Is it worth continuing to invest in FACEBOOK in 2026?
Updated: 3 days ago
With the introduction of new features and improvements over the past few years, Facebook continues to offer unique opportunities for businesses to connect with their audiences in more meaningful and effective ways. If you think Facebook is dying and are considering divesting from the network, think again. Here we look at the question as an investment: what the audience is worth, what ads cost in 2026 and how to get a return on your budget.
Facebook continues to be a powerhouse in digital marketing
Facebook is a massive marketing platform that provides access to a truly massive audience of potential customers. Meta stopped reporting users per app in 2024, but the last figure it reported for Facebook was 3.05 billion monthly active users (September 2023), and its family of apps reached an average of 3.60 billion daily active people in June 2026 (up 3% year over year). That scale makes Facebook, together with Instagram and WhatsApp, a digital advertising infrastructure that is hard for brands of any size to ignore.
There is a flip side for your budget: competition in the auction has grown. In the second quarter of 2026, Meta's ad impressions grew 14% and the average price per ad rose 12% year over year. In our reading, Facebook still works, but spending more is no longer enough on its own: returns depend increasingly on good creative and on solid measurement.
The monumental size of the audience proves essential for campaign optimisations and machine learning. With millions of users available for targeting, the platform’s algorithm collects performance data on a large scale, applying strategic adjustments that increase return on ad spend (ROAS) and help scale results.
In 2026, Facebook continues to be one of the most relevant channels for increasing brand awareness, attracting new customers and expanding digital marketing efforts – especially when integrated with Instagram and WhatsApp, all under the Meta umbrella.
Privacy and tracking: challenges and solutions
Despite growing concerns about data privacy, Facebook hasn’t thrown in the towel. Losing valuable data for ad management has been a challenge in recent years, but Facebook has adapted. Using artificial intelligence and developing new tools like server-side tracking via the Conversions API (CAPI) allows businesses to effectively position themselves for their target audiences, even with tracking limitations.
In Europe, the framework has changed too. After Meta launched an ad-free subscription model in November 2023 (the so-called "pay or consent"), the European Commission announced in December 2025 that Meta would offer Facebook and Instagram users in the EU a less personalised ads option from January 2026, under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Commission stressed that the case remains under monitoring.
For advertisers, this means part of the audience may see less personalised ads. It is therefore wise not to depend on a single source of signals: strong creatives, a well-configured Conversions API (Meta says it can be set up alongside the Pixel) and your own measurement of results.
Increasingly powerful advertising tools
Facebook offers two main ways to create effective campaigns:
• Manual Ad Management
This method continues to be effective for companies that want to control their ads in detail. Audiences can be defined based on criteria such as demographics, interests, behaviours and connections. Custom and lookalike audiences also allow you to reach audiences that are more likely to convert. Although more laborious, this model is important to help Meta find people who are more likely to be interested in the products and services you want to sell, and to have control over the results. However, the previous "hyper-segmented" campaigns should now be done from the content side, and not from the audience side, as segments and audiences that are too closed are no longer a good practice for most companies and brands.
• Meta Advantage+
The Meta Advantage+ system automates much of the process – from targeting to ad delivery – and now covers sales, leads and app campaigns. One of the most important features is Advantage+ Audience, which uses inputs such as age and interests as suggestions rather than restrictions, allowing the system to find audiences that are most likely to convert.
Advantage+ creative tools use generative AI to produce and adapt ad images and text, for example adjusting backgrounds and formats for each placement.
Meta has published results pointing to performance gains from AI: its GEM model, which powers ad recommendation, increased ad conversions by 5% on Instagram and 3% on Facebook Feed in the second quarter of 2025, according to Meta itself. These are Meta's own figures and should always be checked against your own account data.
Meta also describes Andromeda, the system that picks which ads, out of millions of candidates, are considered for each person, as built to handle a much larger volume of creatives, and points to ad diversity as a driver of better results. For your budget, that means variety should be built into the creative (different formats, messages and angles), rather than into very narrow audiences.
Our suggestion for 2026 budgets: start with a test budget, avoid splitting spend across many narrow audiences (in our experience this leaves each campaign with too little data to learn from), give the system a range of creatives, and judge return on business results such as leads and sales rather than clicks. Review the help Meta's AI gives in each campaign and use the options provided whenever they make sense.
And what can we expect from 2026?
Facebook in 2026 is not just a social network – it is an advertising platform increasingly driven by AI, at a time when Meta is shifting investment from the metaverse towards AI and smart glasses.
• Intelligent, AI-generated and discovered content
Meta is investing heavily in AI-powered creative tools, making it easier to create highly personalised videos, images and text. New AI models help not only produce content but also deliver it more efficiently, with recommendations based on behaviour, interests and context.
• Smart glasses and augmented reality (AR)
Meta is moving part of its investment from the metaverse to AI glasses and other wearables, which, according to press reports, led to cuts of around 10% in its Reality Labs division in January 2026. That division recorded an operating loss of $4.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026. For most businesses, immersive VR campaigns remain far from a priority: the return today is in Facebook and Instagram ads.
• The metaverse takes a back seat
The metaverse has lost priority at Meta: according to Bloomberg, the company was weighing cuts of up to 30% to its metaverse budget for 2026, and a Meta spokesperson confirmed a shift of investment towards AI and wearables. Brands do not need a presence in virtual worlds to benefit from Facebook in 2026.
In short: Is Facebook still worth investing in in 2026?
Yes, provided you budget for it strategically. With massive audiences, AI improving delivery and tools such as Advantage+, Facebook continues to be a central platform in the digital ecosystem. But with more competitive auctions and new privacy options in the EU, your return depends on good creative, sound measurement and realistic expectations. The key is knowing how to use these tools strategically and in a way that adapts to the behaviour of today’s users.
If you need help managing your Facebook ads or Instagram ads, please contact us.
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