• by Colin Kirkland , March 13, 2024

According to the social giant, the new AI-powered ad tools aim to provide more information and personalization to a user so they will feel more assured when thinking about purchasing after seeing an ad. 

For starters, Meta is introducing Advantage+ creative optimizations, which it says can now automatically optimize video ads for viewing on Reels or the mobile Facebook and Instagram apps with 9:16 ratio. This will help advertisers utilize more of Meta's video formats, like Reels.

“Reels and video on our apps continues to grow as daily watch times across all video types grew over 25% year-over-year in Q4,” Meta wrote in a blog post. “In fact, people now reshare Reels 3.5 billion times every day.”

Advantage+ creative optimizations are also meant to aid advertisers in the creation of multiple variations of an ad so the automated system can pick and choose which versions best apply to a user’s personality. 

Next, Meta is updating its Advantage+ catalog ads, which automatically deliver product recommendations to users based on their interests. Now, the tool is able to import and use video creative, like branded videos or customer demonstration videos, instead of simply static images.

After a year of testing, the feature is now open for use by all global advertisers, the company says.

In addition, Meta is making it possible for advertisers to upload “hero” images in the center of their catalog ad, which the company’s AI will use to automatically show people the most appropriate products from their catalog to drive sales.

Meta is bringing additional eCommerce ad options to the forefront as well, with Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud users now able to create Shop ads directly within their management systems. Shop ads will also now be integrated into its Partnership ads (formerly known as Branded content ads) in order to enable direct purchasing from collaborative campaigns.

As for Reminder Ads on Instagram, advertisers can now include external links to a new product or sale to help persuade users to make a purchase. Starting this summer, Meta says that it will be offering advertisers ways to notify people when an event starts and before it ends, and will be bringing Reminder ads to Reels as well.

This month, Meta says it will also bring ads with product tags –– now only available on Instagram –– to Facebook Feed. In April, the company is planning to launch the global availability of ads with product tags to all businesses, “whether or not they maintain a Shop.”

Finally, Meta is working on Advantage+ catalog ads with omnichannel brand and product level reporting as a new managed service solution “to help RMNs prove that ads on Meta platforms drove sales online and in-store.”