Meta’s announced some new AI-powered ad options, including image-to-video generation, branding in AI-generated video clips, business AIs to respond to customer queries, and more.
First off, Meta’s previewed the next generation of its AI video generation tools, which will enable advertisers to convert multiple images into video clips.
The video clips will be animated, and will include text overlays and music, providing another option for creating compelling video creative for your campaigns.
I mean, results will vary, but conceptually, this uses the same short video generation approach of other AI creation tools (like Google Veo), and automatically integrates them into a single output. The longer that AI videos run for, the more likely that they start to fall apart, and by utilizing just short generated snippets, built from your image sources, that should mean that you get good results.
Meta says that the feature is now in testing with selected brand partners.
As you can see in the right-hand image above, Meta’s also testing a new Video Highlights option, which will enable users to skip through your videos to the most relevant segments, based on AI detection.
Meta says that each video will have a few short phrases or words extracted by AI, along with thumbnails of the key scenes, in order to “reflect the value proposition of the brand or product being sold.”
Meta’s also improved its AI image generation tools with custom branding, so you can actually include your brand logo in generated content.
So now, you can include your brand logos and colors in these AI-generated images, while it’s also adding persona-based text generation to further imbue your brand in generated ads.
Meta says that this will enable more customization and consistency of branding across your broader promotional efforts, and it’s definitely a significant leap in the utility of these tools.
Meta’s also testing out new “Business AIs” in different ad formats, which will enable potential customers to chat with these business-aligned AI tools via your promotions in-stream, in both text and voice mode.
As explained by Meta:
“These ads feature AI-generated prompts and quick answers to commonly asked customer questions about products.”
So it’s not the same as the AI tools that Meta has for general message-based interaction, but more specific, custom AI bots, aligned to the promoted products and/or services.
That could help to enhance connection, while also enabling you to address common queries then and there, guiding customers further into the purchase process.
Meta’s also testing new CTA stickers for Stories and Reels promotions, and virtual try-on elements which will use generative AI to showcase clothing on virtual models of different shapes and sizes.
A range of new considerations incoming, likely in time for your end-of-year push, which could provide new options for your marketing outreach.
And Meta’s AI ad tools are worth considering. Meta says that its Advantage+ ads are delivering better results for brands, with Advantage+ sales campaigns boosting ROAS by an average of 22%. Using systematic understanding of what each user responds to, and the ad formats that work best, Advantage+ is able to customize and target your ads to the most receptive audience, and detect potential customers that you may not find any other way.
Which makes sense. AI tools are able to analyze massive datasets, in seconds, and come up with logical connections that cannot be processed by smaller systems. That means that AI can find correlating behaviors faster, and with AI creation tools also built in, that leads to a more wholly automated system that should be able to deliver customized, personalized results.
Which is why Meta’s now eyeing the next stage of digital ad evolution, where marketers don’t need to do anything more than uploading a product URL, with Meta’s systems then able to do the rest.
Meta’s leadership team has been talking about this for some time, with a focus on enhancing advertiser performance through fully automated means.
Will that be the end of marketing and advertising as we know it? I suspect that, as with all AI tools, the best results will come via a combined approach, with humans who learn how to make best use of these AI tools. But in theory at least, these options should make ad creation much easier, enabling you to reach a more receptive, active audience across Meta’s apps.