Starting from Monday December 11, 2023, it is no longer possible to create new campaigns with old Meta objectives in either Workspaces or the Legacy Campaign Creation.
This improves consistency with the Meta native tools and prevents technical issues, as only ODAX objectives are currently accepted by Meta.
As a reminder, ODAX was released earlier this year by Meta to consolidate the previous 11 objectives, making campaign creation more simple and effective.
Existing campaigns
Existing campaigns with old objectives can keep running. However, please be aware that Meta plan to prevent customers from adding new ads sets and ads to campaigns with old objectives starting January 2024.
In order to ease this transition and enable full editing capabilities, we highly recommend you look to clone and relaunch your old campaigns with ODAX objectives as soon as possible.
Check for old objectives
- Go to the Smartly.io app.
- In the main navigation, click Reporting.
- Click Filters and then click Add filter.
- Define a filter where "Campaign Facebook Objective" "does not contain" "OUTCOME".
- Click Apply Filter.
Clone campaigns
FAQ
How does ODAX currently impact new and existing “legacy” (pre-ODAX) campaigns?
You can still edit and duplicate legacy campaigns. However, when creating new campaigns, the new objectives must be used.
Is it still possible to create new ads and sets in campaigns with old objectives?
For now. However, Meta will block the creation of new ads and ad sets later this month when they move to v19.0. With this in mind, we recommend you move over to the new objectives over the next couple of weeks. We have not been given a set date on this, but will update as and when we do.
When will the old objectives no longer be supported at all?
Meta will begin to phase out old objectives in January 2024, beginning with duplication and import/export before moving onto fully shutting off legacy campaigns later in 2024. As with all product roadmaps this timing may be subject to change.
Do all objectives need to be migrated?
Yes, all objectives including app and traffic need to be migrated.
Are these changes a Smartly limitation?
No. This is exactly the same change as is happening in ads manager and all other partners. In ads manager, all migration to new objectives also needs to be done through duplication.
When will the old objective values be fully deprecated on the API?
Meta are still evaluating when the old objective values will be fully deprecated. We will update Smartly customers when we have more official timelines on this.
Will we be losing any functionality with this deprecation?
No, you will not. The simplified objectives didn’t replace the original objectives, but rather just consolidated them into broader buckets that are better aligned with marketing outcomes. That being said, you can still achieve everything you could previously, Meta have just categorised everything under fewer buckets.
What’s the best way to convert my existing campaigns/ad sets to simplified objectives?
Duplication is the best method here when switching over existing campaigns/ad sets. You can also simply end your existing campaigns and create net new ones using the simplified objectives. When you go to create an entirely new campaign, you will only be able to use the simplified objectives.