What this is for

An eligible running or paused Meta paid campaign can open Edit ads on Meta. This shows the ads actually sent to Meta, not just the source posts. Changes here do not rewrite your original campaign posts. Nothing is sent until you confirm the requested change.

This is not a promise of live editing on every platform or every Meta creative. When an ad is not editable, inspect its status and the platform rather than treating draft editing as a way to change a launched ad.

Before you start

Open the correct campaign's paid card and use Edit ads. An eligible Meta campaign in the live or paused state opens the live editor.
Have management permission for the connected account. A shared-account change can still require its owner's approval.
Read any pending-operation or lead-settings-replacement notice. A request already in progress can block new edits or additions.
Identify what you want to change. Creative, an idea's name and audience, the campaign budget, lead routing and lead-form replacement are separate operations.
For budget changes, parent pause/resume or deletion of the whole paid campaign, use Results and spending management, not a creative-edit request.

If the feature or an action is missing, it may not be enabled for your workspace or permitted for this account, format or state.

1. Inspect the actual ads

Open Edit ads on Meta and let the current ads load.
Inspect each ad's media, text, headline and state. Use Open Meta when provided to compare with the platform.
Read any combined-results notice. Results can combine multiple creative versions and do not necessarily show the exact spend of only the displayed version.
Use Check status when current status is uncertain or a request is still awaiting confirmation. Failed inputs and unsent edits are kept when the refresh cannot load the latest ads.

2. Edit creative and submit only the intended changes

Edit a permitted ad's Headline and Ad text. For a live edit, text must be non-empty and within the displayed limit; the live creative editor permits up to 63,000 body characters and 255 headline characters. Unresolved text variations such as a|b are not allowed.
Use Replace photo or video if you need new media. Each edited ad needs exactly one image or video. Wait for uploads to finish before submitting.
For bulk text work, select the ads and choose Replace text, Find & replace, Add at start, Add at end, Set headline or Back to post text, then Apply to selected. Applying this operation changes the local editing values; it does not itself submit to Meta. Inspect the resulting text on the cards.
Check the selection before Update on Meta. If some ads are selected, only edited ads within that selection will be sent. If the selection is cleared, all edited ads are included. A request supports at most 50 edited ads; other unsent edits can remain for a separate request.
Choose Update on Meta. In Confirm changes on Meta, compare Before and After for every requested ad.
Confirm Update on Meta, or cancel to keep editing. The request covers only the changes listed; other ads, destinations, parent switches and budgets stay unchanged.
Follow the result. Awaiting account-owner approval, Waiting for Meta confirmation, Confirmed on Meta, Not applied and Outcome not confirmed are different outcomes. A request accepted for processing is not yet a confirmed change.

Closing with unsent changes

Closing a dirty editor asks Discard unsent changes? Choose Keep editing to retain them or Discard changes to lose edits that have not been sent. Discarding does not cancel requests already sent to Meta.

3. Change an idea's name or supported audience

From an ad's actions, choose Edit idea when available.
In Edit idea on Meta, check the Idea name and audience. The change applies to every ad in that idea, not to other ideas or the campaign budget.
Use the real location and targeting pickers. The existing audience mode cannot be switched between manual and AI through this live update.
For an Advantage+ idea, treat interests as suggestions. Maximum age, gender, languages and manual placements are unavailable in that mode, and minimum age cannot exceed 25.
For a housing idea, keep its classification and restrictions: ages 18–65, all genders, no ZIP targeting, and city radius at least 25 km / 15 mi.
Choose Update on Meta, compare the before/after summary and confirm. Inspect the request state or owner approval afterwards.

A new audience mode requires a different campaign setup rather than overriding the existing idea's locked mode.

4. Add ads to the existing campaign

Open New ad when it is offered.
Choose media. Each photo or video becomes its own ad; the form accepts one to ten media items.
Complete Headline and Ad text. In this addition form, headline allows 255 characters and body text allows 10,000. Both need content and neither can contain unresolved text variations.
Choose Ad set. Select an available existing ad set or New ad set. A new ad set needs a shared campaign budget; the campaign supports up to 20 ad sets. For a new one, complete Name and its audience.
Choose Add ad. Read any fee requirement, then the Add ads confirmation, including the target and number of ads.
Choose Confirm addition. New ads go through Meta review. If the campaign is paused, adding them does not resume it; they can run only after the campaign is resumed and Meta review allows it.
Inspect the addition state. Waiting for approval, Sending to Meta, Not added, an owner decline or an unconfirmed result require different next steps.

The campaign budget is shared by existing and new ads. Meta may move some allocation to new ads; adding ten creatives does not mean authorizing ten independent copies of the campaign budget.

If New ad is disabled in a draft because it uses selected photos as a carousel or one ad per photo, the message asks you to return to a single-ad setup first. Do not confuse this draft format restriction with live Meta eligibility.

5. Remove an individual ad

Use Remove ad only when the action is permitted. Read the confirmation: the ad is stopped on Meta and removed from active ads, while past results and leads are kept. Other ads, the idea, campaign and budget stay unchanged. Confirm and follow the operation's state.

For a draft ad or a confirmed failed addition, removal has different wording: the source post stays on the campaign board. An unconfirmed addition is not proof that nothing was created, so inspect Meta before retrying or treating it as a failed local draft.

6. Choose where leads go

When Where leads go is available in the live editor, it controls the CRM audience receiving this ad's leads. This is different from the targeting audience that sees the ad.

Choose Automatic with the displayed audience name, an available audience, or New audience….
Read the result after selecting. This choice saves immediately and copies existing leads to the chosen audience; it does not send email or change lead ownership.
Use Add existing leads to this audience to apply the current choice to existing leads again when needed. Read the counts for added, already present and unresolved people.
If the chosen audience is no longer available, read the fallback warning. New leads use the automatic audience when it is available.

The ad creator must be able to manage the chosen audience. If the app refuses it, choose another manageable audience or Automatic. See Audiences for the CRM side of audience management.

7. Replace a Meta lead form safely

Change form and optimization is offered only for eligible campaigns. Despite the title, this replacement keeps the campaign's current optimization. Meta has one optimization per campaign; changing that optimization requires a new campaign.

Apply or discard unsent ad edits first. They must not be mixed with a lead-settings replacement.
Choose Change form and optimization and inspect Optimize for. It shows the current optimization that will stay unchanged.
Prepare the new form, including its name, questions, answers, email-permission wording when enabled, thank-you screen and privacy policy. Use the same form rules described in Create and launch a paid ad.
Choose Review replacement. Inspect the complete list of affected ideas and ads and the new form preview.
Read the warnings: replacement ads are created in the same Meta campaign, their learning restarts, and old ads stop only after Meta explicitly approves all new ads. The campaign budget is unchanged and shared by old and new ads; Meta may change allocation, and a daily budget is not a hard charge cap. Meta determines the review time.
Confirm the acknowledgement, then Confirm replacement on Meta. A connected account owner may still need to approve the request.
Follow Lead-settings replacement, its review reasons and the approved/switched counts. In Meta review, Switching, Switched, A decision is needed, Outcome not confirmed, Cancelling and Cancelled are distinct states.

Paused campaigns and ideas stay paused. Replacing settings is not confirmation that ads are delivering. During a replacement, further edits, additions and replacement requests are unavailable until it is resolved; emergency pause remains available from the campaign.

If Cancel replacement is permitted, read the cancellation notice and confirm Confirm cancellation. Only replacement ads are stopped. Originals are not resumed or changed, and cancellation itself may remain in reconciliation before it completes.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	What it means or what to check	What to do
Outcome not confirmed or receipt could not be confirmed	Meta may already have applied the change	Use Check status and Open Meta. Do not send another edit or replacement request.
Not applied or some changes failed	Some requested changes were not confirmed as applied; successful ads can already be refreshed	Inspect each result and the retained failed inputs before a new attempt.
The saved ad changed	Your editing snapshot is no longer current	Check status, load the latest ad and review it before making a new request.
Owner declined the request	Approval was refused	Review the saved inputs and resolve the owner's concern before another request.
A live creative cannot be updated	Format, destination or original link is not safely supported	Use the platform and read the specific restriction. Removal may still be available if permitted.
The replacement form is not ready	Meta has not finished preparing it	Wait, then retry the same request as instructed; do not create a second replacement.
Meta refuses the replacement's phone text check	SMS confirmation is not allowed	Use Continue without phone confirmation by text only after explicitly accepting that change.
Replacement is only partly switched	Cutover is still reconciling; only confirmed predecessor stops count as switched	Check status and Meta. Do not treat an intermediate count as completion.
Approval is unavailable because replacement details are missing	The immutable request summary is not available in that view	Do not approve from a saved draft as a substitute. Use a view containing the actual request details or get help.