Where AR ads can still be bought
Checked against each platform’s own documentation on 30 October 2026.
- Meta
Gone for brands. Third-party AR effects stopped being available on 14 January 2025, announced the previous August. AR effects Meta owns itself continue, so there is nothing for an advertiser to commission.Source: Meta Spark, a Meta Spark update
- Snapchat, AR Lenses
Live, in the carousel before the shot is taken. Bought per impression, with creative types covering plain lenses, app install, deep link and web view.Source: Snap for Developers, AR lenses and AR filters
- Snapchat, AR Filters
Live, in the carousel after the shot is taken. A separate placement from lenses rather than a different product.Source: Snap for Developers, AR lenses and AR filters
- Building them
Lens Studio, a free desktop tool, with a simpler web builder alongside it. The tooling is not the cost; the creative and the 3D work are.Source: Snap for Developers, AR lenses and AR filters
- TikTok
Its interactive add-ons are stickers and cards rather than camera AR. Treat TikTok as an interactive platform, not an AR one.Source: TikTok Ads Manager help, interactive add-ons
- Production cost
Not published by any platform. Agency pricing for a custom lens is quoted per project, and the ranges that circulate cite no source.Source: Our own check of the AR studios’ pages, October 2026
Why the market shrank
AR advertising was sold for a decade as the next format. Its retreat is worth understanding, because the same argument is now being made about other interactive formats.
The format always had a distribution problem. An AR effect needs a camera surface with scale, and only a handful of apps have one. When Meta closed its third-party platform, roughly half the available distribution for brand-built AR went with it.
It also had an effort problem. The viewer has to open a camera, point it at something and hold still, which is far more than a tap. The famous AR campaigns worked because the effort was the joke: pointing your phone at a competitor’s poster to set it on fire is worth doing once.
What remains is genuinely useful in two cases. Try-on for things worn on the face or feet, where the camera answers the actual objection, and branded entertainment on a platform whose users already open the camera by default.
If AR was on your plan because it sounded like the future, the formats that now do that job are elsewhere: playable ads for a real demo, shoppable ads for commerce.
When an AR ad is still the right call
Three cases survive the distribution squeeze.
Try-on that answers the objection
Glasses, makeup, shoes, hair colour. The camera resolves the one thing a product photo cannot, which is how it looks on this particular face.
Placement in a real room
Furniture and appliances, where scale is the purchase question. Note that the best-known example of this is a product app rather than an ad unit.
A stunt with a reason to point the camera
Scanning a pack, a poster or a competitor. This is where the award-winning work sits, and it needs an idea rather than a budget.
The video that carries it
AR is a one-off build. The ads that run every week beside it are video.
Director by Sprites is a full creative team for your startup, in private beta. Every Monday you get finished, on-brand video ads, reviewed by a human.
Strategy, hooks, scripts, shooting and editing, end to end. You never write a prompt. You pick the winners. Sprites ships the campaigns.
Every video is checked by a person before it reaches your inbox. No endless revisions.
Questions
Can you still run AR ads on Facebook or Instagram?
Not as a brand. Meta Spark stopped supporting third-party AR effects on 14 January 2025, so only AR effects Meta owns itself remain.
Where can you buy AR ads now?
Snapchat is the main option, selling AR Lenses in the carousel before a shot and AR Filters after it, priced per impression and built in Lens Studio.
How much does an AR ad cost?
No platform publishes a price for building one. The tooling is free, and custom lens production is quoted per project, with the circulating ranges citing no source.
Are AR ads worth it?
In two cases: try-on for something worn on the face or feet, and a stunt that gives the viewer a reason to point their camera. Otherwise the effort asked is higher than the format returns.
Keep going
Want the weekly video instead?
Every Monday you get finished, on-brand video ads, reviewed by a human. You never write a prompt. You pick the winners. Sprites ships the campaigns.