Advantage+ catalog ads and Advantage+ sales campaigns in Kenya

Advantage+ catalog ads let retailers advertise hundreds of products without building an ad for each one. Meta builds every ad from the product feed and updates it when prices or stock change.

57% of digital ad spend in Kenya went to Facebook and Instagram from January to March 2026 (Communications Authority of Kenya).
Most of the budget is already on Meta.

Catalog ads and Advantage+ sales campaigns both learn from confirmed purchases. In Kenya, many purchases close on M-Pesa or in WhatsApp, where the Meta Pixel cannot see them.

Meta Advantage+ is the umbrella name for Meta’s automation tools. Two of them work together in one campaign:

• Advantage+ sales campaign is the campaign level. It decides who sees the ads, where, and with what budget.
• Advantage+ catalog ads are the ad level. They decide which product each person sees.

Catalog ads run inside the sales campaign. Each tool also works alone: catalog ads in a Sales campaign with Advantage+ turned off, an Advantage+ sales campaign with regular image and video ads.

What catalog sales in Facebook ads are

Catalog sales is a Sales campaign that shows products from your catalog. Meta once offered it as a separate objective. Now you choose the Sales objective and connect a catalog (Hunch, ODAX Sales objective).

In today’s Ads Manager, catalog sales is a Sales campaign with Advantage+ catalog ads, with Advantage+ on or off.

Advantage+ catalog ads: the ad level

This is the format Meta previously called dynamic ads.

• You upload a product catalog to Commerce Manager.
• Meta builds each ad from the feed: image, name, price, link.
• Meta picks which product to show each person, based on Pixel, app, and Conversions API events.
• Formats: single image or video, carousel, collection.
• Since September 1, 2025, Meta can show a product’s catalog video in place of the image (Meta for Developers). You can opt out.

Advantage+ sales campaigns: the campaign level

Formerly Advantage+ shopping campaigns. Since 2025, every new Sales campaign starts with Advantage+ on. Ads Manager no longer offers a separate manual setup at the start.

• You set the budget, conversion event, and creative.
• Meta handles audience, placements, and budget split.
• The campaign stays Advantage+ while budget, audience, and placements stay broad. Narrow any of them and that part shows Advantage+ off. The campaign then runs as a manual Sales campaign.

To use your catalog, choose Advantage+ catalog ads at the ad level and select the catalog.

$4.52 in revenue per $1 for advertisers using Advantage+, 22% more than with other campaigns (Meta newsroom, April 2025).
Meta’s own average. Meta has not published a figure for Kenya.

42% of brands saw Advantage+ beat manual campaigns on incremental ROAS across 640 tests by Haus, an independent measurement company (Haus).
Results vary by account. Test before you move budget.

Public Meta cases with an African link:

• Old Mutual, South Africa. An Advantage+ sales campaign plus a video awareness campaign: 3x more incremental purchases and 48% lower cost per incremental conversion in a Meta conversion lift test, August 2024 (Meta success story).
• Gototop, 35 markets including Africa. Bid multipliers in an Advantage+ sales campaign: 12% higher ROAS and 26% lower CPC, results for all markets combined (Meta success story).
• Europcar, operates in Africa, test in France. Automated campaign against a manual setup with Advantage+ catalog ads for travel: 2.9x more bookings at 60% lower cost per booking, October to November 2023 (Meta success story).

Why these formats fit the Kenyan market

Most of the audience is on Facebook

17.0M Facebook users reachable with ads in Kenya, against 3.95M on Instagram, October 2025 (DataReportal).

An Advantage+ sales campaign splits the budget across placements by results, so you do not have to guess between Facebook and Instagram. Catalog ads adapt the same product to each placement. Design templates and product videos for Facebook Feed and Reels first.

Shopping happens on Android phones

92% to 95% of mobile web traffic in Kenya came from Android, May to September 2026 (StatCounter).

Catalog ads show the product, name, and price in the ad itself, so the buyer sees the offer before any page loads. The collection format opens a full-screen product grid inside the Facebook app. Product pages still need to load fast on mid-range Android phones.

Payment happens in M-Pesa

40.99M one-month active M-Pesa customers in the year to March 2026 (Safaricom FY2026 annual report, via Paybill KE).

Both formats optimize for purchases. When the buyer pays through an M-Pesa prompt, a till, or a WhatsApp order, the browser Pixel often misses the sale, and Meta learns from add-to-carts instead. Send Purchase from your server through the Conversions API when M-Pesa confirms the payment. Then the automation learns from real sales.

“We don’t offer shop or catalog setup in your region”

Merchants see this message when they connect a store to Meta through a platform such as Shopify (Shopify Community). It concerns Shops, Meta’s storefronts on Facebook and Instagram, which work only in supported countries.

Catalog ads do not need a shop. A catalog can run ads with no shop attached (AdsUploader, vendor guide).

If you see the error in Kenya:

• skip the shop step;
• create the catalog directly in Commerce Manager;
• fill it with a data feed file or URL from your store.

How to set up Advantage+ catalog ads

The setup has two parts: the catalog and tracking that feed the ads, then the Advantage+ sales campaign that runs them.

Part 1: catalog and tracking

1. In Commerce Manager, add a Products catalog with prices in KES.
2. Connect a data feed that updates price and stock as often as your site does.
3. Install the Pixel and the Conversions API. Product IDs in the feed must match the content IDs the Pixel sends (WebAppick, vendor guide). Deduplicate events with a shared event ID.
4. Send Purchase from your server on M-Pesa confirmation, WhatsApp orders included.
5. Build product sets by category and margin. Add videos for top sellers.

Then compare last month’s M-Pesa-confirmed orders with Purchase events in Events Manager. A large gap means steps 3 and 4 need work before launch.

Part 2: the Advantage+ sales campaign

1. Create a campaign with the Sales objective. Advantage+ is on by default.
2. Set the budget and choose Purchase as the conversion event.
3. At the ad level, choose Advantage+ catalog ads and select your catalog or a product set.
4. Measure incremental results with a lift test or a holdout region.

Who these formats fit

Get your catalog and tracking checked

Evido by Aitarget in Kenya is an official Meta Business Partner:

• ad accounts opened within one business day;
• top-ups handled for you;
• help with the Pixel, Conversions API, and catalog feeds.

Selling in Kenya with a large catalog and M-Pesa payments? Contact us. We will review your feed and purchase tracking before you scale. More on our ads for online stores in Kenya.

FAQ

Are Advantage plus catalog ads the same as dynamic product ads?

Yes. Meta renamed dynamic ads to Advantage+ catalog ads. The mechanics are the same: ads built from a product feed and matched to each person.

Can catalog ads run inside an Advantage+ sales campaign?

Yes. You turn on Advantage+ catalog ads at the ad level of the campaign and connect a catalog.

Does the Meta Pixel track M-Pesa payments?

Only when the buyer returns to a confirmation page in the browser. For M-Pesa prompts, till payments, or WhatsApp orders, send Purchase through the Conversions API.