This Week in Digital Marketing: AI making its mark on both Meta and Google Ads, plus much more

This week, after months of talk, we’re starting to see the real impact of the increasing integration of AI with platforms, with examples from both Meta and Google.

Meta announces AI-powered ads deliver 32% better returns

After (what feels like) years of talk around the increasing integration of AI into platforms, it was interesting to see Meta announce this week that AI-powered ads delivered 32% better ROI when compared to manual ads.

Advantage+ ads (and similar variants) have been heavily pushed by Meta for a while, but this is the most concrete evidence I’ve seen yet that they are seriously worth your time.

Meta has bet big on AI to fill the void left following the restrictions created by iOS14, and so far it appears to be paying off. Speaking of digital marketing channels betting big on AI…

Google integrating Gemini into Ads platform

Another week, another AI story - but this is pretty interesting. Google has announced (unsurprisingly) that it’s integrating its proprietary AI platform Gemini into Google Ads, among other tools.

This is obviously interesting from a digital marketing perspective because it offers an opportunity for easy ad creation and optimisation; a major barrier for time-poor smaller businesses in particular.

My own experience of AI elements within Google Ads to-date has so far left me with a dim impression; recommendations are often irrelevant or impractical, while ad copy is on the cringier end of the scale. It will be interesting to see if integrating a much better trained platform into the mix will improve this, and is another example of the increasing automation of marketing channels. Marketing Dive have taken a deeper look at what this means for marketers.

Further Reading

LinkedIn will be discontinuing lookalike targeting from next month, instead encouraging advertisers to use alternatives such as the (relatively) untested Predictive audiences. Limiting targeting opportunities is always an interesting decision, but LinkedIn must be seriously confident in the capabilities of its Predictive audiences to be making this kind of change.

Meanwhile, Meta added a range of new tools this week designed to aid brand protection, including tools which detect replicas in product listing and improved IP violation tracking.

Google this week once again warned website and app owners that non-compliance around regulations on GDPR banners could lead to suspensions. Perhaps a good time to check that you’re compliant?

BeReal’s USP was that it was taking social media back to smaller, more sociable groups with an unfiltered approach. And yet, were any of us surprised at the launch of RealPeople this week, which fills the feed with updates from ‘notable’ users?

TikTok was spotted this week experimenting with 30 minute videos. Seriously, who even needs a USP these days?

YouTube announced this week that it’ll enable systemic A/B testing of thumbnail images, a favourite topic of conversation among seasoned YouTubers.

Finally, while noodling around the web I came across WeatherAds, a platform that enables you to trigger different ads depending on different weather conditions. While we’ve had seasonal advertising for a while, this programmatic approach caught my eye.

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