In the race to incorporate generative artificial intelligence (AI) into various aspects of technology, big tech companies are continuously exploring new avenues. Joining this trend, Meta has unveiled its AI Sandbox initiative, designed to assist advertisers in generating diverse ad copy for Facebook and Instagram campaigns, background generation with text prompts, and image cropping.
The AI Sandbox offers a range of functionalities to simplify the creation of assets for advertising campaigns. Advertisers can generate multiple variations of ad copy without altering the core message, ensuring a more dynamic and personalized approach. Additionally, the background generation and image cropping features enable the creation of visuals with different aspect ratios, catering to various media formats such as social posts, stories, reels, and short videos.
Currently in the testing phase with a select group of advertisers, Meta plans to gradually expand access to more advertisers from July onwards. The company aims to integrate these features into its product later this year, enhancing the advertising experience on its platforms.
Meta has been investing heavily in infrastructure and AI capabilities for advertising, reflecting its commitment to incorporating generative AI into its products. By leveraging larger and more complex AI models, Meta has improved its advertising system. Previously, optimizing ad performance on different surfaces (such as Instagram Stories and Reels) required separate models. However, with the development of advanced AI modeling, Meta can transfer learnings across multiple surfaces simultaneously, enhancing advertiser conversions and improving the quality of ads shown to users.
In addition to its AI advancements, Meta recently introduced new features under Meta Advantage. These features enable advertisers to switch manual campaigns to Advantage+ shopping with a single click, utilize video creatives in catalog ads, deploy performance comparisons, and leverage audience inputs for targeted ad suggestions.
Meta’s focus on AI and generative technologies comes as part of its broader efforts to advance the concept of the Metaverse — the virtual shared space it envisions as the future of online interaction.
The company’s commitment to AI development has shown promising results, with Meta reporting strong quarterly sales growth in the first quarter of 2023. This positive performance marks a year-on-year increase, surpassing market expectations.
