A Look into Meta’s AI Features for Advertisers

A Look into Meta's AI Features for Advertisers

When it comes to social media platforms, Meta's Facebook and Instagram are consistently among the most popular worldwide, with Facebook at number one. As a social media giant, Meta is often a trailblazer when incorporating new technologies. For instance, Meta has announced it will release generative AI features for advertising that all marketers can use. Within this piece, we'll highlight each of the features Meta has revealed, which you can find in Meta's Ad Manager, and explain how you can incorporate it into your digital advertising strategy. Before we get started, the gif below highlights each of the features we’ll cover and illustrates how they work. A gif highlighting Meta's three new generative AI features: image expansion, background generation, and text variations

A gif highlighting Meta's three new generative AI features: image expansion, background generation, and text variations

1. Background Generation

As you'd expect, background generation is a tool that allows you to customize the look and feel of your ads by generating multiple backgrounds for a single image. Marketers can use this tool for inspiration if they're stuck on finding a background for an ad highlighting a product or service. A gif from Meta highlighting it's background generation feature

A gif from Meta highlighting it's background generation feature

Additionally, marketers can also use the tool for A/B testing. Did the tool generate two different backgrounds you can't choose between? Promote both of them in your ad campaigns and see which performs better. This A/B testing helps you understand what your target audience prefers visually and can inform future ad campaigns. Here, you can find a step-by-step guide to leveraging background generation in Meta’s Ad Manager.

2. Image Expansion

The second feature Meta rolled out with is image expansion. Many marketers need help understanding the different ratios needed for social media images. With image expansion, marketers can seamlessly adjust their team's creative assets to fit different aspect ratios across Facebook and Instagram Feeds,Reels, and elsewhere.

An image showing how image expansion works for Meta Advertising

Marketers who leverage image expansion can save time and resources previously spent adjusting image sizes and repurposing creative assets.

3. Text Variation

Lastly, Meta revealed text variation, which uses generative AI to create multiple versions of ad text based on your original ad copy. While this feature does not yet create the ad copy for you from scratch, it can help marketers who are again looking to A/B test copy or those wanting to improve their current ad copy. It's worth noting that you can add up to five variations of your primary text and edit any of the generated versions. Meta explains that the text variation tool will highlight the selling points of the brand's products and services, ultimately helping them reach their target audience better.

What Meta Has Learned From Its Beta Testing

Before releasing these tools publicly, Meta has allowed some marketers to leverage these tools in beta testing. They've found that generative AI can save time and resources while spurring productivity. For instance, in a survey conducted by Meta for those who participated in early testing, most marketers expect that AI will save them time, and more than half estimate that generative AI will save them up to five hours a week. Five hours a week equals one and a half months a year, which is significant! Now that the benefits of Meta's AI features are clear, it's time to start using them! If your multi-location brand needs additional help navigating the world of AI in marketing, SOCi is here to help! Download our CMO's Planning Guide to Navigating AI Transformation in 2024 to learn how to correctly implement AI into your multi-location marketing strategy!