Media Tuesday

Meta Shares Insights into the Development of its AI-Based Ad Targeting Systems

By Nicole LaBarre , Media Coordinator

Following the release of Q4 and 2023 reports, Meta takes us inside their notes from their AI-Based Ad Targeting Systems in this article from Social Media Today.

Although challenges in 2023, such as iOS 14 allowing users to opt out of Meta personal data usage, caused anticipated revenue loss, Meta can attribute their overall 25% increase in revenue in 2023 to the help of AI within their business studio. In addition to the revenue increase, Meta also found that ad impressions were up by 28%, with the average price per ad decreasing by 9%.

Meta’s AI-powered targeting systems largely rely on probabilistic modeling to find and target their key audience members. This allowed for the space for users to make further discoveries in content performance and audience behavior. For example, it was noted that there was a large increase in video impressions and engagement rates, in comparison to photo and carousel ads. Daily watch times across videos grew by over 25%, in addition to the sharing of Reels driving up to an average of 3.5 billion times per day.

It was shared that 40% of the content that people see on Instagram now comes from AI recommendations, which has allowed for a 7% increase in time spent on Facebook, and a 6% increase for Instagram. These AI content features from Meta include text variation and image expansions, which early results show a potential to drive better performance for brands. It was discovered that brands are having better results through leaning into AI targeting tools, compared to that of interest targeting.

Meta Touts New Way for Small Advertisers to Avoid Apple’s Fees

By Kristen McCormick , Senior Media Buyer

Meta is advising the companies to buy ads through a web browser, rather than on the Facebook or Instagram iOS apps in a recent article from Ad age.

Meta released new guidelines for small businesses that advertise on Facebook and Instagram, aiming to help them get around fees imposed by Apple Inc. Meta is advising the companies to buy ads through a web browser, rather than on the Facebook or Instagram iOS apps, according to guidance released Thursday. That will help them avoid an Apple commission that Meta said would take effect this month.?

The policy change was first announced by Apple in 2022. Apple’s new policy requires advertisers to make an in-app purchase whenever they pay to “boost” social media posts - a move that gives them more exposure. Apple takes a cut of as much as 30% on in-app purchases in its iOS software, meaning that Meta will lose a portion of its ad revenue to the iPhone maker.

Apple’s new policy takes effect in the U.S. first, before rolling out to other countries later this year. The change will also require advertisers to pay for ads upfront when buying them through an iOS app. The change will largely affect Meta’s smaller advertisers, some of whom use boosted posts as their only form of advertising.

X Announces Option for Advertisers to Sponsor Creator Video Uploads

By Kathy Park , Media Coordinator

?X, formerly known as Twitter, has officially announced their new “Creator Targeting” advertising option. Creator Targeting will allow advertisers and brands to sponsor their selected creator content in the app. These will appear as pre-roll video ads, allowing these creator-content ads to be shown against audiences of those popular creators, allowing brands to reach new and more specific viewers. Explained by X: “Soon, advertisers on X will be able to run ads against a curated list of premium content creators via Creator Targeting. This means giving advertisers more control to be able to use the self-serve X Ads Manager to run ads against the content of their chosen creator(s).”

X has not yet revealed the guidelines regarding which creators or how creators can qualify for this ‘Creator Targeting’ option. The first creator to test-run this new advertising option was Mr. Beast (22.3M subscribers on Youtube and 28.6M followers on X). Mr. Beast tweeted himself that the pre-roll video that he posted under this creator monetization on X was able to earn over $250,000 from advertisers buying/attaching ads.

While not every advertiser will have the reach or audience of Mr. Beast, this new option expands on X’s attempts to develop their exclusive video partnerships and offerings to make X the most compelling social media entertainment destination and the choice of advertisers’ looking to inflate their scope of awareness.