On 20th November, Meta’s new advertising terms kick in.
Most trade business owners won’t read them. Fair enough. You’ve got jobs to price and vans to fill.
But there’s one part you need to know about.
If Meta’s AI changes your ad, and that change causes a problem, it’s on you. Not Meta.
So here’s what’s changed, why it matters for a landscaper or a window fitter, and exactly what I’m switching off in my clients’ accounts before the deadline.
What Meta has actually changed
Meta has rewritten its Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms. They were due to start on 30 October. After pushback from advertisers and publishers, Meta delayed them to 20 November.
The delay doesn’t change what’s in them.
There’s a new section on AI features. In plain English, it says three things:
- Meta’s AI features can make mistakes
- If they do, you’re solely responsible for the risk
- You agree to cover Meta if someone makes a claim
You don’t sign anything. You accept the terms by carrying on running ads.
There’s no opt-out from the terms themselves. The only control you have is switching off the AI features one by one.
The other bit nobody’s talking about: your website
The new terms also let Meta use automated tools to crawl any website connected to your business. That’s your gallery, your price guides, your project pages.
Meta says this is to build and improve its advertising and business products. It applies to any business using Meta’s business tools, even if you only run a Facebook page.
For most trade businesses, this isn’t something to panic about. Your website is public anyway. But it’s worth knowing that the photos and wording you’ve worked hard on can be read and used by Meta’s systems.
If you want to limit it, the person who looks after your website can add a line to a file called robots.txt that tells Meta’s crawler to stay away. Be aware that some of Meta’s fetching tools may ignore it, so it reduces the crawling rather than stopping it completely.
I’d rather you knew than found out later.
“But I never turned any AI features on”
That’s the bit that worries me.
A lot of these features are switched on by default. Some get switched back on when you duplicate an ad, swap an image or change the format.
And it’s not just theory. In October, advertisers in the US found Meta had added AI-generated images to their ads without them knowing. One agency found Meta adding links, translating copy and building new carousels out of their clients’ own photos, on ads where nobody had enabled those features. They pulled the ads to get rid of the changes.
Now picture that on your ads.
What that looks like for a trade business
- Your patio photo gets “touched up”. The AI brightens it, expands the background or adds a bit of movement. The finished job in the ad no longer matches the job you did.
- Your words get moved around. Your headline ends up where your description was. “From £4,995” ends up next to a job that cost £12,000.
- A random comment gets featured. Meta can show a “relevant” comment under your ad. You don’t pick which one.
- Music gets added to your Reel. Not your choice of track. Not always the tone you want on a £20,000 kitchen.
None of these are disasters on their own. But if a homeowner complains that the ad showed something you didn’t do, or a price you didn’t offer, the new terms put that squarely on you.
You’ve spent years building a reputation in your area. I’m not handing that to an algorithm that “may make mistakes”.
Why I’m switching these off for my trade clients
I’m not anti-AI. Some of Meta’s tools are genuinely useful.
But trade advertising is built on trust. Homeowners are letting you into their house. They want to see your real work, your real prices and your real reviews.
The whole point of showing a before and after is that it’s honest. The moment an AI starts polishing it, it stops being proof.
So my rule for my clients is simple:
If I didn’t approve it, it doesn’t go out with your name on it.
Here’s how I’m doing that, step by step. You can follow it in your own account.
Step by step: how to switch off Meta’s AI edits in your ads
Meta moves its menus around a lot, so the wording on your screen might be slightly different. If you can’t find something, check the ad preview and look for anything you didn’t add yourself.
Step 1: Open Ads Manager, not the Boost button
Go to Ads Manager in your Business Portfolio. Not Meta Business Suite, and not the Boost button on your page.
If you’re still boosting posts, you’ve got even less control over this. I’ve covered why boosting isn’t the same as running Meta Ads here.
Step 2: Open every live ad, one at a time
Click into your campaign, then the ad set, then the ad itself. Click Edit.
Yes, every live ad. There’s no single switch that turns all of this off across your whole account.
Step 3: Find the Advantage+ creative section
Scroll down past your images, video and text. You’re looking for a section called Advantage+ creative or Creative enhancements. Click Edit or Optimise creative for each person to open the full list.
Step 4: Switch off everything you didn’t choose
There’s often an All optimisations toggle at the top. Turn it off, then check the individual list underneath to make sure everything’s gone off. The ones I look for:
- Visual touch-ups. Changes brightness, contrast and cropping.
- Image filters. Adds sharpening, colour and blur effects.
- Expand image. Uses AI to stretch your photo to fit other placements, which means inventing bits of your job that weren’t there.
- Image animation (3D animation). Turns a still photo into a moving one.
- Image templates. Adds a headline bar over your photo.
- Text improvements. Moves your text into other positions.
- Music. Adds a soundtrack to Reels and Stories.
- Relevant comments. Features a comment under your ad.
- Add labels and business details. Adds extra information you don’t see in the preview.
If you see sitelinks, translations or generated images or carousels, switch those off too.
Step 5: Check your ad account settings
Meta has started adding account-level settings for creative features. Go to your Ad account settings and look for anything relating to creative features or AI defaults. If there’s a default switched on, turn it off so new ads don’t start with everything enabled.
Step 6: Preview every placement
Click through the preview for Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Stories and Reels. Make sure what you see is exactly what you uploaded. Your photo, your words, your price.
Step 7: Recheck after every change
This is the one most people miss.
Duplicating an ad, swapping a photo or changing the format can switch enhancements back on. So every time you make a change, go back to step 3.
Step 8: Put a date in the diary
Pick one day a month. Open every live ad and check the Advantage+ creative section. It takes ten minutes and it could save you an awkward phone call.
“My agency handles all this”
Good. Then ask them.
These are the three questions I’d want answered before 20 November:
1. Have you checked the Advantage+ creative settings on every live ad in my account?
Not “most of them”. Every one.
2. What’s switched on, and why?
If they’ve left something on, there should be a reason. “It’s on by default” isn’t one.
3. How will you stop it switching back on?
They should have a routine for rechecking after every new ad or change.
If your agency goes quiet, or tells you not to worry about it, that tells you something. Under these terms, you’re the one carrying the risk, not them.
What this means for your ads going into winter
Leaving everything on might give you a slightly higher click rate. Meta’s tools can do that.
But a cheap click on an ad that doesn’t look like your work isn’t a good lead. It’s a homeowner who turns up expecting something you didn’t show them.
What fills your diary in January is enquiries from people who saw your real work, trust it and want it in their home. That’s what I build for my clients. Real photos, real jobs, real numbers.
And honestly, real work doesn’t need polishing. A muddy garden turned into a finished patio. A tired front door swapped for a new composite one. A cracked drive turned into fresh resin. Shot on your phone, on the day, with your van in the background.
That’s the content that wins jobs in your area. It looks like you because it is you. No AI touch-ups needed.
So go into November with your ads showing exactly what you do. Then you know every enquiry you get is someone who wants that, not something Meta’s AI dreamed up for them.
Want me to check your account?
If you’re running Meta Ads for your trade business and you’re not sure what’s switched on, I’m happy to have a look.
I work with landscapers, window fitters, driveway companies and other home improvement businesses across the UK. And I’ll always tell you straight what I find.