Meta Launches Image and Text Generation in Advantage+ for Fast and Efficient Ad Creation

Meta is enhancing its Advantage+ offering by integrating full image and text generation, allowing advertisers to swiftly create engaging and innovative ads. This initiative aims to automate portions of the ad creation workflow, which Meta believes will optimize resources and boost ad performance. These new features are set to launch globally later this year.

“For the first time, you can create complete image variations inspired by your original ad creative, complete with text overlay capabilities,” said John Hegeman, Meta’s head of monetization, during a press conference. “Imagine promoting your coffee business with an ad featuring a fragrant cup of coffee. Our AI will generate variations of your ad, incorporating images of lush farms and offering adjustments to the coffee cup for enhanced creative choices.”

In addition to generating images via prompts similar to Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, or OpenAI’s DALL-E, advertisers can overlay text using a selection of popular fonts. There’s even an option to adapt the created images for various aspect ratios—this feature, introduced in October, is particularly beneficial for Instagram.

Advertisers will also leverage Meta’s AI to craft impactful headlines and body copy tailored to their campaigns. The company is actively testing the capability for the generated text to mirror the advertiser’s brand voice and tone.

“Continually iterating on ad creative is one of the most effective strategies for performance,” Hegeman remarked. “Combining generative AI with our Advantage+ automation products maximizes performance for businesses with increased scale, speed, and accuracy. Advertisers tell us that these generative AI tools save time while enhancing productivity.”

Meta plans to train these features on Llama 3, its advanced large language model, promising improved query results. “When we replace a less advanced model with a more sophisticated one and fine-tune it, we typically see higher quality results and better performance. The difference is significant,” Hegeman explained.

While the use of AI in speeding up the ad creation process raises concerns among designers, writers, and marketers about job security, Meta’s AI generates images and text using existing assets rather than creating from scratch. The aim is to build upon existing materials, generating variations to identify those that yield the best return on investment.

Hegeman acknowledged that advertisers will retain control over campaign content: “Advertisers will want to manage the initial versions of specific campaigns closely. These tools are best suited for alleviating the workload associated with creating multiple variations once the basic concept is established.”

Regarding concerns of licensing, copyright, and other implications of using AI-generated media, Meta is currently exploring these matters and aims to provide further updates in due course.

The new image and text generation capabilities, along with Meta’s suite of generative AI tools, will be accessible through Advantage+ creative, the company’s repository for campaign creation tools.