Welcome to The Pubcast with Jon Loomer!

How Auction Overlap Impacts Delivery of Facebook Ads

The delivery of your ads can be impacted by Auction Overlap, but not in the way most advertisers believe.

Auction Overlap is when you have two ad sets with ads for the same page that enter the same auction. This can happen when there are people who are within the potential targeting pool of each ad set.

There's a long-held myth that this results in competing against yourself, driving up the auction price. Instead, Auction Overlap is what prevents this from happening.

When you have two ads that attempt to enter the same auction, only the ad with the highest total value will be chosen to compete in that auction.

Some overlap is inevitable. But if one ad is consistently omitted from auctions because of it, you may have issues with delivery that could impact your ability to exit the learning phase.

You shouldn't obsess over Auction Overlap and expect to completely eliminate it. But it is something to watch for if it becomes a problem.