• by Colin Kirkland , July 2, 2025

At its global “Conversations” conference in Miami on Tuesday, Meta announced several updates to its advertising offerings, including centralizing the ad-creation process within Ads Manager, and providing new messaging ad options in WhatsApp.

Meta says it is streamlining how businesses can create and manage their marketing strategy across its three most popular apps -- WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.

Within Ads Manager, brands “of all sizes” can now “use the same creative, setup flows and budgets” to set up campaigns on these three platforms.

“Once onboarded, businesses can upload their subscriber list and either manually select marketing messages as an additional placement, or use Advantage+,” Meta explains in a recent statement, adding that its AI systems will then optimize brands' budgets across ad placements.

Allowing AI to take control of optimizing campaigns across apps -- ultimately seeking out users who will be interested in a brands' products and services -- ties into Meta's plan to automate all ad creation by next year.

Meta says it is also expanding access to its business AIs, which can make personalized product recommendations, facilitate sales on a brand's website, and follow up with customers to answer questions or provide updates within WhatsApp's chat function.

Furthermore, with customer service in mind, Meta is launching direct-calling functionality for big brands.

“In the coming weeks, larger businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform will be able to receive a call from a customer when they want to talk to someone live, or call a customer directly once they have asked to hear from you,” the company explains.

Meta also plans to allow customers to send and receive voice and video messages for additional support.

These announcements, which build on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's opinion that messaging between brands and consumers “should be the next pillar of our business” comes weeks after the company began rolling out ads in the WhatsApp “Updates” tab, where users share texts, photos, voice notes and video messages with each other.

It's likely that calls directed to brands through WhatsApp will soon become automated as well.

According to Meta, the update “paves the way for AI-enabled voice support in the future.”