If you run sales ads on Facebook or Instagram, something changed on 28 October, and there's a decent chance nobody told you.
Meta started adding a feature called product browsing to ads that were already running. So when someone taps one of your ads now, they might not land on your website. They might land on a page inside Facebook or Instagram showing your products, prices and some suggestions, and only reach your site if they tap again.
Meta didn't ask first. It sent advertisers a notice in mid-October with an opt-out button, and anyone who missed the email or didn't click the button by 28 October got the change by default. Four weeks before Black Friday.
Here's what it is, who it might suit, and how to switch it off if you'd rather keep things as they were.
What is Meta product browsing?
Product browsing is an extra step Meta can add between your ad and your website. Instead of the tap taking people straight to your landing page, Meta shows them an in-app view of your products with prices and personalised suggestions. From there, they can carry on browsing inside the app or tap through to your site.
It isn't new. It has been sitting in Advantage+ creative settings for a while as something you could choose to turn on. What changed on 28 October is the default. For ads that were already live, the switch moved from off to on.
According to the notice, which was published in full by the trade site PPC Land, it applies to campaigns with Sales as the objective and your website as the conversion location. Meta lists it under what it calls personalised destinations, which only show up for that combination.
Why has Meta done this?
Meta's reasoning is simple. It says businesses saw 3% more conversions on average when they used in-app product browsing compared with campaigns that didn't.
That number is worth a moment's thought. It's an average across advertisers, it comes from Meta, and it's about conversions Meta can see. It doesn't tell you whether your shop, with your products and your checkout, will do better or worse.
The bigger picture is that Meta wants more of the buying journey to happen inside its own apps. Earlier this year it said product data would become a core part of all Sales campaigns. Product browsing is one more step in that direction: the more people browse inside Facebook and Instagram, the more Meta learns and the more it controls.
That isn't sinister. It's just worth knowing whose interests a default is designed around.
Why the timing matters
Most small businesses spend weeks getting their Black Friday and Christmas ads right. The offer, the landing page, the countdown, the free delivery banner. Then a setting changes what happens after the click, on ads you set up and tested before the change.
If your landing page is doing a lot of the selling, with reviews, a bundle offer, a gift guide or a "last order dates" banner, an extra in-app step could mean fewer people see it. If your products sell on the picture and the price alone, it might not hurt at all, and could help.
The honest answer is that nobody knows yet for your account. That's why it's worth checking rather than guessing.
What we still don't know
A few things haven't been made clear, and Meta hasn't published a help article on the 28 October change itself.
New ads. The notice talks about "existing ads". It doesn't say whether ads you create after 28 October start with product browsing switched on. Treat every new ad as unchecked until you've looked.
Duplicated ads. If you duplicate an ad that has product browsing on, assume the copy has it on too.
Which formats and placements. The notice doesn't name them.
Some reports also suggest product browsing can show up on Sales ads even if you don't have a product catalogue set up, using whatever is on your landing page. If that's you, it's even more worth a look.
How to check if product browsing is on, and how to turn it off
You do this at ad level, so if you have a few ads running, you'll need to check each one.
Open Ads Manager and go into the campaign with the Sales objective.
Click into the ad itself (not the campaign or the ad set).
Find the Advantage+ creative section, then look for destination settings, often labelled personalised destinations.
Look for product browsing. If it's on and you don't want it, switch it off.
Publish the change, then repeat for every other live sales ad, including any you've duplicated recently.
Meta's notice says you can turn product browsing on or off at any time in those Advantage+ creative and destination settings, so nothing is locked in either way.
One small warning: Ads Manager moves things around more often than any of us would like. If the wording on your screen is slightly different, look for anything mentioning product browsing or personalised destinations at ad level.
Should you turn it off?
My view: don't let a default make the decision for you, especially this close to your busiest weeks.
Switch it off on the ads doing the heavy lifting. If an ad has been bringing in sales and your landing page plays a big part, keep the journey you tested. Now is not the time to find out the hard way.
Test it on one smaller ad if you're curious. Pick an ad with a straightforward product and a clear price, leave product browsing on, and compare it with a similar ad that has it off. Give it a week or two and look at real orders, not just what Ads Manager reports.
Leave it on if your ads are built around a catalogue. If you sell lots of products and people tend to browse before they buy, the in-app view might genuinely help. That's exactly what the test is for.
Check your real numbers, not just Meta's
This is the bit people skip. Ads Manager reports conversions it can attribute to your ads. Your shop reports actual orders. When something changes in the middle of a campaign, those two can drift apart.
So from 28 October, keep a simple daily note of:
Purchases reported in Ads Manager
Actual orders in your shop (Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, whatever you use)
Sessions from Facebook and Instagram in your website analytics
If Meta says conversions are up but your orders aren't, or visits from Meta have dropped off a cliff, product browsing is the first thing I'd look at. If you've never lined these numbers up side by side, our marketing audit guide walks through it in an afternoon.
The bigger lesson: defaults are decisions
It isn't the first "on by default" change from Meta, and it won't be the last. Every platform is pushing more automation and keeping more of the journey inside its own app. Some of it will work brilliantly for you. Some of it won't.
The businesses that do well with paid social aren't the ones who know every setting. They're the ones who notice when something changes, check what it's done to their real numbers, and make a decision on purpose.
A good habit: once a month, open every live ad and check its destination, its creative settings and where it actually sends people. Ten minutes. It'll save you from a lot of "why have sales gone quiet?" moments. If you're wondering whether your ad spend is in the right place to begin with, our guide to setting a small business marketing budget is a good next read.
Meta isn't only changing what happens after the click, either. It's also changing how people choose what they see in the first place. Facebook now lets people type the topics they want in their feed, and that has knock-on effects for your organic posts. I've written about that in what Facebook's new Your algorithm means for your posts.
Want a second pair of eyes?
If you'd like someone to look over your Meta ads with you before Black Friday, a Power Hour is built for exactly this kind of question: one focused session, your account on screen, and a clear list of what to change. Or just get in touch and tell me what you're seeing.