Meta introduces AI-powered advertising features ahead of holiday season

Meta has announced a series of updates to its advertising tools aimed at helping businesses and marketers ahead of the upcoming holiday season. The updates focus on creative diversification, enhanced use of creators and Reels and expanded shopping features across Facebook and Instagram.

Kevin Simonson, CEO of adMixt, said, “A good marketer should spend more time and energy on how to get the most out of Meta's AI tools instead of thinking they can regularly outsmart them.”

Focus on creators and reels

The platform is expanding its creator marketplace with new language and region filters, expected to make it easier for brands to connect with creators. Advertisers will also be able to integrate creator content into catalog ads by enabling the ‘Show Products’ optimisation in Advantage+ creative and the platform can turn it into partnership ads if it thinks it will increase the reach. The advertisers can also use the creator testimonial features in partnership ads on Instagram to increase the performance of their partnership ads.

Taylor Holiday, CEO of Common Thread Collective, noted, “Creative diversification helps Meta serve the right ad to the right person at the right time. By tapping diverse creators, marketers can easily create a higher volume of ads, test messaging for new audiences and use partnership ads to improve performance.”

The platform is also testing new Reels ad formats, including automatically converting single-media Reels into shoppable ads. On Instagram, catalog ads in Reels can now include video, a feature that the platform said has shown a 7% increase in conversion rates during testing.

Creative insights and AI optimisation

New tools such as flexible media and creative insights are being introduced to help advertisers manage creative fatigue and improve campaign efficiency. Flexible media allows ads to be placed in more formats if AI models predict better results, while creative insights will provide advertisers with feedback on performance trends and recommendations. Advertisers can access creative insights in their performance overview in Ads Reporting or Ads Manager.

Another feature, Related Media, will suggest existing media assets for new campaigns and is expected to help advertisers reach new audiences. In tests, campaigns using this tool saw a 13% increase in conversion rates.

Expanding shopping and omnichannel ads

The platform is expanding its omnichannel ads globally, enabling brands to optimise campaigns for purchases across online, in-store, and app-based platforms. ‘Shops ads’ product will also be tested in new markets, including Mexico, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Japan.

In addition, businesses will soon be able to highlight promotions through email sign-up offers on Facebook. Meta said campaigns using this feature saw a significant increase in email submissions during early testing. Marketers can also use ‘highlight your promotions’ to make their more broadly available or seasonal discounts available in ads, the platform noted.