Meta's AI Ad Terms Change on 30 October: You Now Own What It Does to Your Ads
Meta's new AI ad terms take effect on 30 October, and they make you solely responsible for what its AI features create or change in your ads, including features Meta switches on itself. If you run Meta ads in the UK, you have until Friday to decide how much of that responsibility you are willing to accept.
This is what has been reported so far, what Meta has and has not said, and what we would do this week. One caveat first: the full text of the new AI Features section had not been published when we wrote this, so the wording below comes from Adweek's reading of Meta's preview terms. Check the live terms yourself before Friday.
What is changing
Adweek reports that the updated terms add a new "AI Features" section. Under it, advertisers are "solely responsible" for what Meta's AI features create or change, and the terms say those features "may make mistakes" with "any and all risks" sitting with you. Under the old wording, you were responsible for output from generative AI tools you chose to use. The new section reaches further, to changes Meta applies by default. Adweek's report is the source for all of this.
Meta's spokesperson described the change as housekeeping, folding the existing generative AI ad terms into the main ad terms. The same spokesperson did not say whether advertisers are liable for AI features they never turned on. That unanswered question is the whole issue. Continuing to run ads after 30 October counts as acceptance, so there is no click to refuse.
Why it matters before Black Friday
This is not a theoretical risk. Adweek reports that the agency Exverus had to pull live ads to remove changes such as added sitelinks, translations and AI-generated images. It also reports that Bookshop.org found an AI-added illustration in its ad after an account update opted it into AI features.
Now put that against the calendar. Black Friday is 27 November, and most accounts are about to raise budgets and rotate in new creative. An ad with a mistranslated line, an invented sitelink or an AI image that misrepresents your product will spend more money, faster, in the weeks you can least afford it. And under these terms, you carry the consequences.
The product browsing switch on 28 October
There is a second change that lands even sooner. PPC Land reports that Meta will turn product browsing on in existing ads on 28 October unless you opt out. When someone taps a participating ad, they may see a Facebook or Instagram experience with product information and personalised suggestions, rather than landing on your website.
For an ecommerce brand, that changes the funnel. Your landing page, your offer framing and your site analytics no longer see every click. If your reporting and retargeting depend on people reaching your site, decide deliberately whether you want this on. You can switch it on or off per ad in the Advantage+ creative and destination settings.
What we would do this week
Audit every live and scheduled ad. Open the ad-level creative settings and expand every collapsed section. Enhancements can sit in menus that look like they are closed. Check for sitelinks, automatic translations, AI-generated images and carousels, and product browsing.
Decide feature by feature. Meta's own announcement of the older Advantage+ creative standard enhancements describes tools that personalise ads for each viewer, including media and layout changes, when Meta believes it will help performance. Some of these are harmless. Brightness and aspect ratio tweaks rarely hurt anyone. Generated imagery and rewritten copy are different, because they change what you are claiming. If you would not approve it in a brand review, switch it off.
Keep dated screenshots. Record your settings now and again after each account update. If something goes wrong, you want evidence of what you chose.
Agree responsibility in writing. If an agency runs your account, settle who checks these settings and how often. Agencies act on your behalf, so the responsibility for a missed setting needs to be written down, not assumed. If you work with us on paid social, we will tell you exactly which enhancements are enabled on your ads.
Re-check after every account notice. The Bookshop.org case is a reminder that an account update can change defaults without anyone deciding to.
Our view
Switching everything off is the safe reaction and it is not the smart one. Some Advantage+ features do improve results, and we would rather test them on a controlled budget than ban them out of fear. The point of the new terms is that testing has to be a decision, not an accident.
What we would not do is carry on as normal. Default settings that Meta can change, attached to terms that make you liable for the result, is a bad combination going into your biggest trading weeks. Ten minutes per campaign now is cheap by comparison.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your Meta account before Friday, get in touch and we will go through your ad settings with you.
