In order to help various marketers in preparation for the holiday season, Meta has published a new guide that helps users better understand their automation and generative AI tool suite.

Within the guide, which is a total of 16 pages, Meta covers the majority of the AI ad tool. The company highlights the advantages of the tools and its suite of products that include the AI creation elements, While also explaining and showing the development stages in the sandbox platform used for testing new products.

Many brands are already noticing a difference and learning how to use Meta’s AI tools to help them market their products. With stats from last year’s campaigns, users will be able to make a direct comparison and see how they perform. Another area that has seen an uptick are in Meta’s apps, where users are finding products and deals which underlines how important the value and potential of the ad options that the platform has.

One of the more interesting aspects of the automation is the implementation of the generative backgrounds for images which allows it to format ads based on parameters given by the user.

It won’t be long before you’re able to generate entire ad campaigns, with everything from the creation process to the targeting. With these new tools, you are able to get insight immediately into how every element is being developed and how effective they are in your process.

The guide has many other effective ad account structure tips, business messages, API info, and much more. There is even an overview specifically for holiday campaigns so your company can have maximum impact.

New Holiday Campaign AI Insight By Meta

Key Takeaways

The Meta Guide to AI tools suites is really a handy explanation that allows users to understand how AI tools work and can help them optimize their production with ad campaigns. If you are interested in taking a look at the guide yourself you can download it here, but let us first explain some of the key takeaways.

The initial point by Meta is on the topic of the festive period, in which they state that ¾ shoppers that were surveyed are looking for nothing more than sales and bargains.

With this in mind it is important that e-commerce brands structure a compelling offer that will reduce the CPA (cost per acquisition), but at the same time will increase the AOV (average order Value). This is the most important part of the current trending data that is critical for success in the market this year.

In previous years, Christmas has always been the holiday when ad campaigns were heavily centered around impulsivity and urgency. In recent years we can actually see a pullback in that trend and now see consumers being more conscientious when it comes to planning and staying on a budget. 

The data suggest that approximately 12% of consumers plan their Christmas shopping prior to October, which is an increase of 33% from the data in 2020. With that in mind, we can further understand why Meta has made it one of the priorities to highlight for their advertisers in creating the “3-month runway” into Christmas with their advertising campaigns.

1. Lean into automation to optimize festive campaign performance:

Meta has been pushing advertisers onto their own machine-learning advertising platforms, over the past year and has seen positive trends in lower CPAs and increased profits. In the summer of last year, this was actually amplified as Meta announced the release of their Advantage+ Shopping and Leads campaign.

In Q4 the Festive and holiday season is the most dynamic and competitive time of year for marketing. Being able to automate the process allows for advertisers and businesses to keep up with many different aspects such as a change in budget, resources, and time. By automating with the help of Meta Suites tools you are able to have critical inputs that help by making decisions based on real-time learning and optimize your campaigns through thousands and even millions of iterations.

Part of being autonomous is that advertisers are able to set and forget entire sections of their campaigns. Parts such as Creative, Budgeting, Shopping, Placement, and Destination Automation are all part of this new wave of advertising that will help boost sales and lower expenses.

2. Advantage+ shopping campaigns can help grow sales and performance:

The Advantage+ shopping campaigns are designed to not only be utilized for the sole purpose of sales, but also is good for client acquisition, and for selling to new and existing customers in as few steps as possible. With the suites being out for a year already, 17% of customers have seen an increase in conversions like this, and 32% saw increases in their returns on ad spend.

In the Advantage+ catalog ads utilize machine learning in order to gain an advantage in driving sales up by automatically personalizing ads to your audience based on their past and present behaviors, interests, and intent.

There are a total of two types of targeting options in order to reach shoppers in peak season. One is to reach new audiences by finding people who are most likely to be interested and love your products. Two is to reach your existing audience and help people find more of your products or new products that they will love equally as much.

Another positive part of the Advantage+ placement solution is that you are able to use all existing creative across multiple placements, which includes IG stories, Instagram feeds, Messenger, and Audience Network.

Recommendations:

• Use various assets at your disposal: You can upload a product image or video onto your Facebook page and a branded image or video to Instagram.

• Use different types of crops: It’s recommended that companies have different aspect ratios for different ad placements. For example, if you make one ad for landscape you should also make a horizontal ad for ads in Instagram stories or reels.

• Use edited videos for your ads: depending on where you are posting the video ad, make sure it’s within the video requirement that the platform has, such as 1-15 seconds for IG Stories.

• Utilize various Text, headlines, and links: For example, the short copy is recommended for Instagram stories and has had better results because of it.

3. Strengthening data quality:

By acquiring strong data quality you are ensuring your business is reaching an audience across a wide landscape of platforms throughout their festive shopping spree.

The way in which people shop now has changed drastically from even 5 years ago but one thing is for certain, and that’s that people expect brands to understand their shopping habits and cater to their unique needs and expectations.

4. Build relationships:

Customers can now have direct access to converse with your business by creating ads that click and open Messanger directly. 

It’s said that approximately 78% of customers are more likely to purchase from a business that they can contact easily via messaging. While 66% of customers have said that this is actually their preferred way of communicating with businesses.

Conclusion

As Q4 approaches so do the consecutive holidays which can make or break your business. That’s why during this time businesses all around the world are getting strategies put into place so that they can maximize sales and capitalize on their marketing strategies. With that in mind, it’s important to remember to use all tools that are available so that your campaign can be as successful as possible.

One of the best markets for sales in the landscape is Meta, and now more than ever, it’s becoming easier and easier to promote and market your products or services online on their platforms with the help of their AI tools suite. With a comprehensive Holiday planning guide, packed with valuable insight and practical tips, it would be foolish not to go ahead and educate yourself so that your seasonal campaigns can be as successful as possible.

With over 5.9 billion monthly users and ad placement over Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, they have proven to have a growing market share, which is why the data they collect and analyze is a data goldmine.