Meta is expanding its generative AI advertising tools with more ways to create images and text, but it's still not giving marketers complete options for creative automation.
Yesterday, Meta announced that advertisers will now be able to upload reference images to create AI-generated variations. For example, if you upload an image of a coffee mug, you'll receive a set of options for using the same mug in new settings. Meta is also adding tools to use AI to generate headlines based on reference text and create text overlays for images based on previous campaigns and products.
This new tool is available through Meta's Advantage+ Creative portal and builds on other generative AI capabilities for users and advertisers introduced in recent months. Marketers will also have more creative freedom in the coming months with the addition of text-based prompts to customize options. Soon, Meta's generated AI ads will leverage the large-scale language model of his Llama 3, which debuted last month.
The goal is to use AI to more quickly create ad variations that improve performance, said John Hegeman, head of monetization at Meta. While some smaller advertisers are beta testing the new AI advertising tool, Meta says he plans to roll it out globally by the end of 2024.
“Imagine you're promoting your coffee business by promoting aromatic coffee,” Hageman said at a news conference in New York on Tuesday. “Our generative AI can create variations of ad creative, such as landscapes that embody a lush farm, or adjust his cup of coffee to provide even more creative choices.”
The AI tools are free to advertisers, but not available to political advertisers. Political advertisers are still prohibited from running political ads made with generative AI. For non-political ads targeted by AI creatives, Meta will also remove the “Imagined With AI” label that already automatically watermarks user-generated AI images. However, it remains to be seen whether this will become a loophole to avoid AI disclosure on Facebook, Instagram, and others online. As for how ads containing AI images will be labeled, Hageman said Meta is still “working out some of the details,” with testing underway and a broader rollout expected by the end of 2024. said that it is planned.
The update comes as many advertisers and consumers remain wary of AI-generated content. The move also comes as Meta's automated advertising platform Advantage+ faces continued criticism from advertisers over a lack of transparency and recent complaints about automation causing some advertisers to overspend. Measures have been introduced.
Some marketers argue that AI advertising upgrades could allow small businesses to create more content. Some believe that if all ad creatives start looking the same, we could end up with a glut of sameness on social platforms. Jeremy Goldman, an analyst at eMarketer, said this is already happening on platforms as technology updates not only remove friction but also democratize creative techniques. He mentioned a few examples, including how TikTok has made overlays easier and adding backing his tracks to reels.
Mixed with the growing interest in AI advertising, advertisers have “some trepidation” about concerns about Advantage+ and other issues with Meta AI, which has recently been rolled out as competing products such as ChatGPT and Bard. Goldman also noted that some advertisers feel that platforms like Meta and Google are “too big to fail” if there are no alternatives to get the same reach.
Meta is not the only platform adding new generative AI tools for businesses. Others include Google, Snap, Nextdoor, and Reddit. While Google has added his AI image creation to its demand generation campaigns and ways to find new audiences, Snap is using AI to speed up the creation of augmented reality lenses. Nextdoor's advertising platform, on the other hand, has a way for companies to use the company's own local LLM to create its AI-generated ad copy and other AI tools.
According to Nextdoor CEO and co-founder Nirav Tolia, proprietary data, in-house LLM, and an owned audience are three factors that help the platform compete in the AI space. When asked by Digiday whether Nextdoor plans to add AI-generated image and video tools for advertisers, Tolia said that the company's current ad units “are performing better, so we'll start there first.” We are focusing on that.”
“If we do this right, AI should transform our entire business, everything that consumers and advertisers touch,” Toria said. “…If we believe those things bring value to advertisers, we absolutely will. But we are not dogmatic in that area. We are very realistic.”
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