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Meta Spotlights How AI Investments Are Paying Off For Advertisers - Marketing Dive
Meta Spotlights How AI Investments Are Paying Off For Advertisers - Marketing Dive
Meta Spotlights How AI Investments Are Paying Off For Advertisers - Marketing Dive
Chris Kelly
Reporter
Kelly Sullivan via Getty Images
Following a "year of efficiency" in 2023, Meta has made artificial intelligence (AI) its
top theme for 2024, investing aggressively in technology that touches every facet of its
business, from users and creators to businesses and developers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg
stated on the company’s recent earnings call.
"2023 was a clear inflection point for us, and our Q4 earnings showed that Meta is
really making it count for advertisers that use our tools,” said Alvin Bowles, vice
president of Meta's global business group. “Our investments in AI are paying off for
both advertiser performance and for our community with a more relevant discovery
engine more than ever before."
Along with growing ad revenue, Meta saw increases in users and watch time in the last
quarter, with daily watch time across all video types growing over 25% year-over-year
and users resharing Reels 3.5 billion times per day. Meta attributes the engagement
growth to investments in AI and its discovery engine that have been at the heart of its
businesses for years and are now paying off.
“We are absolutely in the middle of our AI journey, not the beginning."
Alvin Bowles
Vice president, global business group, Meta
"We are absolutely in the middle of our AI journey, not the beginning. This is not a new
thing for Meta; it's a cornerstone of what we do," Bowles said. "AI certainly improved
the performance of our ad system and is behind personalized content that people see in
all of our apps… AI is a fundamental part of the experiences we provide to both people
and businesses."
Similarly, multiyear investments in machine learning, automation and AI that Meta
made in its ad products to address changes in the digital ad industry are driving
successes for advertisers. But those investments might not have paid off in full if the
company was not able to take in feedback from hundreds of millions of users — a
benefit of Meta's massive global scale.
"The feedback is a big part of how we improved our AI systems so quickly, especially in
Reels and ads, where we had to re-architect around new rules," Bowles explained.
"What you're seeing now is a result of those strategic decisions we made over the last
number of years, and now nearly all of our advertisers are already using AI tools to
help create and target their ads."
During Cyber Five, cosmetic brand Fresh used Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns and
the generative ad text variation feature to diversify ads and optimize for performance,
driving a 5-times higher return on ad spend and a 42% jump in purchases compared to
business-as-usual campaigns. Likewise, J.C. Penney used Messenger and Instagram to
bridge the digital-physical divide with a custom gift bot that drove nearly 4X higher
conversion rates during the holiday period.
"These are all extraordinary experiences, and you can see from the examples of small
and large businesses, we're really focusing on businesses of all sizes," Bowles said.
"Building AI driven products and services that connect people with businesses that
they care about and help businesses grow will remain a top goal for us as a company."
Supercharging spend
Direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand Jones Road Beauty has been an early test-and-
learn partner of Meta's AI tools and Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns solution. During
the roundtable, CMO Cody Plofker spoke highly of how Meta's tools helped the brand
navigate a Q4 that had initially been marked with caution over concerns about the
consumer spending environment.
"I love [Advantage+] because we can really just focus on creative, we can really focus
on overall strategy and concepting, but not necessarily need to be spending too much
time in the platform media buying," the executive said. "Shop ads… has been another
really cool thing to have in the mix… It's been another great way to reach new people."
Plofker and Jones Road Beauty work with Meta to build the ad and creative strategies
to meet its evolving business goals, leaning into Meta's expertise around its own tools
to test-and-learn new tactics. Along with investing in shop ads, the brand is running
bid-cap campaigns and testing new bid strategies to boost return-on-ad-spend that
have made it more confident in increasing its level of spend on the platform.
"During Black Friday, we spent some record days, amounts that we had to call AmEx
and ask for a line of credit because the performance was there. But I wouldn't
necessarily have been comfortable spending such a high figure if performance wasn't
there," Plofker explained. "The fact that I was confident enough, and because I knew
that we would only spend that amount If Meta was confident that the performance
would be there, that's been a really big thing that's allowed us to make the most of our
budget and spend it at the most appropriate times for us."
It’s necessary to share more brand insights with AI models to generate creative that
better reflects a brand’s identity, voice and style
It’s time to begin putting headcount against generative AI roles within marketing
organizations
Generative AI could also help advertisers navigate signal loss they'll face as Google
continues deprecating third-party cookies and the ad industry shifts from interest-
based to probabilistic targeting by improving campaign insights.
Between ongoing signal loss and strong overall interest in AI, advertisers are taking
action and leveraging the capabilities that Meta has been investing in for years. Users
of these capabilities have seen how additive they can be to the advertising workflow,
Bowles said.
"The more people that are using it, the more they're finding success," the executive
said. "They're finding time being put back into their coffers to focus on the things that
are really germane to these creative briefs."
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