Meta’s New Ad Rules: What to Check Before Christmas
Written by : Jack Cunningham
Posted on : 13/11/2026
Tags : Meta Ads, Facebook, Instagram
If you run Facebook or Instagram ads, Meta has made a handful of changes over the last few weeks, right before the busiest time of year. Most were switched on automatically, so they’re easy to miss. Here’s what has changed, what it means for a local business and what we’re checking in our clients’ accounts.
🤖 You’re now responsible for what Meta’s AI does to your ads
From 20 November 2026, Meta’s updated Commercial Terms include a new section on AI features. These are the tools that change your ads automatically: rewriting your text, expanding or animating your images, adding music and generating backgrounds.
The new wording makes the business running the ads solely responsible for those features and whatever they produce, and Meta admits the AI “may make mistakes”. That applies even if a feature was switched on by default.
So if the AI writes a line that over-promises, shows something you don’t sell or crops your photo badly, it’s still your ad. For trades, hospitality and health businesses in particular, an inaccurate claim can cause real problems.
What to do:
- Open each live ad in Ads Manager and check the Advantage+ creative enhancements.
- Switch off anything you haven’t reviewed. Meta explains how in its guide to turning off enhancements.
- Preview every placement (Feed, Stories & Reels) before your Christmas ads go live.
- Don’t crop out or remove the AI labels Meta adds to images it has generated.
🛍️ Some ads may no longer send people to your website
Since 28 October, Meta has been switching on product browsing in existing ads. A tap can now open a product view inside Facebook or Instagram rather than your website.
Meta says this lifted conversions in its testing, and for some online shops it may help. But if you take bookings, enquiries or phone calls, you want people on your own website, where your contact form, booking system and tracking all live.
What to do: check the destination and Advantage+ creative settings on each live ad, and turn product browsing off where it doesn’t suit your business.
📊 Seen headlines about conversions jumping? Read this first
From 12 November, Meta started measuring some conversions on customers’ own phones and computers. It’s switched on by default and can add sales to your reports that were missing before.
Meta says this isn’t active for people in the UK or EU. So if your ads only reach UK customers, your figures shouldn’t suddenly change because of it. If you also sell to the US, expect reported results there to rise without any real change in sales.
What to do: judge your ads on real sales and enquiries, not just the numbers in Ads Manager. If you want to see the setting, it’s in Events Manager under Data sources, your pixel, then Settings, labelled Measure conversions on customer devices.
💷 Your Meta bill is 2% higher than Ads Manager shows
Since 1 July 2026, Meta has added a 2% location fee to ads shown to people in the UK, to cover the UK’s Digital Services Tax. It’s based on where your audience is, not where your business is. It shows on your invoice rather than in Ads Manager, and VAT may be added on top.
What to do: build the extra 2% into your Christmas and January budgets so it doesn’t catch you out.
🎄 Our Christmas checklist for Meta ads
- Review and switch off any AI enhancements you haven’t checked.
- Check where every live ad sends people.
- Make sure your pixel and Conversions API are tracking properly and working with your cookie banner. Our Meta Pixel setup service can check this for you.
- Get your Christmas creative ready before Black Friday, then give campaigns time to settle rather than making big changes every few days.
- Budget for the 2% location fee.
🚀 Want us to check your account?
We manage Meta & Google Ads for businesses across North Devon and the UK. If you’re not sure whether these changes affect your ads, get in touch and we’ll check your account and tell you in plain English what needs changing.