Meta announced improved value optimization for app advertisers on November 3, 2025, delivering 29% higher ROAS and enhanced MMP alignment for iOS and Android campaigns.
Meta announced significant improvements to its artificial intelligence optimization systems for app and gaming advertisers on November 3, 2025. The enhancements focus on value-based conversion optimization and closer alignment with mobile measurement partners, addressing longstanding challenges in app campaign performance measurement.
The company’s value optimization solution, also known as “maximize the value of conversions,” now delivers 29% higher return on ad spend compared to cam…
Meta announced improved value optimization for app advertisers on November 3, 2025, delivering 29% higher ROAS and enhanced MMP alignment for iOS and Android campaigns.
Meta announced significant improvements to its artificial intelligence optimization systems for app and gaming advertisers on November 3, 2025. The enhancements focus on value-based conversion optimization and closer alignment with mobile measurement partners, addressing longstanding challenges in app campaign performance measurement.
The company’s value optimization solution, also known as “maximize the value of conversions,” now delivers 29% higher return on ad spend compared to campaigns optimizing for conversion volume. This performance gap represents a substantial increase from the 12% improvement documented earlier in 2025, signaling accelerated development in Meta’s machine learning capabilities throughout the year.
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Value optimization gains momentum
App advertisers face distinct objectives when running campaigns on Meta’s platforms. Some prioritize download volume. Others focus on in-app purchases or maximizing revenue from acquired users. The latest announcement emphasizes tools that help advertisers communicate these priorities to Meta’s automated systems.
According to the announcement, advertisers using value optimization in app campaigns achieve 29% higher ROAS than those optimizing for conversion volume, making this “the most performant Meta solution for App advertisers optimizing for ROAS.” Meta has continuously enhanced its value optimization models throughout 2025 to reach this performance level.
Yang Jing, UA Manager at FunPlus, stated in the announcement: “We’ve seen value optimization performance improve by 5 percent over the past year and it’s now over 20 percent better than when we focus on the volume of conversion. This uplift means we’re acquiring higher-value players more efficiently and driving stronger ROAS and in-game monetisation across our titles.”
The gaming sector shows particularly strong adoption. Guy Galin, Head of User Acquisition at Banditos Studio, indicated in the announcement that his company allocated 85% of its user acquisition budget with Meta to value optimization over the past 90 days for the RPG title Heroes & Dragons. Galin stated: “We are pleased with the results and plan to continue scaling the VO campaigns in the upcoming months.”
Alexandr Snopkov, Lead UA Manager at CrazyLabs, provided additional evidence of iOS-specific success in the announcement: “At CrazyLabs, value optimization campaigns have significantly boosted our portfolio performance. On iOS, VO has become the leading campaign type for our IAP-focused titles, such as Coffee Mania, driving standout results. Beyond the numbers, VO has brought the stability and scalability we were looking for in our UA strategy with Meta Ads.”
The optimization mechanism targets users most likely to make high-value purchases rather than maximizing total purchase count. An example scenario in the announcement contrasted 10 purchases at $9.99 each against 15 purchases at $1.99 each, demonstrating how value optimization prioritizes revenue over transaction volume.
Mobile measurement partner integration
Meta has implemented technical changes to better align its advertising delivery with how advertisers measure results through mobile measurement partners. These third-party companies—including Adjust, Airbridge, AppsFlyer, Branch, Kochava, Singular, and Tenjin—provide cross-platform attribution data that many app advertisers use as their primary performance metrics.
The company described “a range of foundational model enhancements” developed through collaboration with MMPs to optimize ad delivery for conversions that advertisers value in their third-party analytics tools. This work addresses discrepancies between what Meta’s systems report and what advertisers see in their MMP dashboards.
One specific technical adjustment involves the reattribution window—the timeframe that determines whether a user counts as “new” for app promotion campaigns. Different MMPs employ different methodologies. AppsFlyer allows advertisers to set flexible reattribution windows from 0 to 180 days. Adjust and Singular use lifetime new user windows.
Meta has updated its systems to respect these varying definitions. For AppsFlyer users, the platform now applies whatever reattribution window the advertiser configured in AppsFlyer itself, ranging from 0 to 180 days. For advertisers using Adjust and Singular, Meta applies a 180-day exclusion window for app promotion campaigns, reflecting those platforms’ lifetime approach.
According to the announcement, extending the exclusion window from 90 to 180 days resulted in mobile app promotion campaigns targeting new users having “an average of 20% less acquired users that did not meet the advertiser’s categorization of a new user.” This reduction indicates improved targeting precision, with fewer wasted impressions on users who don’t qualify as new under the advertiser’s own measurement framework.
The announcement explained that advertisers often maintain distinct definitions for events and categories within their MMP reporting. These include parameters such as inactivity thresholds before a user becomes eligible for reengagement campaigns. By incorporating these advertiser-specific definitions into its optimization models, Meta can identify and reach user segments that each advertiser considers most valuable.
Industry context and competitive positioning
The improvements arrive during a period of significant focus on automation across Meta’s advertising products. The company has been streamlining campaign creation workflows, making Advantage+ automation the default for sales and app promotion objectives. This strategy emphasizes AI-driven optimization while maintaining some manual controls for advertisers who require specific configurations.
Meta’s broader value optimization expansion launched in June 2025 with multiple products including Value Rules, which allow advertisers to adjust bids for specific audience segments or placements. Value Rules became available for placement-specific bidding control in July, enabling advertisers to express relative value across different inventory types within consolidated campaign structures.
The mobile measurement partner alignment work parallels efforts by other major platforms. TikTok enabled real-time iOS conversion tracking through Kochava in October 2025, addressing similar challenges with delayed attribution data. Google announced enhanced iOS app campaign measurement tools in August 2025, including expanded on-device measurement capabilities and Target ROAS bidding for iOS campaigns.
Industry adoption of privacy-preserving measurement frameworks continues to accelerate. Meta activated SKAdNetwork 4.0 in June 2025, implementing Apple’s attribution framework that provides aggregated campaign performance data without device-level identifiers. The framework covers 77% of all referral-based conversions to the App Store, making proper implementation critical for iOS advertising success.
The gaming sector presents particularly complex optimization challenges. Gaming companies operate diverse monetization models—in-app advertising, in-app purchases, subscriptions—with highly variable customer lifetime values. Meta’s Q5 marketing strategy for mobile game developers, published in October 2025, emphasized leveraging lower competition periods while maintaining sophisticated audience targeting and conversion optimization.
Technical implications for advertisers
The value optimization improvements require careful implementation planning. Advertisers must ensure proper event configuration in both Meta’s system and their mobile measurement partner platform. According to Meta’s documentation on value optimization capabilities, the feature does not support campaigns already using return on ad spend goals, bid caps, or “maximize value of conversions” performance goals alongside other manual bid strategies.
The MMP alignment changes operate automatically for qualified advertisers but depend on correct initial setup. Advertisers using AppsFlyer must configure their desired reattribution window within the AppsFlyer platform. Meta’s system then reads this configuration and applies the corresponding exclusion logic to app promotion campaigns.
For advertisers working with Adjust and Singular, the 180-day exclusion window applies by default to mobile app promotion campaigns, matching those platforms’ lifetime new user classification methodology. This standardization eliminates previous discrepancies where Meta might target users who had previously installed the app beyond the 90-day window.
The technical changes address a fundamental challenge in mobile app advertising: different stakeholders often measure success using different attribution methodologies and timeframes. Internal analytics teams might use one attribution window. Mobile measurement partners might use another. Advertising platforms traditionally used their own definitions, creating reporting discrepancies that complicated campaign optimization decisions.
By aligning its optimization targets with how advertisers actually measure results in their MMP dashboards, Meta reduces friction in the optimization feedback loop. When Meta’s system pursues conversions that the advertiser’s measurement framework will recognize and value, campaign reporting becomes more consistent across platforms, and optimization signals become more reliable.
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Performance data and testing methodology
Meta’s announcement included specific performance benchmarks from internal testing. The 29% ROAS improvement for value optimization versus volume optimization represents the current state of the product. The 20% reduction in misclassified new users following the exclusion window extension demonstrates measurable impact from the MMP alignment work.
The announcement noted that results are based on internal Meta experiments and that “similar performance is not guaranteed, and may vary depending on each advertiser’s unique circumstances.” This standard disclaimer acknowledges that campaign performance depends on numerous factors beyond optimization algorithm selection, including creative quality, market conditions, competitive intensity, and product-market fit.
The value optimization performance improvements throughout 2025 suggest an accelerating learning curve for Meta’s machine learning systems. The 12% ROAS advantage documented in June increased to 29% by November, indicating either algorithmic enhancements, increased training data from growing advertiser adoption, or both.
Industry observers note that major platforms have been investing heavily in conversion value prediction models. These systems attempt to estimate the long-term value of a user based on limited early signals, enabling real-time bidding adjustments that account for predicted lifetime value rather than just initial conversion events.
Market implications
The announcement matters for the performance marketing community because it addresses two persistent pain points: optimizing for business outcomes rather than vanity metrics, and achieving consistent measurement across platforms and tools.
Value optimization directly tackles the volume-versus-value trade-off that app marketers constantly navigate. Acquiring users who generate minimal revenue wastes budget and can even create negative outcomes if low-quality users degrade the app experience for higher-value customers. Systems that can identify and prioritize valuable users before they convert provide substantial competitive advantages.
The mobile measurement partner alignment work reduces operational friction. App marketers typically run campaigns across multiple platforms—Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat—while measuring results in a unified MMP dashboard. When each platform’s reported performance diverges significantly from the MMP view, advertisers struggle to make informed optimization decisions or accurate budget allocation choices across channels.
Gaming companies in particular benefit from these capabilities. The sector’s reliance on precise user acquisition targeting and sophisticated lifetime value prediction makes optimization algorithm quality a critical competitive factor. Performance improvements of the magnitude Meta describes—29% ROAS improvements, 20% reductions in targeting waste—can significantly impact unit economics in a sector known for tight margins and intense competition for user attention.
The broader industry trajectory points toward increased automation with value-based constraints. Rather than manual campaign management with granular targeting parameters, modern app advertising increasingly relies on machine learning systems guided by clear business objective signals. Platforms that can effectively optimize for advertiser-defined value metrics while maintaining measurement consistency gain strategic advantages in an increasingly automated ecosystem.
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Timeline
- August 2024: Meta announced AI-driven campaign optimization updates including early testing of Conversion Value Rules for audience targeting
- June 4, 2025: Meta expanded value optimization capabilities including Value Optimization, Incremental Attribution, and Value Rules, achieving 12% higher ROAS for advertisers
- June 22, 2025: Meta launched opportunity score globally for all advertisers with AI-powered optimization recommendations
- June 22, 2025: Meta activated SKAdNetwork 4.0 for iOS advertising with enhanced measurement windows
- July 25, 2025: Meta value rules became available for placement-specific bidding control
- August 20, 2025: Meta expanded advertising features with targeted offers and value rules achieving universal availability
- September 21, 2025: Meta launched unified API structure for Advantage+ campaigns across sales, app, and leads objectives
- October 13, 2025: Meta unveiled Q5 marketing strategy for mobile game developers emphasizing seasonal optimization opportunities
- October 21, 2025: TikTok enabled real-time iOS conversion tracking through Kochava partnership, demonstrating industry focus on iOS measurement
- October 26, 2025: Meta deprecated legacy campaign APIs for streamlined Advantage+ structure
- November 3, 2025: Meta announced improved AI optimization for app and gaming advertisers with 29% higher ROAS and enhanced MMP alignment
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Summary
Who: Meta Technologies announced the improvements, affecting app and gaming advertisers running campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Audience Network. The company’s badged mobile measurement partners include Adjust, Airbridge, AppsFlyer, Branch, Kochava, Singular, and Tenjin.
What: Meta enhanced its value optimization solution to deliver 29% higher return on ad spend compared to volume optimization, representing a significant performance increase from earlier 2025 benchmarks. The company also implemented technical changes to align its advertising delivery with how advertisers measure results through mobile measurement partners, including updated reattribution windows that respect MMP-specific definitions.
When: Meta made the announcement on November 3, 2025. The value optimization improvements reflect continuous model enhancements throughout 2025. The mobile measurement partner alignment changes, including the extended exclusion window from 90 to 180 days, were implemented prior to the announcement date.
Where: The improvements apply globally across Meta’s advertising platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Audience Network. The mobile measurement partner integrations specifically affect advertisers using AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular, and other badged partners for iOS and Android app campaign attribution.
Why: Meta developed these enhancements to help app advertisers optimize campaigns based on specific business outcomes rather than conversion volume alone. The value optimization improvements address the challenge of identifying high-value users before conversion. The mobile measurement partner alignment work reduces discrepancies between Meta’s reporting and advertiser measurement frameworks, enabling more effective campaign optimization and budget allocation decisions across multiple advertising platforms.