads makes each placement you pick at its own size, composed for its frame, so the placements a value rule favors get an ad built for them.