How to edit targeting, placements and dayparting

Last updated June 10, 2026

Targeting, placements and ad scheduling all live on the ad set, and uplads lets you change them after launch without leaving the ads manager. This guide walks through the edit dialog, the structured targeting controls, dayparting, and the special ad category rules that affect what you can target.

If you haven't browsed the ads manager yet, start with How to view and navigate the ads manager.

Open the edit dialog for an ad set

Targeting edits are done one ad set at a time so you always see exactly what you're changing.

In the ads manager, switch to the Ad sets level so the table shows ad sets.
Find the ad set you want and open its Edit action to launch the edit panel.
The panel opens with grouped sections: Basics, Budget & schedule, Optimization & delivery, and Audience & placements.

For changing status, budget or bidding across many rows at once, use bulk edit instead — that's a different flow.

Edit geo, age, gender, audiences, placements and devices

The Audience & placements section holds the structured targeting editor. Each control writes straight into Meta's targeting spec:

Locations — search and add countries, regions, cities (with a radius) and DMA markets.
Age min / Age max — any value from 13 to 65. Leave a field blank to remove that bound.
Gender — choose All, Male or Female.
Devices — tick Mobile and/or Desktop. Leaving both unchecked means all devices.
Placement restrictions — toggle Automatic (Meta decides where ads run) or Manual. Switching to Manual seeds every placement as enabled, then lets you uncheck individual platforms and positions (Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories, Reels, Audience Network, and so on) in a category picker, just like Meta.

Tip: in the manual placements picker, leave a category collapsed and tick its master checkbox to enable everything in that category at once.

Add interests, behaviors and custom audiences

Two searchable pickers sit alongside the basics:

Custom audiences — type to search the custom audiences that already exist on the connected ad account. Click a result to add it. Tick Add as exclusion first to exclude an audience instead of including it.
Detailed targeting (interests & behaviors) — pick Interests or Behaviors, then type to search Meta's catalog. Results appear as you type. Tick Add as exclusion to narrow your audience out rather than in.

Everything you add shows as removable chips — included items are neutral badges, exclusions are marked in red with a ✕. There's also an Advantage+ audience checkbox that lets Meta expand your targeting beyond what you've selected.

Configure dayparting (requires a lifetime budget)

Dayparting (ad scheduling) lets an ad set run only at chosen hours on chosen days. It lives in the Budget & schedule section under Ad scheduling (dayparting).

Set the ad set's budget type to Lifetime and enter a lifetime budget — dayparting requires a lifetime budget and won't apply otherwise.
Expand the Ad scheduling (dayparting) panel.
Tick the days you want (Mon–Sun) and set a start and end time for each. Times use the ad account's timezone.
Leave every day unchecked to run all the time.

When you save, uplads writes one schedule block per enabled day and turns on Meta's day-parting pacing automatically — you don't need to touch any pacing setting yourself.

Special ad categories and raw JSON targeting

Special ad categories live in the Category & bidding section. Pick any that apply: Employment, Housing, Credit, Social issues/elections/politics, Online gambling & gaming, or Financial products & services. These categories restrict targeting per Meta's policies — when one is set, detailed interest and behavior targeting is disabled and the editor tells you why. Leaving them all unset keeps the campaign as a standard (non-special) campaign.

For anything the structured controls don't cover, switch the targeting editor to Advanced (raw JSON) using the toggle in the editor's header. This exposes the full targeting spec as editable JSON — useful for advanced exclusions or fields not surfaced in the UI. The editor warns you if the JSON becomes invalid; fix it before saving. Click Save changes to push everything to Meta.