Meta ads value rules: how to bid more for the customers worth more

What Meta value rules do

Value rules tell Meta how much more, or less, a conversion from a particular group is worth to you, and Meta bids accordingly in the auction. You set a rule such as increase bid 50% for people aged 45 to 64 or decrease bid 20% for Western Australia, group the rules into a rule set, and apply that set to an ad set. People who match no rule get your normal bid. Rules can use age, gender, location, mobile operating system, device platform, placement and conversion location.

Our recommendation: use value rules only when your own data shows a real difference in what customers are worth, such as repeat rate, margin after shipping, or lead quality, and work the percentage out from that number. Keep the audience broad and let the rule do the steering. Meta says plainly that your overall cost per result may rise when you use them, because you are asking it to pay more for some people. That is the point: you buy fewer, better customers, so judge the result on value, not on cost per purchase.

Value rules work with the Highest volume or value and Cost per result goal bid strategies. They are not available with ROAS goal or bid cap.

Where to set up value rules in Ads Manager

There are two routes, and both end with the rule set applied inside an ad set.

In Advertising settings (best for rules you reuse)

1. In Ads Manager, click Advertising settings on the left.
2. Below Your business, click Value rules, then + Create a rule set.
3. Tick the box in the pop up and click Create a rule set.
4. Choose the criteria for your first rule (up to two per rule), choose increase or decrease, and enter the percentage.
5. Click Add rule for each further rule, up to ten. Use Change rule order to put the most specific rule first.
6. Name the set, review the summary and click Create.

Inside a new campaign

1. Click Create, pick your objective and click Continue.
2. Under Budget, choose Highest volume or value or Cost per result goal as the bid strategy.
3. At the ad set, choose Maximize number of conversions or Maximize value of conversions as the performance goal, then your dataset and conversion event.
4. Create or select a rule set under Value rules, Placement value rules or Conversion location value rules. Each ad set takes one rule set.
5. Keep the audience broad. If an audience control conflicts with a rule (for example, a rule for an age your minimum age excludes), Ads Manager shows an error and will not apply the rule.

Meta is still rolling value rules out, so the help centre notes the feature may not be in every account yet. If you cannot see Value rules under Advertising settings, check that the ad set uses one of the two bid strategies above.

Value rule limits worth knowing before you start

Two changes to plan for. Meta is retiring bid multipliers: advertisers who use them to value certain audiences will need value rules instead by 2027. And for the WhatsApp Status placement, age and gender rules do not apply to people whose WhatsApp account is not linked to Facebook or Instagram.

Work out the percentage from your margin: a worked example in AUD

Meta's own advice is to start from your business data, and to try 50% for a high-value group if you have no number. We prefer the number. The key detail most guides miss: the percentage is relative to people who match no rule, so compare each group with that baseline, not with your overall average.

Worked example. An Australian skincare store sells a $99 average order including GST, which is $90 excluding GST. Gross margin is 60%, so $54 an order before shipping. Free shipping costs the store $9 to metro addresses on the east coast and $19 to Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Customers aged 45 to 64 order 1.8 times a year; everyone else orders 1.2 times.

The order is what makes this work. A 50 year old in Perth matches rules 1, 2 and 3, and Meta applies only the first, so the combined rule must sit at the top. With rule 2 first, she would get the full 50% and you would overpay for every remote order. To find your own numbers, export orders with postcode and customer birth year where you collect it, or use your Shopify ecommerce calculator figures for margin and shipping, and compare value per customer by group over at least six months. Our break-even ROAS guide shows how to get from order value to contribution after GST.

Four value rules we test for Australian advertisers

1. Remote shipping decrease. Location by state or region, decrease by the share of margin that extra freight eats (22% in the example above). Useful for any store with free shipping and bulky or heavy products.
2. Lifetime value increase by age. Age rule worked from repeat rate, as above. Only when the difference holds over two or more half years of orders; a single sale season can mislead.
3. Placement value. If your purchase data shows Audience Network or a particular placement brings low-value or refunded orders, decrease it by 30% to 50% instead of removing it, and keep Advantage+ placements on. Removing placements narrows delivery; a rule only changes the price Meta is willing to pay. Before you blame a placement, check the creative actually fits it in our Meta ads preview tool.
4. Conversion location for service businesses. If phone calls close at twice the rate of instant form leads, increase the phone call conversion location rather than running two campaigns. One ad set with the rule pools the learning that two campaigns would split, the consolidation we explain in our Meta ads account structure guide.

If you would rather we set the percentages from your own order data and run the test, that is part of how we manage Meta ads for Australian brands.

Value rules, audience controls, suggestions or a bid cap?

How to tell whether your value rules worked

1. Read the breakdown. Select the campaign, open Breakdown and choose Value rules. It shows results for each rule, at ad set and ad level only.
2. Expect cost per purchase to rise. If the favoured groups are getting more of the conversions, the rule is doing its job. Judge it on value per customer, not on Ads Manager's cost per result.
3. Check value outside Meta. Meta's reporting cannot see repeat purchases months later. Compare 60 and 90 day revenue per new customer for the ad set's period in Shopify or your CRM against the period before. Our guide to Meta's attribution setting explains why the platform's view is short.
4. Run it as a test when spend allows. Duplicate the ad set with and without the rule set, same budget, for two to four weeks, which is the comparison Meta's help centre suggests. On a small budget the difference between the two ad sets will be too small to read, so change one rule at a time and compare month on month instead.
5. Change rules weekly at most. Each change resets what you can learn from the last one.

Mistakes we see with value rules

• Narrow targeting plus rules. Rules steer within your audience. If the audience is already one state and one age band, there is nothing left to steer. Keep it broad.
• Rules in the wrong order. A broad rule above a combined one swallows it, as in the example above.
• Guessing 50% for everything. Meta's default is a starting point for people with no data. If you have order data, use it.
• Using a rule to exclude. A 90% decrease still spends. Use an audience control or an exclusion.
• Judging on ROAS in Ads Manager after a week. Value rules trade short-term cost for long-term value; the check belongs in your store data over 60 to 90 days.
• Expecting automated rules to do the same job. Automated rules switch ads on and off on a schedule; value rules change the bid inside the auction. They solve different problems.

Questions we get about Meta value rules

What are value rules in Meta ads?

Value rules are settings in Meta Ads Manager that tell Meta to bid more or less for conversions from certain groups, based on age, gender, location, operating system, device, placement or conversion location. You group rules into a rule set and apply one set to each ad set. People who match no rule get your normal bid.

Where are value rules in Meta Ads Manager?

Go to Advertising settings on the left of Ads Manager, then Value rules under Your business, and click Create a rule set. You can also create or select a rule set inside an ad set, under Value rules, Placement value rules or Conversion location value rules.

Why can't I use value rules in my campaign?

Value rules only work with the Highest volume or value and Cost per result goal bid strategies, so they are unavailable with ROAS goal or bid cap. They also cannot be applied when an audience control conflicts with a rule, and some accounts do not have the feature yet.

How much should I increase my bid with a value rule?

Divide the value per customer of the group by the value per customer of people who match no rule. If the group is worth $81 and everyone else $54, that is 1.5, so increase 50%. Meta suggests 50% as a starting point when you have no data.

Do value rules increase cost per result?

Usually, yes. Meta says overall cost per result may rise because you are telling it to pay more for preferred groups. Judge the rule on revenue or margin per customer over 60 to 90 days rather than on cost per purchase in Ads Manager.

Are bid multipliers being replaced by value rules?

Yes. Meta says advertisers who use bid multipliers to value outcomes from certain audiences will need to use value rules by 2027, and recommends starting the switch now.

Sources

• Meta Business Help Centre: About value rules in Meta Ads Manager
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to set up value rules in Meta Ads Manager
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to create a campaign using value rules
• Meta Business Help Centre: Best practices for choosing value rules percentages
• Meta Business Help Centre: How to use the value rules breakdown for reporting
• Meta Business Help Centre: Use audience suggestions, audience controls and value rules
• Meta for Developers: Value Rules (Marketing API)