Why Is Advantage+ Sales Spending on Existing Customers?

Meta says that in Advantage+ audience most settings are suggestions, so ads can also reach other people when its systems expect that to improve performance, but not outside your controls. To keep spend off existing customers, one route Meta documents is a custom audience exclusion. The old existing customer budget cap, which limited their share of spend, is no longer available.

How can an Advantage+ sales ad reach existing customers?

Meta’s page on audience settings says Advantage+ audience works through suggestions and controls. With suggestions, ads are shown to other audiences “when it’s likely to improve performance, but not outside your controls”. The controls Meta names include a minimum age, locations and custom audience exclusions. Meta adds that exclusions are “always set as controls even if use as a suggestion is checked”.

As checked on 3 Oct 2026, the pages we read do not say what share of an Advantage+ sales campaign’s spend reaches existing customers.

What you can do: look at who your exclusions cover. Existing customers are whoever your custom audiences define, so the exclusion covers only the audiences you add.

What happened to the existing customer budget cap?

Meta’s help page says the cap, which let advertisers “set a maximum budget percentage to spend on existing customers”, is no longer available, and that “you can still do the same thing manually”. The help page gives no date for the change.

Meta’s Marketing API page says the existing_customer_budget_percentage field is not available for new Advantage+ campaigns, and that older shopping campaigns with the field keep working until v26.0, when they will be paused and can be moved only through Ads Manager’s “Duplicate Campaign” prompt. As checked on 3 Oct 2026, the passages we read give API versions, not a calendar date.

What you can do: if an older campaign still carries the cap, read the entry on what happened to Advantage+ shopping campaigns before you rely on it.

How do you spend nothing on existing customers?

Meta’s first replacement is a new campaign with an exclusion:

1. Create a new campaign and choose campaign budget as the budget strategy.
2. In the audience section, select Show more controls.
3. Under controls, add a custom audience exclusion with the saved or new audiences you consider existing customers.
4. Choose your creative and publish.

Costs to weigh: it is a new campaign, not an edit of the old one, and it depends on the audiences you pick.

What you can do: check your customer list’s status. Meta says an “outdated” label means it has not been updated in over 30 days, which may affect ad delivery.

How do you limit existing-customer spend instead of blocking it?

Meta’s second replacement uses one campaign with two ad sets:

1. Create a new campaign with campaign budget.
2. In ad set 1, open ad set spending limits and set a daily or lifetime maximum, as a percentage or in US dollars. Under audience, choose Further limit the reach of your ads, then Switch setup, then Custom audiences, include your existing customers and uncheck “use as a suggestion”.
3. Use the same creative in both ad sets.
4. Duplicate the ad set. In ad set 2, add an exclusion of existing customers under Show more controls.
5. Publish.

Costs to weigh: Meta says the spending limit is a ceiling, not a target: “we’ll likely spend less than the amount you set, but will aim to spend no more”. You also run two ad sets and keep the creative matched. Meta’s on and off page says Advantage+ off usually shows when you choose a setting under “further limit the reach of your ads” and the “use as a suggestion” box is unchecked, and that narrowing too far means you “will not benefit from all the AI optimizations”.

What you can do: choose this version only if you want to cap a share. If you want none, the first version has fewer moving parts.

How can you see your own split of new and existing customers?

Meta describes audience segments. You define existing customers as people who purchased or signed up, then view a Breakdown by audience segments, under demographics, in Ads Manager. You set the segments up under All tools, then Advertising settings, then Audience segments.

What you can do: set up the segments, then open Breakdown and look for audience segments. If the option is missing, Meta says the feature may not be available to your account yet.

FAQ

Can I exclude existing customers without turning Advantage+ off?

Yes. Meta says you can raise the minimum age up to 25 or exclude a custom audience without turning Advantage+ off. Meta’s page on what turns Advantage+ on and off lists the settings that do switch it off, so check it before you narrow an audience.

Is the spending limit on existing customers a fixed amount?

Not as Meta describes it. Meta says it will “likely spend less than the amount you set, but will aim to spend no more”. A percentage limit scales with the budget, while an amount in US dollars stays static.

How does Meta define existing customers?

Meta’s audience segments page defines existing customers as an audience you define in your ad account settings as people who have purchased products or signed up for your services. The custom audiences you choose decide who counts.