Meta’s growing reliance on artificial intelligence in advertising has raised fresh concerns after reports revealed that its automated tools could display discounts that businesses never approved for specific campaigns.
The issue involves Meta AI ads showing unapproved discounts taken from advertisers’ websites and inserting them into Facebook and Instagram promotions. In some cases, these offers could appear in duplicated advertisements even when the original campaigns had promotions disabled.
Digital marketing specialist Bram Van der Hallen identified the behaviour and shared his findings on LinkedIn. His discovery highlights a potential weakness in Meta’s increasingly automated advertising system, particularly for businesses managing multiple offers.
The discounts weren’t necessarily fabricated by AI. Instead, Meta’s system could reuse genuine promotions in places where advertisers never intended them to appear.
That difference matters, especially when customers expect an advertised discount to apply at checkout.
Meta’s AI Advertising Tools Can Add Discounts Without Campaign-Level Approval
Meta’s automated advertising system can detect promotional offers from a business’s website and display them within Facebook and Instagram advertisements. The problem arises when these offers appear in campaigns where advertisers have not explicitly approved their use.
According to reporting from PPC Land, Van der Hallen discovered that Meta could add detected offers to duplicated advertisements even when promotions were disabled on the original ad. This means an advertiser’s decision to exclude promotional messaging from one advertisement may not automatically carry over to its copy.
The behaviour appears connected to a setting in Meta Commerce Manager that allows the platform to identify and display offers from websites and existing advertisements.
For businesses, this creates an unexpected complication. A campaign designed to promote a product without a discount could display a promotional offer simply because Meta detected one elsewhere on the company’s website.
Meta’s system may view the additional discount as a way to improve advertising performance. But businesses often have specific reasons for limiting promotions to particular products, customers or campaigns.
Meta Commerce Manager Settings Allow Automatic Offer Detection
The reported issue centers on a feature called Detected offers, located within Meta Commerce Manager under Settings and Offer merchandising.
When enabled, the setting allows Meta to automatically display promotional offers identified from an advertiser’s website and advertisements. Unlike controls applied to individual campaigns, this option operates at a broader level.
Van der Hallen’s findings suggest that advertisers who disable promotions within an individual advertisement may still encounter automatically detected offers in duplicated versions of that campaign.
Commerce Manager also includes options for displaying sale events and seasonal promotional labels in advertisements that direct users toward shopping or product browsing experiences.
These features can help businesses promote existing discounts without manually updating every advertisement. However, they also introduce the possibility of promotional information appearing outside its intended context.
The available reporting does not confirm whether Detected offers is enabled by default for all advertisers or when Meta introduced the setting. Its availability across different account types and markets also remains unclear.
Facebook and Instagram Advertisers Risk Displaying the Wrong Promotions
The discovery could create problems for retailers and businesses running several promotional campaigns at the same time.
A company might offer a discount exclusively to loyal customers while maintaining regular prices for new shoppers. If Meta detects that offer and displays it in a broader advertising campaign, customers could expect savings they are not eligible to receive.
Similar problems could arise when promotions apply only to selected products or expire before an advertisement finishes running.
Customers who click an advertisement expecting a discount may become frustrated when the advertised offer does not appear at checkout.
For businesses, the consequences could include additional customer service inquiries, abandoned purchases and confusion over promotional terms.
The risk becomes more complicated for advertisers managing multiple Facebook and Instagram campaigns, particularly when they regularly duplicate successful advertisements to reach different audiences.
A discount that works perfectly for one customer group may be inappropriate for another.
Meta’s AI Advertising Automation Is Becoming More Powerful
Meta has spent considerable resources developing AI-powered advertising systems designed to improve campaign performance and reduce the amount of manual work required from advertisers.
Its automated tools can assist with targeting, creative optimization and ad delivery, helping businesses identify audiences that are more likely to respond to particular advertisements.
Meta previously reported that improvements to its advertising ranking system contributed to an increase of more than 8% in ad clicks and a 15.7% improvement in Facebook conversions during the second quarter of 2026.
Those figures demonstrate why the company continues investing in advertising automation.
But stronger performance does not necessarily mean every automated decision will match an advertiser’s intentions.
An AI system might identify a discount that appears likely to encourage purchases without fully understanding the conditions attached to that offer.
The result could be an advertisement that attracts attention but creates confusion when customers attempt to complete a purchase.
Unapproved AI Discounts Highlight Growing Concerns Over Advertiser Control
The reported discount issue raises a broader question about how much control businesses retain as Meta introduces more automated advertising features.
Advertisers typically develop campaigns around specific objectives, audiences and promotional messages. They may carefully select which discounts appear in advertisements to protect profit margins or maintain consistent pricing.
When an automated system changes those messages, the final advertisement may no longer reflect the campaign the business originally approved.
Meta’s tools are designed to make advertising more efficient, but advertisers still need to understand which features can modify their content.
The concern is particularly relevant when automated changes involve pricing or promotional claims rather than visual adjustments or alternative headlines.
A different image might affect how an advertisement performs. An incorrect discount could affect what customers believe they are being offered.
The findings also illustrate why transparency around automated settings matters. Businesses cannot effectively manage changes they do not know are happening.
Meta’s Discount Issue Comes Ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The timing of the discovery is significant as retailers prepare for the busiest promotional period of the year.
Black Friday falls on November 27, 2026, followed by Cyber Monday on November 30. During these shopping events, businesses frequently run overlapping discounts across different products, audiences and marketing channels.
Some promotions may last only a few hours, while others apply exclusively to loyalty members, email subscribers or selected product categories.
If Meta automatically detects those offers and inserts them into unrelated advertisements, businesses could encounter unexpected pricing messages during a critical sales period.
Retailers also frequently duplicate existing advertisements when launching new promotions or testing different audiences.
Because the reported behaviour specifically involves copied advertisements, those routine campaign adjustments could create opportunities for unintended discounts to appear.
For advertisers preparing holiday campaigns, reviewing automated promotional settings may be just as important as checking advertising budgets and creative materials.
How Businesses Can Prevent Unapproved Discounts in Meta Ads
Advertisers concerned about unexpected promotional offers can review their settings in Meta Commerce Manager.
The relevant option is located under Settings, followed by Offer merchandising, where businesses can find the Detected offers control.
Disabling this setting should prevent Meta from automatically displaying offers detected from websites and advertisements through that feature.
Businesses should also review any additional options related to sale events and seasonal promotional labels, particularly when their campaigns involve product catalogs or shopping experiences.
Checking duplicated advertisements before publication is another useful precaution. Advertisers should confirm that promotional text, discounts and eligibility conditions match the intended campaign.
Companies running several offers simultaneously may also benefit from reviewing the promotional information displayed on their websites.
Expired discounts, limited-audience offers and unclear promotional terms can create problems when automated systems use that information in advertisements.
The goal is not necessarily to disable every AI-powered advertising feature. Businesses should understand which automated tools are active and whether those tools align with their marketing requirements.
Meta’s AI Ad Discount Problem Shows Why Human Oversight Still Matters
Meta’s automated advertising technology continues to evolve, offering businesses new ways to manage campaigns and improve performance.
The ability to detect promotional offers automatically could save advertisers time, particularly when businesses regularly update discounts across large product catalogs.
But the latest findings reveal how those same capabilities can create problems when automation operates beyond the advertiser’s intended campaign settings.
The reported issue does not establish that Meta’s AI invented false discounts. It shows that the system can display existing offers in advertisements where businesses did not explicitly choose to include them.
That is still a meaningful concern for brands responsible for maintaining accurate promotional messaging.
As Meta expands its AI advertising tools, businesses will need to pay closer attention to account-level settings, automated enhancements and the final advertisements customers actually see.
AI can help optimize advertising performance. It cannot replace the need for businesses to verify the offers they make to customers.
Sources
- Social Media Today – Meta’s AI Ads Included Unapproved Discounts
- PPC Land – Meta Can Add Website Offers to Copied Ads Even With Promotions Turned Off
- Social Media Today – Meta’s Added a New Way to Incorporate Offers Into Your Ads
