• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

Meta’s “Early Release” program will provide advertisers with access to test new generative AI Advantage+ creative features across Facebook, Instagram and Threads before they become available to the masses. 

“Early release features are those that are being tested to a small percentage of advertisers to validate performance and suitability before rolling out more broadly,” Meta explains.

Advertisers will have the ability to preview and customize their ad variations in Ads Manager before deciding to fully opt in to the unrelease feature. 

Some of these features may be rolled back based on advertiser evaluations and eventually removed entirely from all active ads, but if an early release feature is released to the general public, the “Early release” label will be removed in Ads Manager but advertisers’ test ads will not be impacted. 

Since its official launch in 2022, Meta’s Advantage+ ad suite has become a major success for the tech giant. In this year’s first quarter earnings report, Meta amassed $42 billion in revenue (a boost of 16% year-over-year), which it likens to its improved AI ad tools.

Furthermore, the company released findings from an internal study this month claiming that its personalized ad technologies were linked to $550 billion in economic activity and 3.4 million jobs last year in the U.S. – a 32.5% increase in economic activity and 10% increase in jobs compared to a study conducted in 2022. Overall, Meta says its AI-driven ad tools drove a 22% improvement in return on ad spend for advertisers last year.

Despite rapid improvements in ad tech, Meta has also raised concerns in the advertising industry about the future of its ad business in the face of AI. Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told “Stratechery’s” Ben Thompson that eventually, Meta will likely use AI to carry out ad creative, targeting, and measurement; all advertisers will need to do is “tell us what your objective is” and “connect to your bank account.”

But for now, Meta is still focused on inviting advertising in to try their AI-ad tools as they emerge. However, it is not yet clear how advertisers can sign up for this new program.

“We are gradually introducing this feature,” Meta says. “It may not be available to you right now.”