Creating and managing Meta ads with Campaign Autopilot

You can use Campaign Autopilot to create and manage paid advertising campaigns on Meta. Autopilot sets up your ad account, syncs your product catalog, and runs optimized campaigns to drive traffic and acquire new customers for your store.

Autopilot surfaces each paid placement recommendation as a tactic in Pending actions in Growth > Autopilot. After you approve a tactic, Autopilot creates and launches the corresponding ad campaign on Meta. You stay in control by setting spending limits through your guardrails and approving each tactic before the campaign launches.

Autopilot ads and your other marketing campaigns

Autopilot ad tactics create campaigns that you own on Meta. Autopilot manages those campaigns separately from any other marketing that you run on Meta. Autopilot uses a separate ad account and catalog path, and doesn't modify your other Meta campaigns.

If you edit an Autopilot campaign directly in Meta, then Autopilot might overwrite your changes on the next update.

When you pause Campaign Autopilot, active ad campaigns are paused on Meta. Resume them in Meta Ads Manager if needed.

Budget and billing

You control how much Autopilot can spend by setting guardrails and spending limits. Ad spend is billed by Meta, not on your Shopify bill, so keep an active payment method in Meta Ads Manager.

Monitoring performance

Review tactic status, activity, and high-level outcomes in Growth > Autopilot. For impressions, clicks, conversions, and spend, use Meta Ads Manager reporting.

Requirements for Autopilot Meta ads

Your store must meet the following requirements to use Autopilot for Meta ads:

• Autopilot is set up with Meta Ads connected as a channel in Growth > Autopilot.
• You need to have a Meta Business account for Meta Ads.

Meta Advantage+ campaigns

Autopilot recommends Meta Advantage+ campaigns. Each recommendation is displayed as a tactic until you approve or dismiss it.

Advantage+ is Meta's automated campaign type for placements on Facebook and Instagram. Autopilot configures Advantage+ to reach potential customers who are likely to purchase from your store.

After you approve a tactic, Autopilot creates the live campaign on Meta. The campaign keeps running and optimizing as long as it stays active and within your guardrails. You can dismiss pending tactics or stop running tactics from Growth > Autopilot.

If you pause Campaign Autopilot, Autopilot-managed ad campaigns are paused on Meta until you resume them there.

Autopilot product catalog sync to Meta

Autopilot syncs your Shopify catalog to Meta so your ads can use current product data. Autopilot uses its own catalog path for Autopilot campaigns. It doesn't replace catalogs you manage in the Facebook & Instagram by Meta experience.

The sync behaves as described here:

• One-way sync: Autopilot sends Shopify products to Meta. Your Shopify product data stays canonical. Autopilot might overwrite direct edits on Meta.
• Active products only: Autopilot syncs active products and excludes draft, unlisted, and suspended products.

Connecting your Meta ad account

When you set up Autopilot, you connect Meta Ads from Growth > Autopilot. Autopilot handles the technical setup. You need to finish payment and permission steps directly in Meta Ads.

When you connect Meta Ads, Autopilot links your store to your existing Meta Business account and syncs your products to Meta's catalog. Autopilot also sets up the Conversions API (CAPI) so Meta can track purchase events from your store.

In Meta Ads, you need to complete the following tasks:

• Add a payment method.
• Authorize Autopilot to manage ads in your Meta account.

Review Autopilot ad campaigns

Before Autopilot launches an ad campaign, you can review the campaign details and decide whether to approve or dismiss it.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Growth > Autopilot.

2. In the Pending actions section, click the ad campaign tactic that you want to review.

3. Review the campaign details, including the ad platform, campaign type, target audience, and proposed budget.

4. Approve or dismiss a campaign:

   • To approve the campaign, click Approve. Autopilot creates and launches the campaign on Meta.
   • To dismiss the campaign, click Dismiss. The tactic is removed from your pending actions.

Troubleshooting Autopilot ad campaigns

If an Autopilot ad tactic or catalog sync doesn't behave as you expect, then start with these checks:

Ads not delivering after approval

• Confirm a valid payment method and any required identity or business verification steps are complete in Meta Ads.
• Confirm the tactic is approved and not stopped, and that guardrails aren't blocking spend or placements.
• In Meta Ads Manager, review campaign status, policy flags, and audience or catalog errors that can delay delivery.

Product catalog sync errors

• Confirm the product is active in Shopify and not draft, unlisted, or suspended.
• After you change products in Shopify, allow time for the sync to finish, and then check Meta catalog diagnostics for rejected items.
• If Autopilot manages the catalog path, don't rely only on hand-edited product fields in Meta, because Autopilot might overwrite those edits on sync.