• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 4, 2023

Meta, never content to stay out of the news for long, was back in on Wednesday morning. 

The social giant announced that it is adding generative AI-powered features for ad creatives in its Ads Manager function. The global rollout will be complete by next year.  

Meta claims that tests earlier this year showed that generative AI will save advertisers five or more hours per week.

The new features include:

• Background Generation — creates multiple backgrounds that can be tailored for an advertiser’s product images and different audiences; available for users creating Advantage+ catalog ads.  
• Image Expansion — allows advertisers to spend less time and resources on repurposing creative assets as it adjusts the assets to fit different aspect ratios across multiple surfaces, like Feed or Reels; different optimizations include single image or video format and carousel format; available only to those using manual upload in the ad setup.  
• Text Variations — generates up to six versions of ad texts based on an advertiser’s original copy, using keywords from input phrases, and highlighting the selling points of its products/services; available to advertisers using Meta Ads Manager. 

The tests earlier this year also showed that “Generative AI eases creative fatigue, but there is still room to customize,” Meta says. 

As for the future, Meta plans to offer “more ways to generate ad copy to highlight product selling points or generate background images in minutes with tailored themes, like outdoor images for an athletic brand.” In addition, as shared at its Connect event, firms can soon use AI for business messaging on Messenger and WhatsApp.

Of course, there were other Meta stories breaking. On the negative side, reports say Meta will lay off employees in its Facebook Agile Silicon team on Wednesday. 

In other news, it was reported that Campbell Brown, who led Facebook News for six years representing the company to news media, is stepping down. As Axios reports, this reflects Meta’s stepping away from focusing on news content.